MPICommspawn(3OpenMPI) MPICommspawn(3OpenMPI)

NAME
       MMPPIICCoommmmssppaawwnn - Spawns a number of identical binaries.


SSYYNNTTAAXX
CC SSyynnttaaxx
       #include 
       int MPICommspawn(char *command, char *argv[], int maxprocs,
            MPIInfo info, int root, MPIComm comm,
            MPIComm *intercomm, int arrayoferrcodes[])


FFoorrttrraann SSyynnttaaxx
       INCLUDE 'mpif.h'
       MPICOMMSPAWN(COMMAND, ARGV, MAXPROCS, INFO, ROOT, COMM,
            INTERCOMM, ARRAYOFERRCODES, IERROR)

            CHARACTER*(*) COMMAND, ARGV(*)
            INTEGER   INFO, MAXPROCS, ROOT, COMM, INTERCOMM,
            ARRAYOFERRORCODES(*), IERROR


CC++++ SSyynnttaaxx
       #include 
       MPI::Intercomm MPI::Intracomm::Spawn(const char* command,
            const char* argv[], int maxprocs, const MPI::Info& info,
            int root, int arrayoferrcodes[]) const

       MPI::Intercomm MPI::Intracomm::Spawn(const char* command,
            const char* argv[], int maxprocs, const MPI::Info& info,
            int root) const


IINNPPUUTT PPAARRAAMMEETTEERRSS
       command   Name  of  program  to be spawned (string, significant only at
                 root).

       argv      Arguments to command (array of strings, significant  only  at
                 root).

       maxprocs  Maximum  number  of  processes to start (integer, significant
                 only at root).

       info      A set of key-value pairs telling the runtime system where and
                 how  to  start  the  processes  (handle,  significant only at
                 root).

       root      Rank of process in  which  previous  arguments  are  examined
                 (integer).

       comm      Intracommunicator  containing  group  of  spawning  processes
                 (handle).


OOUUTTPPUUTT PPAARRAAMMEETTEERR
       intercomm Intercommunicator  between  original  group  and  the   newly
                 spawned group (handle).

       arrayoferrcodes
                 One code per process (array of integers).

       IERROR    Fortran only: Error status (integer).


DESCRIPTION
       MPICommspawn tries to start maxprocs identical copies of the MPI pro-
       gram specified by command, establishing  communication  with  them  and
       returning  an  intercommunicator. The spawned processes are referred to
       as children. The children have their own MPICOMMWORLD, which is sepa-
       rate  from that of the parents. MPICommspawn is collective over comm,
       and also may not return until MPIInit has been called in the children.
       Similarly,  MPIInit  in  the children may not return until all parents
       have called MPICommspawn. In this sense, MPICommspawn in  the  par-
       ents  and MPIInit in the children form a collective operation over the
       union of parent and child processes. The intercommunicator returned  by
       MPICommspawn contains the parent processes in the local group and the
       child processes in the remote group. The ordering of processes  in  the
       local and remote groups is the same as the as the ordering of the group
       of the comm in the parents  and  of  MPICOMMWORLD  of  the  children,
       respectively.  This  intercommunicator  can be obtained in the children
       through the function MPICommgetparent.

       The MPI standard allows an implementation to use the  MPIUNIVERSESIZE
       attribute  of  MPICOMMWORLD  to  specify the number of processes that
       will be active in a program.  Although this implementation of  the  MPI
       standard  defines  MPIUNIVERSESIZE, it does not allow the user to set
       its value.  If you try to set the value of MPIUNIVERSESIZE, you  will
       get an error message.

       The command Argument

       The command argument is a string containing the name of a program to be
       spawned. The string is null-terminated in C. In  Fortran,  leading  and
       trailing spaces are stripped. MPI looks for the file first in the work-
       ing directory of the spawning process.

       The argv Argument

       argv is an array of strings containing arguments that are passed to the
       program. The first element of argv is the first argument passed to com-
       mand, not, as is conventional in some contexts, the command itself. The
       argument list is terminated by NULL in C and C++ and an empty string in
       Fortran. In Fortran, leading and trailing spaces are  always  stripped,
       so  that  a  string  consisting  of  all  spaces is considered an empty
       string. The constant MPIARGVNULL may be used in C, C++ and Fortran to
       indicate  an  empty  argument  list. In C and C++, this constant is the
       same as NULL.

       In C, the MPICommspawn argument argv differs from the  argv  argument
       of  main in two respects. First, it is shifted by one element. Specifi-
       cally, argv[0] of main  contains the name of the program (given by com-
       mand).  argv[1]  of  main  corresponds  to  argv[0]  in MPICommspawn,
       argv[2] of main to argv[1] of MPICommspawn, and so on.  Second,  argv
       of  MPICommspawn  must  be null-terminated, so that its length can be
       determined. Passing an argv of MPIARGVNULL to MPICommspawn  results
       in  main receiving argc of 1 and an argv whose element 0 is the name of
       the program.

       The maxprocs Argument

       Open MPI tries to spawn maxprocs processes. If it is  unable  to  spawn
       maxprocs  processes,  it raises an error of class MPIERRSPAWN. If MPI
       is able to spawn the  specified  number  of  processes,  MPICommspawn
       returns  successfully  and the number of spawned processes, m, is given
       by the size of the remote group of intercomm.

       A spawn call with the default behavior is called hard. A spawn call for
       which fewer than maxprocs processes may be returned is called soft.

       The info Argument

       The  info argument is an opaque handle of type MPIInfo in C, MPI::Info
       in C++ and INTEGER in Fortran. It is a container for a number of  user-
       speci  ed (key,value) pairs. key and value are strings (null-terminated
       char* in C, character*(*) in Fortran). Routines to create  and  manipu-
       late the info argument are described in Section 4.10 of the MPI-2 stan-
       dard.

       For the SPAWN calls, info provides additional, implementation-dependent
       instructions  to  MPI and the runtime system on how to start processes.
       An application may pass MPIINFONULL in C or  Fortran.  Portable  pro-
       grams  not requiring detailed control over process locations should use
       MPIINFONULL.

       The following values for info are recognized in Open MPI. (The reserved
       values  mentioned in Section 5.3.4 of the MPI-2 standard are not imple-
       mented.)

       Key value             Type      Description
       -----            --      ------

       host                  char *    Host on which the process should be spawned.
       wdir                  char *    Directory where the executable is located.


       The root Argument

       All arguments before the root argument are examined only on the process
       whose  rank  in  comm is equal to root. The value of these arguments on
       other processes is ignored.

       The arrayoferrcodes Argument

       The arrayoferrcodes is an array  of  length  maxprocs  in  which  MPI
       reports the status of the processes that MPI was requested to start. If
       all maxprocs processes were spawned,  arrayoferrcodes  is  filled  in
       with  the  value  MPISUCCESS.  If anyof the processes are not spawned,
       arrayoferrcodes is filled in with the value MPIERRSPAWN.  In  C  or
       Fortran,  an  application  may  pass  MPIERRCODESIGNORE  if it is not
       interested in the error codes. In C++ this constant does not exist, and
       the arrayoferrcodes argument may be omitted from the argument list.


NNOOTTEESS
       Completion  of  MPICommspawn  in the parent does not necessarily mean
       that MPIInit has been called in the children  (although  the  returned
       intercommunicator can be used immediately).



EERRRROORRSS
       Almost  all MPI routines return an error value; C routines as the value
       of the function and Fortran routines in the last  argument.  C++  func-
       tions  do  not  return  errors.  If the default error handler is set to
       MPI::ERRORSTHROWEXCEPTIONS, then on error the C++ exception mechanism
       will be used to throw an MPI:Exception object.

       Before  the  error  value is returned, the current MPI error handler is
       called. By default, this error handler aborts the MPI job,  except  for
       I/O   function   errors.   The   error  handler  may  be  changed  with
       MPICommseterrhandler; the predefined error handler MPIERRORSRETURN
       may  be  used  to cause error values to be returned. Note that MPI does
       not guarantee that an MPI program can continue past an error.


SEE ALSO
       MPICommspawnmultiple(3)
       MPICommgetparent(3)
       mpirun(1)




Open MPI 1.2                    September 2006        MPICommspawn(3OpenMPI)