Infinite error loop when using MATLAB with nohup

If you run MATLAB scripts remotely with ssh and nohup (to keep it running in the background), you may find MATLAB entering an infinite loop of the following errors when your script or function finishes:

Warning: Error reading character from command line

and

Bad file descriptor

This has nothing to do with your code, just that you will have to add "</dev/null" before the "&" symbol which is causing the error. For example, you can run a function like this:

nohup matlab -nodisplay -r "myfunc_in_current_dir('params')" > ./mylog.txt </dev/null &

Also, people suggested using the "-nojvm" option. If you are plotting in your script then this option should be avoided.

Password-less ssh logins with RSA key pairs

First, edit your local ~/.bashrc file and add the following lines:

function server1(){
  ssh user@server.com
}

This creates a command named server1 to automatically ssh log in to server.com. However you will still need to enter your password each time you run this command.

Then, run the following commands from the bash shell on your local machine:

ssh-keygen -t rsa
ssh user@server.com "mkdir .ssh"
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@server.com:.ssh/id_rsa.pub

For the first command, press enter three times to create public and private keys without a password. The second command creates a directory named ".ssh" in your remote home directory. The third one copies over the public key.

Finally, run the following commands on the remote machine (by logging on using ssh):

touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

If the file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys already exists you can skip the first command. The second command appends id_rsa.pub into authorized_keys.

That's it. Try to type server1 again from your local shell prompt and you'll not be prompted to enter password from now on.