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POHow to avoid MATLAB crash when opening too many figures?
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copied!<p>Sometimes I start a MATLAB script and realize too late that it is going to output way too many figures. Eventually I get an </p> <blockquote> <p>Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space</p> </blockquote> <p>which can easily be reproduced on my machine using</p> <pre><code>for i=1:inf figure; end </code></pre> <p>I get to around ~90 figures before it crashes with the standard setting (<a href="http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/matlab_env/brjh09y-1.html#bsemees-1" rel="noreferrer">Preferences / Java Heap Memory</a>) of 128 MB Java heap, while doubling the Heap to 256 MB gives me around 200 figures. </p> <p><em>Do you see any way to <strong>avoid</strong> the Java error message?</em> If there is not enough memory for another figure, I'd like my script to be <em>told</em> rather than crash. </p> <p>Maybe I could have a wrapper for <code>figure</code> which (somehow?) checks how much Java heap is available and which refuses to open a new figure if there is not enough space left?</p> <p><strong>Update</strong></p> <p>Using the answers below, I get a nice graph for how much free Memory Java has:</p> <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/EMnHC.png" alt="figure;plot(freeMem/1E6,'x');ylabel('java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime.freeMemory [MB]');xlabel('number of empty figures created');"></p> <p>This was produced using </p> <pre><code>for i=1:inf java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime.gc fprintf('%3.0f: %1.0f Byte free\n',i,java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime.freeMemory); figure; end </code></pre> <p>I assume the increase in the beginning means that garbage collection only does a certain effort every time I call it?</p> <p><strong>Update 2 - my solution</strong></p> <p>Using the help I got here, I implemented the following solution as a <code>figure.m</code> which overloads and calls the build-in <code>figure</code> command:</p> <pre><code>function varargout=figure(varargin) memcutoff = 10E6; % keep at least this amount of bytes free memkeyboard= 3E6; % if memory drops below this, interrupt execution and go to keyboard mode global refuse_new_figures if refuse_new_figures warning('jb:fig:lowjavamem2','Java WAS memory low -> refusing to create a new figure. To reset, type "global refuse_new_figures ; refuse_new_figures = [];"'); return end freemem=java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime.freeMemory; if freemem < memcutoff fprintf('Free memory is low (%1.0f Bytes) -> running garbace collector...\n',freemem); java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime.gc end freemem=java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime.freeMemory; % fprintf('Free memory is %1.0f Bytes.\n',freemem); if freemem < memkeyboard warning('jb:fig:lowjavamem','Java memory very low -> going into interactive mode. Good luck!'); keyboard; end if freemem < memcutoff warning('jb:fig:lowjavamem','Java memory low -> refusing to create a new figure!'); refuse_new_figures=true; else if nargin > 0 if nargout > 0 varargout{1}=builtin('figure',varargin{:}); else builtin('figure',varargin{:}); end else if nargout > 0 varargout{1}=builtin('figure'); else builtin('figure'); end end end </code></pre>

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