Safely interrupt a script/function

I have a script which loops through an array and performs an action for each itetation which takes several seconds. Also, at the beginning of the script, a driver is loaded which has to be properly unloaded in order to not crash the hardware. Problem is that if you accidentally create a large array, you are stuck with two options: Either you Ctrl+C and go do the old unplug-replug, or you wait for 40h. Both are not feasable. Is there a way, then, to call a function upon the user terminating the program?

[Walter Roberson]

onCleanup()

Answer 1

[Daniel]

As Walter suggested, onCleanup seems to be the most elegant solution

Answer 2

[Jan]

You can open a small window, which contains a stop button. Pressing this button sets a local variable, which can be checked from your code. Catch errors with an error handling:

% [UNTESTED CODE]
function yourCode

FigH    = figure('UserData', 0);
ButtonH = uicotrol('Style', 'PushButton', 'String', 'Stop', ...
    'Callback', @StopCallback;)

try
   resource = reserveYourResource();
   
   for k = 1:1e6
      drawnow;
      if ~ishandle(FigH) || FigH.UserData
          % Figure closed or stop button pressed:
          disp('Stopped by user');
          break
      end
      
      % Some dummy code:
      pause(2)
      disp(clock)
   end
   
catch ME
   disp('Stopped by error')   
end

releaseResource(resuource);

end

function StopCallback(ButtonH, EventH)
FigH = ancestor(ButtonH, 'figure');
FigH.UserData = 1;
end