One goal of MPI is to achieve source code portability. By this we mean that a program written using MPI and complying with the relevant language standards is portable as written, and must not require any source code changes when moved from one system to another. This explicitly does not say anything about how an MPI program is started or launched from the command line, nor what the user must do to set up the environment in which an MPI program will run. However, an implementation may require some setup to be performed before other MPI routines may be called. To provide for this, MPI includes an initialization routine MPI_INIT.
int MPI_Init(int *argc, char ***argv)
MPI_INIT(IERROR)
All MPI programs must contain exactly one call to an MPI initialization routine:
MPI_INIT or MPI_INIT_THREAD. Subsequent calls to any
initialization routines are erroneous. The only MPI functions that may be invoked
before the MPI initialization routines are called are MPI_GET_VERSION,
MPI_INITIALIZED, and MPI_FINALIZED. The version for ISO C
accepts the argc and argv that are provided by the arguments to
main or NULL:
The Fortran version takes only IERROR.
Conforming implementations of MPI are required to allow
applications to pass NULL for both the argc and
argv arguments of main in C and C++. In C++, there is an alternative
binding for MPI::Init that does not have these arguments at all.
In some applications, libraries may be making the call to MPI_Init,
and may not have access to argc and argv from main.
It is anticipated that applications requiring special information about
the environment or information supplied by mpiexec can get that
information from environment variables.
( End of rationale.)
int MPI_Finalize(void)
MPI_FINALIZE(IERROR)
This routine cleans up all MPI state.
Each process must call MPI_FINALIZE before it exits.
Unless there has been a call to MPI_ABORT, each process must ensure that all pending nonblocking
communications are (locally) complete before calling MPI_FINALIZE.
Further, at the instant at which the last process calls
MPI_FINALIZE, all pending sends must be matched by a receive, and
all pending receives must be matched by a send.
For example, the following program is correct:
A successful return from a blocking communication operation or from
MPI_WAIT or MPI_TEST tells the user that the buffer can
be reused and means that the communication is completed by the user, but does
not guarantee that the local process has no more work to do.
A successful return from MPI_REQUEST_FREE with a request handle
generated by an MPI_ISEND nullifies the handle but provides no
assurance of operation completion. The MPI_ISEND is complete only when it is
known by some means that a matching receive has completed.
MPI_FINALIZE guarantees that all local actions required by
communications the user has completed will, in fact, occur before it returns.
MPI_FINALIZE guarantees nothing about pending communications that
have not been completed (completion is assured only by MPI_WAIT,
MPI_TEST, or MPI_REQUEST_FREE combined with some other
verification of completion).
If no MPI_BUFFER_DETACH occurs between an MPI_BSEND (or
other buffered send) and
MPI_FINALIZE, the MPI_FINALIZE implicitly supplies
the MPI_BUFFER_DETACH.
The MPI_Iprobe() call is there to make sure the implementation
knows that the ``tag1'' message exists at the destination, without being
able to claim that the user knows about it.
An implementation may need to delay the return from MPI_FINALIZE
until all potential future message cancellations have been
processed. One possible solution is to place a barrier inside
MPI_FINALIZE
( End of advice to implementors.)
Even though a process has completed all the communication it initiated, such
communication may not yet be completed from the viewpoint of the underlying
MPI system. E.g., a blocking send may have completed, even though the data
is still buffered at the sender. The MPI implementation must ensure that a
process has completed any involvement in MPI communication before
MPI_FINALIZE returns. Thus, if a process exits after the call to
MPI_FINALIZE, this will not cause an ongoing communication to
fail.
( End of advice to implementors.)
int MPI_Initialized(int *flag)
MPI_INITIALIZED(FLAG, IERROR)
This routine may be used to determine whether MPI_INIT has been
called.
MPI_INITIALIZED returns true if the calling process has
called MPI_INIT. Whether MPI_FINALIZE has been
called does not affect the behavior of MPI_INITIALIZED.
It is one of the few routines that may be called before
MPI_INIT is called.
int MPI_Abort(MPI_Comm comm, int errorcode)
MPI_ABORT(COMM, ERRORCODE, IERROR)
This routine makes a ``best attempt'' to abort all tasks in the group
of comm.
This function does not require that the invoking environment take any action
with the error code. However, a Unix or POSIX environment should handle this
as a return errorcode from the main program.
It may not be possible for an MPI implementation to abort only the
processes represented by comm if this is a subset of the processes.
In this case, the MPI implementation should attempt to abort all the connected
processes but should not abort any unconnected processes.
If no processes were spawned, accepted or connected then this has the effect
of aborting all the processes associated with MPI_COMM_WORLD.
The communicator argument is provided to allow for future extensions of MPI to
environments with, for example, dynamic process management. In particular, it
allows but does not require an MPI implementation to abort a subset of
MPI_COMM_WORLD.
( End of rationale.)
Whether the errorcode is returned from the executable or from the
MPI process startup mechanism (e.g., mpiexec), is an aspect of quality
of the MPI library but not mandatory.
( End of advice to users.)
Where possible, a high-quality implementation will try to return the
errorcode from the MPI process startup mechanism
(e.g. mpiexec or singleton init).
( End of advice to implementors.)
INTEGER IERROR
{ void MPI::Init(int& argc, char**& argv) (binding deprecated, see Section Deprecated since MPI-2.2
) }
{ void MPI::Init() (binding deprecated, see Section Deprecated since MPI-2.2
) }
Rationale.
INTEGER IERROR
{ void MPI::Finalize() (binding deprecated, see Section Deprecated since MPI-2.2
) }
Process 0 Process 1
--------- ---------
MPI_Init(); MPI_Init();
MPI_Send(dest=1); MPI_Recv(src=0);
MPI_Finalize(); MPI_Finalize();
Without the matching receive, the program is erroneous:
Process 0 Process 1
----------- -----------
MPI_Init(); MPI_Init();
MPI_Send (dest=1);
MPI_Finalize(); MPI_Finalize();
Example
This program is correct:
rank 0 rank 1
=====================================================
... ...
MPI_Isend(); MPI_Recv();
MPI_Request_free(); MPI_Barrier();
MPI_Barrier(); MPI_Finalize();
MPI_Finalize(); exit();
exit();
Example
This program is erroneous and its behavior is undefined:
rank 0 rank 1
=====================================================
... ...
MPI_Isend(); MPI_Recv();
MPI_Request_free(); MPI_Finalize();
MPI_Finalize(); exit();
exit();
Example
This program is correct, and after the MPI_Finalize, it is
as if the buffer had been detached.
rank 0 rank 1
=====================================================
... ...
buffer = malloc(1000000); MPI_Recv();
MPI_Buffer_attach(); MPI_Finalize();
MPI_Bsend(); exit();
MPI_Finalize();
free(buffer);
exit();
Example
In this example, MPI_Iprobe() must return a FALSE
flag. MPI_Test_cancelled() must return a TRUE flag,
independent of the relative order of execution of MPI_Cancel()
in process 0 and MPI_Finalize() in process 1.
rank 0 rank 1
========================================================
MPI_Init(); MPI_Init();
MPI_Isend(tag1);
MPI_Barrier(); MPI_Barrier();
MPI_Iprobe(tag2);
MPI_Barrier(); MPI_Barrier();
MPI_Finalize();
exit();
MPI_Cancel();
MPI_Wait();
MPI_Test_cancelled();
MPI_Finalize();
exit();
Advice
to implementors.
Once MPI_FINALIZE returns, no MPI routine (not even MPI_INIT) may
be called, except for MPI_GET_VERSION, MPI_INITIALIZED,
and MPI_FINALIZED.
Each process must complete
any pending communication it initiated before it calls
MPI_FINALIZE. If the call returns, each process may continue local
computations, or exit, without participating in further MPI communication
with other processes.
MPI_FINALIZE is collective over all connected processes.
If no processes were spawned, accepted or connected then this means
over MPI_COMM_WORLD; otherwise it is collective over the
union of all processes that have been and continue to be connected,
as explained in Section Releasing Connections
on page Releasing Connections
.
Advice
to implementors.
Although it is not required that all processes return from
MPI_FINALIZE, it is required that at least process 0 in
MPI_COMM_WORLD return, so
that users can know that the MPI portion of the computation is over. In
addition, in a POSIX environment, they may desire to supply an exit code for
each process that returns from MPI_FINALIZE.
Example
The following illustrates the use of requiring that at least one
process return and that it be known that process 0 is one of the processes
that return. One wants code like the following to work no matter how many
processes return.
...
MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &myrank);
...
MPI_Finalize();
if (myrank == 0) {
resultfile = fopen("outfile","w");
dump_results(resultfile);
fclose(resultfile);
}
exit(0);
MPI_INITIALIZED( flag ) lag is true if MPI_INIT has been called and false
otherwise.
OUT flag F
LOGICAL FLAG
INTEGER IERROR
{ bool MPI::Is_initialized() (binding deprecated, see Section Deprecated since MPI-2.2
) }
MPI_ABORT( comm, errorcode ) IN comm communicator of tasks to abort IN errorcode error code to return to invoking environment
INTEGER COMM, ERRORCODE, IERROR
{ void MPI::Comm::Abort(int errorcode) (binding deprecated, see Section Deprecated since MPI-2.2
) }
Rationale.
Advice to users.
Advice
to implementors.
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