Prevent MATLAB from opening pool

Question

When I have the parallel computing toolbox installed and use parfor in my code, MATLAB starts the pool automatically once it reaches the parfor loop. This however makes it difficult to debug at times, which is why I would like to prevent MATLAB from opening a pool in certain situations. So, how can I tell MATLAB not to open a pool? Obviously I could go through my code and remove all parfor loops and replace them with normal for loops, but this is tedious and I might forget to undo my changes.

edit: To specify, I ideally would like the parfor loop to behave exactly like a for when setting a control or variable or something. That is, I should for example also be able to place breakpoints in the for-loop.

Answer 1

Under Home->parallel->parallel preferences you can deselect the check box "Automatically create a parallel pool (if one doesn't already exist) when parallel keywords are executed." This makes all the parfor loops behave as a normal for loop.

I'll get back to you if I figure out a way to do this in the code as opposed to using the check box.

Update turns out it is indeed possible to change the settings through code, although I would not recommend this, as it involves changing MATLAB's preference file. This is taken from the Undocumented MATLAB blog by Yair Altman.

ps = parallel.Settings;
ps.Pool
ans = 
  PoolSettings with properties:
                            AutoCreate: 1
                RestartOnClusterChange: 1
    RestartOnPreferredNumWorkersChange: 1
                           IdleTimeout: 30
                   PreferredNumWorkers: 12

where you need to change the AutoCreate switch to 0.

As alternative I'd suggest wrapping everything inside your parfor in a function, thus calling

parfor 1:N
    output = function(..)
end

Now modify your script/function to have a Parallel switch on top:

if Parallel
    parfor 1:N
        output = function(..)
    end
else
    for 1:N
        output = function(..)
    end
end

You can edit and debug the function itself and set your switch on top of your program to execute in parallel or serial.

Answer 2

As well as the normal syntax

parfor i = 1:10

you can also use

parfor (i = 1:10, N)

where N is the maximum number of workers to be used in the loop. N can be a variable set by other parts of the code, so you can effectively turn on and off parallelism by setting the variable N to 1 or 0.

---

Edit: to be clear, this only controls the number of workers on which the code is executed (and if N is zero, whether a pool is started at all). If no pool exists, the code will execute on the client. Nevertheless, the code remains a parfor loop, which does not have the same semantics as a for loop - there are restrictions on the loop code for parfor loops that do not exist for for loops, and there is no guarantee on the order in which the loop iterations are executed.

When you use parfor, you're doing more than just saying "speed this up please". You're saying to MATLAB "I can guarantee to you that the iterations of this loop are independent, and can be executed in any order, so you will be OK if you try to parallelize it". Because you've guaranteed that, MATLAB is able to speed things up by using different semantics than it would do for a for loop.

The only way to completely get for loop behaviour is to use for, and if you need to switch back and forth for debugging purposes you'll need to comment and uncomment the for/parfor (or perhaps use an if/else block, switching between a for and a parfor depending on some variable).