Self-restarting MathKernel - is it possible in Mathematica?

Question

This question comes from the recent question \"Correct way to cap Mathematica memory use?\"

I wonder, is it possible to programmatically restart MathKernel keeping the c

Answer 1

The following approach runs one kernel to open a front-end with its own kernel, which is then closed and reopened, renewing the second kernel.

This file is the MathKernel input, C:\Temp\test4.m

Needs["JLink`"];
$FrontEndLaunchCommand="Mathematica.exe";
UseFrontEnd[
nb = NotebookOpen["C:\\Temp\\run.nb"];
SelectionMove[nb, Next, Cell];
SelectionEvaluate[nb];
];
Pause[8];
CloseFrontEnd[];
Pause[1];
UseFrontEnd[
nb = NotebookOpen["C:\\Temp\\run.nb"];
Do[SelectionMove[nb, Next, Cell],{12}];
SelectionEvaluate[nb];
];
Pause[8];
CloseFrontEnd[];
Print["Completed"]

The demo notebook, C:\Temp\run.nb contains two cells:

x1 = 0;
Module[{}, 
 While[x1 < 1000000, 
  If[Mod[x1, 100000] == 0, Print["x1=" <> ToString[x1]]]; x1++];
 NotebookSave[EvaluationNotebook[]];
 NotebookClose[EvaluationNotebook[]]]

Print[x1]
x1 = 0;
Module[{}, 
 While[x1 < 1000000, 
  If[Mod[x1, 100000] == 0, Print["x1=" <> ToString[x1]]]; x1++];
 NotebookSave[EvaluationNotebook[]];
 NotebookClose[EvaluationNotebook[]]]

The initial kernel opens a front-end and runs the first cell, then it quits the front-end, reopens it and runs the second cell.

The whole thing can be run either by pasting (in one go) the MathKernel input into a kernel session, or it can be run from a batch file, e.g. C:\Temp\RunTest2.bat

@echo off
setlocal
PATH = C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\8.0\;%PATH%
echo Launching MathKernel %TIME%
start MathKernel -noprompt -initfile "C:\Temp\test4.m"
ping localhost -n 30 > nul
echo Terminating MathKernel %TIME%
taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq MathKernel.exe" > nul
endlocal

It's a little elaborate to set up, and in its current form it depends on knowing how long to wait before closing and restarting the second kernel.