Re: Quit versus Clear["Global`*"]
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg121251] Re: Quit versus Clear["Global`*"]
- From: "tenons at gmail.com" <tenons at gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 03:57:01 -0400 (EDT)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <j3t5ga$58h$1@smc.vnet.net> <j3vc1k$ejo$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Sep 4, 4:14 am, David Bailey <d... at removedbailey.co.uk> wrote: > On 03/09/2011 13:10, Themis Matsoukas wrote:> What is the difference between quitting the kernel and executing Clear["Global`*"]? > > > Is there a command to quit the kernel, instead of selecting Quit/Local from there Evaluate menu? > > > Thanks > > Quit[] will quit the kernel. > > Obviously Clear["Global`*"] would not clear information that might end > up in other contexts, whereas Quit[] will clear everything. > > I never clear the global context - I just quit the kernel one way or > another. Restarting the kernel used to be rather slow, but with the > speed of a modern PC, there really doesn't seem much point doing > anything else unless you specifically wish to preserve some information > that is not in Global`. > > I tend to quit the kernel quite a lot - e.g. between successive runs of > a program - why risk the confusion that can arise when two function > definitions end up coexisting! > > David Baileyhttp://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk I agree whole-heartedly with this post. I've found it the only way to stay out of trouble. I have a related problem that I hope I can get some suggestions for. GIF.exe has a memory leak (reported previously, acknowledged and is on someone's todo list at Wolfram, hopefully) which makes a certain set evaluations (which use ExportString[#,"GIF"]& extensively) unstable. (i.e., MathKernel crashes randomly and unceremoniously, or worse). What I would like to do is divide the set of evaluations into segments, run them successively quitting the MathKernel after each, and then restarting on the next segment. The Quit[] clears out the buildup in GIF.exe. Obviously I can do this by babysitting and restarting each segment by hand (which I do, at approximately 15 minute intervals, painfully wasting time). [I've tried many things including Uninstall["path/GIF.exe"] 'ing periodically and escaping to the shell to kill the process. Neither improves stability. ] How can I carry this out automatically?