37. Independence of Basic Runtime Routines

MPI programs require that library routines that are part of the basic language environment (such as write in Fortran and printf and malloc in ISO C) and are executed after MPI_INIT and before MPI_FINALIZE operate independently and that their completion is independent of the action of other processes in an MPI program.

Note that this in no way prevents the creation of library routines that provide parallel services whose operation is collective. However, the following program is expected to complete in an ISO C environment regardless of the size of MPI_COMM_WORLD (assuming that printf is available at the executing nodes).

int rank; 
MPI_Init((void *)0, (void *)0); 
MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &rank); 
if (rank == 0) printf("Starting program\n"); 
MPI_Finalize(); 

An example of what is not required is any particular ordering of the action of these routines when called by several tasks. For example, MPI makes neither requirements nor recommendations for the output from the following program (again assuming that I/O is available at the executing nodes).

MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &rank); 
printf("Output from task rank %d\n", rank);