MATLAB closing when beginning parallel processing

It was working all day while I troubleshooted some things. Now, for some reason, MATLAB closes without any warning - just shuts off - when starting the parallel computing using the Parfor function. Does anyone have any ideas to what could be causing this issue? Thanks.

[Riccardo Scorretti]

I see three possible options (but without the code it is hard to help you):

1. Unreprodutcible error: sometimes it happens; like any program of more than a single line, MATLAB is not exempt from bugs.
2. Out of memory: it may be possible that you are running out of memory. Can you check this with a reduced dataset, or by running on another computer with more memory?
3. Invalid MEX function: if you wrote MEX functions, and you use them in a parallel section, perhaps you can have some troubles (depending what you are doing, and how you are doing exactly) with work sharing by using parallel for. I admit I have no experience with this particular point.

[BobbyRoberts]

Thanks, Riccardo. My memory is fine, and the code was working before..

I think the problem started after I quit MATLAB mid-function a couple times. I'm thinking that it could be because there's still something running or open in the background. I can't seem to find out what, but I'm hopinng there's some type of function to basically reset this. However, restarting the program or the computer did not fix it either.

[Zihan]

Hi, I think I'm encountering the same issue! I'm using matlab R2021a on a 32-core server. The same code has been running fine on another PC with the same matlab version, but on this server, the matlab randomly crashes when I activate parallel pools without any warning - matlab usually automatically generate a crash report as 'matlab_crash_dump.1615562-1', but it is blank inside. My RAM seems to be fine as well.

I wonder if you have already find the cause and solution of this, which will be very much appreciated! Many thanks!

Answer 1

[Shivang]

Hi,

I understand you are facing an issue where MATLAB shuts off when using the 'parfor' function.

While it is hard to pinpoint an issue without the code and the crash logs, you can try the following approach. Move the parfor-loop into a local function in the 'main file', passing any variables into and out of the local function as input and output arguments respectively.

From:

main.m

% user-code berfore parfor-loop
parfor i=1:10
    % user-code
end

To:

main.m (modified)

% user-code berfore parfor-loop
runParforLoop()
function ParforLoop()
parfor i=1:10
    % user-code
end  
end

Refer to this documentation link for more details regarding local functions: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/local-functions.html

Hope this helps.

-Shivang