How to get Matlab output in Jenkins console [duplicate] - matlab

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Writing log statements to standard output with Matlab
(8 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I'm trying to integrate my MATLAB unit tests into Jenkins in a Windows environment. My problem is that I am not able to get the MATLAB output in my Jenkins console, even for a simple disp('Hello World!').
I create a Jenkins free job to execute the following batch command:
matlab -nodisplay -r "disp('Hello World!');exit".
Here is my result:
C:\Jenkins\jobs\runAllTests\workspace>matlab -nodisplay -r "disp('Hello World!');exit"
C:\Jenkins\jobs\runAllTests\workspace>exit 0
Finished: SUCCESS
Of course, I want to use Jenkins to execute a script to run several unit tests. But the problem is the same, I am not able to catch the MATLAB outputs.
Thanks in advance for any help.

I finally manage to get the matlab output in the console.
I follow a tip given in #AndyCampbell blog by #Guy Starbuck:
start /wait matlab -nodesktop -nosplash -minimize -wait -r "disp('Hello World!');exit" -logfile unittestlog.txt
set output=%errorlevel%
MORE unittestlog.txt
EXIT %output%
thanks all for your help.

You need to add -wait to the MATLAB command.
On Windows, Jenkins wraps the command in a batch file that returns immediately, and therefore doesn't capture the output (and by the way, it will also always exit with a success status even if MATLAB itself didn't).
By adding -wait, it will delay the exit until MATLAB has finished, and it will also return with the appropriate exit status.
PS Also see this excellent series of posts by #AndyCampbell on integrating MATLAB with Jenkins.
Edit:
The above works for me. But here's a couple of other things I would check, as they've been gotchas for me when I was getting it set up - perhaps they will help you too:
Make sure the build step is an "Execute Windows batch command" step rather than an "Execute shell" step, as it's a pain to get the unix utilities installed and running on Windows
Make sure that you have the right type of quote marks in the MATLAB build command. They need to be straight quotes, not curly quotes - both the single and double ones
If you copied and pasted the MATLAB build command into Jenkins, make sure you didn't accidentally paste in any extra invisible characters - try typing the command directly into Jenkins
Make sure there are no licensing issues - for example, Jenkins may be running as user1 and will call MATLAB as user1, but MATLAB is licensed to user2. If you call MATLAB with -nodesktop in this case it will just silently fail (and may even leave a zombie MATLAB process hanging around, with an invisible license error dialog, that you can only quit from with Task Manager)
To assist in troubleshooting, you can add -logfile \path\to\logfile.txt to your MATLAB command, which can diagnose some issues. You can also use a startup.m file and/or a finish.m file - these should run at startup (before your build command) and just before exit (after your build command). Finally you could try using a build command that does something simple to the filesystem, rather than a disp (this would diagnose whether it's an issue with MATLAB running at all, or an issue with Jenkins collecting its output).

Related

How to run for loop in batch file step by step

I am trying to call MATLAB from the batch file several times. In this way, I used for loop to execute my MATLAB scripts several times. But what I got after running my batch file is to run all MATLAB files simultaneously. What I want is that, firstly, it runs once MATLAB, and when it is finished, it starts to run for the next time. Here is my code. Any help will be appreciated!
#echo off
for /l %%x in (1, 1, 2) do matlab -r "cd('H:\EngFiles\Ali\Backups codes\New set with multiple scenarios_Parallel');Bi_Objective_algorithm; exit"
pause
This page in the documentation describes how to call MATLAB from a Windows batch script: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlabwindows.html
The -wait option tells the matlab command to not return until MATLAB exits. For example:
matlab -wait -r "disp(1); exit"
However, since R2019a the -r switch is no longer recommended. That is the release where they introduced the much better -batch option:
matlab -batch "disp(1)"
Note that it is no longer necessary to include exit in the command.

Run MATLAB script on cmd without opening the GUI window or the icon [duplicate]

I am running a MATLAB script from the Windows command prompt:
"C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014B\bin\matlab" -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -wait -r "test.m"
The test.m is simple:
function test
disp('Hello!');
The output is displayed in the Matlab Command Window. Is there any way how I can force output to the windows prompt?
Use the command line option -log when you call Matlab from the command line (or any other shell or batch (e.g. cmd or bat) script).
It isn't documented as of Matlab 2017b, but it works.
Side note: -nodisplay isn't supported in the Windows version of Matlab, but if you want to prevent it from displaying figures, use -noFigureWindows instead.
Since R2019b, there is a new command line option, -batch, which redirects the output to the command line and handles other stuff for batch processing. See the documentation for Windows.
matlab -batch "statement to run"
This starts MATLAB without the desktop or splash screen, logs all output to stdout and stderr, exits automatically when the statement completes, and provides an exit code reporting success or error.
I don't know of a way to do it in Windows to get Matlab to actually run in the DOS window which is what you would need for the display to be written in it. (FYI: You can in LINUX - but I assume you need to run in Windows).
For running in Matlab you have 2 alternatives that I can think of:
-logfile FILE on launch which will record all output to a FILE you specify - however how and when the file is written to disk is controlled by Matlab and I haven't tested to see - if your code doesn't do much it might only be written on Matlab exit.
diary FILE in your Matlab command, i.e. -r "diary FILE.TXT; test.m; diary OFF" - this is similar to above - but uses the diary function.
However you can get what you want if you can run your code compiled (I know thats a big if as you may not have the compiler - or if you regularly want to update test.m this is not the most efficient...
When you run a compiled code from a DOS prompt all the terminal messages are written to the DOS prompt. One thing I'd advise if this is suitable is to delete the "splash.png" file from your installation directory to avoid the splash screen displaying when you run from the DOS as its (probably) not needed.
I have found a solution at:
https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/91607-how-can-i-redirect-the-command-window-output-to-stdout-and-stderr-when-running-matlab-7-8-r2009a-i#answer_100958
I will replicate it here for convenience.
First I need to modify the matlab script to output to a text file:
function test
fid=fopen('output.txt','w');
fprintf(fid,'Hello!');
fclose(fid);
Then I should run the Matlab using a bat file with one additional command to display the contents of the output.txt:
"C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014B\bin\matlab" -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -wait -r "test.m"
type output.txt
The type command will display the contents of 'output.txt' in the command window. So answer from #matlabgui was almost there. Thank you.
It is not a very elegant solution, but it works.

Force Matlab output to command line

I am running a MATLAB script from the Windows command prompt:
"C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014B\bin\matlab" -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -wait -r "test.m"
The test.m is simple:
function test
disp('Hello!');
The output is displayed in the Matlab Command Window. Is there any way how I can force output to the windows prompt?
Use the command line option -log when you call Matlab from the command line (or any other shell or batch (e.g. cmd or bat) script).
It isn't documented as of Matlab 2017b, but it works.
Side note: -nodisplay isn't supported in the Windows version of Matlab, but if you want to prevent it from displaying figures, use -noFigureWindows instead.
Since R2019b, there is a new command line option, -batch, which redirects the output to the command line and handles other stuff for batch processing. See the documentation for Windows.
matlab -batch "statement to run"
This starts MATLAB without the desktop or splash screen, logs all output to stdout and stderr, exits automatically when the statement completes, and provides an exit code reporting success or error.
I don't know of a way to do it in Windows to get Matlab to actually run in the DOS window which is what you would need for the display to be written in it. (FYI: You can in LINUX - but I assume you need to run in Windows).
For running in Matlab you have 2 alternatives that I can think of:
-logfile FILE on launch which will record all output to a FILE you specify - however how and when the file is written to disk is controlled by Matlab and I haven't tested to see - if your code doesn't do much it might only be written on Matlab exit.
diary FILE in your Matlab command, i.e. -r "diary FILE.TXT; test.m; diary OFF" - this is similar to above - but uses the diary function.
However you can get what you want if you can run your code compiled (I know thats a big if as you may not have the compiler - or if you regularly want to update test.m this is not the most efficient...
When you run a compiled code from a DOS prompt all the terminal messages are written to the DOS prompt. One thing I'd advise if this is suitable is to delete the "splash.png" file from your installation directory to avoid the splash screen displaying when you run from the DOS as its (probably) not needed.
I have found a solution at:
https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/91607-how-can-i-redirect-the-command-window-output-to-stdout-and-stderr-when-running-matlab-7-8-r2009a-i#answer_100958
I will replicate it here for convenience.
First I need to modify the matlab script to output to a text file:
function test
fid=fopen('output.txt','w');
fprintf(fid,'Hello!');
fclose(fid);
Then I should run the Matlab using a bat file with one additional command to display the contents of the output.txt:
"C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014B\bin\matlab" -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -wait -r "test.m"
type output.txt
The type command will display the contents of 'output.txt' in the command window. So answer from #matlabgui was almost there. Thank you.
It is not a very elegant solution, but it works.

Matlab fails to run a script when scheduled with Task Scheduler

I am trying to start Matlab and run a script scheduled at a specific time using the windows Task Scheduler.
If I use a scheduled task I can see Matlab starting, but this last fails to load the script and returns me the error below
??? Unexpected Matlab operator.
Do you know what it is and why?
I am using the following syntax
c:\app\matlab\bin\matlab.exe -r c:\MyURL\ScriptFile.m
If I load the script manually and run it it tells me that the file is not in the path so give ms a choice between
Change Current Directory
Add Folder to the Path
Either choices are fine and the script runs fine.
Matlab is starting in its main directory and -r requires your function to be in quotation marks, thats why you get the error.
And you need to change to your workspace first, the syntax is as follows:
matlab -sd pathToYourWorkspace -r "function(parameters)"
Maybe you also want to avoid the complete loading of the whole Matlab working environment, so add at the end:
-nodesktop -nosplash
If you run your task sheduled, are you doing it multiple times? Are you aware that every function call like above opens a new instance of Matlab? This question may be helpful then.
From the comments: of course you could just use the command run to call a script wherever it is.
"run('c:\MyURL\ScriptFile.m')" is an example for "functionName(YourArgs)"
as run is a function and the string 'c:\MyURL\ScriptFile.m' its argument. In this case it is usually not necessary to change the workspace before.

Writing log statements to standard output with Matlab

We're starting Matlab from our Jenkins buildserver. As the build may take some time it would be nice to get some log-outputs while matlab is running. Is there a way to print text to standard output? disp, fprintf and java.lang.System.out.printline only write to the matlab console, not to standard output.
Using a logfile or a pipe won't help, as Jenkins only reads from standard-output during a build step.
How can we write log-statements to the standard output while matlab is running?
EDIT:
We're running Matlab 2010b on Windows
Depending what you are doing with Matlab you could probably launch it in command line without GUI. I used this on a server and it behaves pretty much like a shell script and writes to standards outputs.
See the startup options.
I used the following:
/path/to/matlab -nojvm -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -r /path/to/mfile
EDIT: forgot to mention one very important little detail, place an exit command at the end of your mfile or Matlab will hang there waiting.
It seems that the combination of -wait and -log (not -logfile) clones the command window output to the parent console's stdout, but only if you call the MATLAB executable in [MATLABROOT]\bin, not [MATLABROOT]\bin\win64 (the subdirectory for current arch).
Tested on Windows with R2015b and R2016b:
C:\MATLAB\bin\matlab.exe -wait -log
NOT
C:\MATLAB\win64\bin\matlab.exe -wait -log
Remember to put an exit/quit in your script if you are running with -r.
The only trouble is that I can't seem to find any documentation for the -log option! Meh.
There don't seem to be any good ways to do this from within MATLAB. The easiest way I can think of doing this is by using a shell script. You could write a small shell script which would simply print any input to stdout, and then call that shell script from within matlab using the unix (or system) commands. Jenkins should be able to read the command-line output of the script and work with that.
I figured out a way to do this and am also doing it for Jenkins Matlab interface on windows.
Basic idea is that you will use diary command, but then tail -f the file, but you need a smart way to kill the tail command if you open multiple matlab instances because there will be name collisions. So the method I'm using is to name the file log.txt where the PID used is MATLAB's PID it is using when it opens.
There is an undocumented feature in MATLAB that allows you to get its PID. So now, both your batch file and MATLAB know the PID without having to read/write to a random text file that will get messy when executing multiple jobs. So the PID you use that as your unique identifier. The PID of "tail -f" is also used by MATLAB to kill tail -f to make the batch file die and is found by MATLAB using the commandline details associated with the process invocation since it uses again the unique PID log file name.
This uses some wmic commands and needs Windows Vista/7 or above. With XP you probably have to work harder to get the process ID's but should be still possible.
Here is what to do:
1) Get gnu awk for windows: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gawk.htm
2) Get tail.exe from windows resource kit: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657
3) Make sure tail and awk are in your path (the windows resourece kit I don't think automatically puts them in the path)
3) Create a batch file called matlabrun.bat as follows, (note: you need the #echo off, also the entire command is quite long, scroll right..)
#echo off
wmic process call create "c:\matlab\bin\win64\matlab.exe -r \"cd('c:\jenkins\workspace\test'); workdir=pwd; outpath=[pwd '\output'] ; try; run('C:\MATLAB\work\test_run'); end; quit; \" " | findstr ProcessId | awk "{print $3}" | awk -F";" "{ print $1 }"
4) Create another batch file called run.bat with:
for /f %%i in ('matlabrun.bat') do (
echo MATLAB Log... > log%%i.txt
tail -f log%%i.txt
set logfilename=log%%i.txt
goto next
)
:next
del /f %logfilename%
5) The run.bat file will execute matlabrun.bat and since -wait is not passed, matlab will immediately return to the command line and execute the tail -f command. That will block the batch file from completing until you kill it. matlabrun.bat returns the PID of matlab.
6) Another important note: since you are using "wmic process create" which will provide you with a PID that MATLAB is using, but will default to a working directory of c:\windows\system32. So that is why I pass the work directory to matlab. wmic process create is also a bit particular about what parameters you put into your command string for matlab to run. So it appears to have a problem with using commas in your command string. So I suggest not to use those, or figure out how to escape them (it might be that ^, works, but I just removed my commas anyway in my matlab run command).
6) The "test_run.m" file contains the following code to write to the correct log file and to kill correct tail -f instance.
matlabpid=feature('getpid');
filename=['log',num2str(matlabpid),'.txt'];
filenamefull=[workdir,'\',filename];
diary(filenamefull);
disp('Script starting...')
%%% put your code here %%%
disp('Script completed...');
diary off;
%%% FIND PID of tail.exe and kill it
%%% by using the name of the log file in the process command line
[a,b]=dos(['wmic process get Commandline,ProcessId']);
C=textscan(b,'%s','delimiter','\n');C=C{1};
for jj=1:size(C,1),
if strfind(C{jj},filename),
D=textscan(C{jj},'%s');D=D{1};
dos(['taskkill /f /pid ',D{4}]) %kills tail.exe which is the log watcher
break
end
end
7) You start it by doing run.bat. It will go and execute matlab, then start tailing the output while MATLAB runs in real-time. Then when done it will delete the log file.
8) My directory structure / files are in these locations (I'm using win7 64bit):
c:\jenkins\workspace\test\tail.exe
c:\jenkins\workspace\test\awk.exe
c:\jenkins\workspace\test\matlabrun.bat
c:\jenkins\workspace\test\run.bat
c:\matlab\work\test_run.m
c:\matlab\bin\win64\matlab.exe
If you are using 32bit matlab, point it to the win32 directory. To get the correct PID, you need to specify the actualy matlab.exe binary in the win32 or win64 directory.
You can do this by pointing the -logfile option to the Jenkins log file. Something like the following:
"C:\path\to\matlab.exe" "-r" "functionToRun" "-logfile" "%JENKINS_HOME%\jobs\%JOB_NAME%\builds\%BUILD_NUMBER%\log" /wait
You can use the diary mode. Not sure if it will fit your specific implementation.
http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/diary.html
I didn't find a real solution. Mathworks created some wrapper tool. But this will only output the results after matlab has exited. You won't get any ouput during execution.
http://www.mathworks.de/support/solutions/en/data/1-ACT3YN/index.html?product=ML&solution=1-ACT3YN
So I'll have live without real live-output...
Or try using '-logfile' option in matlab.
matlab.exe -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -wait -logfile logfile.txt -r "try script.m ;catch err; disp(err.message); end ; exit"
I prefer using bash (Execute shell) in Jenkins, then you can tail the log-file while matlab is running.
matlab.exe <...> &
matpid=$!
tail -f logfile.txt &
tailpid=$!
wait $matpid
matexit=$?
kill $tailpid
sleep 1 # Just to make sure kill is done before Jenkins step ends and no zombie processes
exit $matexit