Timeout when running tcpip in server mode OR how to force fopen to return after a set timeout

Hello all,

I found and was playing with Matlab's ability to act as tcpip server:

t = tcpip('localhost',30000,'NetworkRole','server') 
fopen(t)   

I can then use this connection to send files between Matlab instances (such as me and my lab mate). However, fopen does not return until a connection has been made by someone. While I can ctrl-C to get out of this, you cannot ctrl-C in a deployed application AND this drops us out of the entire program rather than letting us skip this step and move on with other operations. Nominally I would want a connection timeout option for the tcpip object, but there is no such property or method.

So, I can see 3 possible options,

• Run fopen asynchronously so that even if it is sitting there waiting till the dawn of time, the rest of my code can continue to execute.
• Run fopen with some sort of timeout enforced externally during the call (something like FEX timeout, but not using ctrl-C. I just want to force the fopen command to return after a reasonable period).
• Modify tcpip itself to allow for a timeout.

The middle is my favorite, since I can use that for other code. Any ideas?

-DP

[Darshan Vijayaraghavan]

Can you explain on how or elaborate more on the 2nd point that you mentioned above?