Bash xargs script to run parallel MATLAB and Octave jobs

parrun.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Bash script using xargs to run Matlab and Octave jobs in parallel.
#

n_parruns=16   # Total number of runs.
n_parproc=3    # Number of simultaneous parallel processes.

# Define Matlab/Octave executable and main m-scipt file to run.
export runcmd='/mnt/c/Octave/Octave-4.2.1/bin/octave-cli.exe'
# export runcmd='/mnt/c/Program\ Files/MATLAB/R2017a/bin/matlab.exe -nojvm -nosplash -r'
export mscript=mscript.m
# echo "disp(['test ',num2str(i_parrun)])"$'\npause(5)' > $mscript   # Test script.


function parfun
{
    echo parproc$1-$$: start   # Terminal output.

    # Write parproc file to temporary (current) directory.
    tempdir=$(pwd)
    echo > "$tempdir/parproc$1-$$"


    # Octave/Matlab command string.
    cmdstr="i_parrun = $1;
            $(sed -n '/exit/!p;//q' $mscript)
            delete([pwd,filesep,'parproc$1-$$']);"

    if [[ $runcmd == *"matlab"* ]]; then
        cmdstr="$cmdstr
                exit"

        eval $runcmd" \"$cmdstr\""
    else
        echo "$cmdstr" > mscript_$1.m

        eval $runcmd" mscript_$1.m"
    fi


    # Sleep while parproc file exists.
    while [ -f "$tempdir/parproc$1-$$" ]
    do
        sleep 1
    done

    # Cleanup.
    if [[ $runcmd != *"matlab"* ]]; then
        rm -f mscript_$1.m
    fi
    rm -f parproc$1-$$

    echo parproc$1-$$: end   # Terminal output.
}
export -f parfun


eval "printf \"%i\n\" {1..$n_parruns}" | xargs -n 1 -P $n_parproc -I {} bash -c 'parfun "$@"' _ {}