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For basic applications, MPI is as easy to use as any other
message-passing system. The sample code below contains the complete
communications skeleton for a dynamically load balanced master/slave
application. Following the code is a description of the few functions
necessary to write typical parallel applications.
#include <mpi.h>
#define WORKTAG 1
#define DIETAG 2
/* Local functions */
static void master(void);
static void slave(void);
static unit_of_work_t get_next_work_item(void);
static void process_results(unit_result_t result);
static unit_result_t do_work(unit_of_work_t work);
int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int myrank;
/* Initialize MPI */
MPI_Init(&argc, &argv);
/* Find out my identity in the default communicator */
MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &myrank);
if (myrank == 0) {
master();
} else {
slave();
}
/* Shut down MPI */
MPI_Finalize();
return 0;
}
static void
master(void)
{
int ntasks, rank;
unit_of_work_t work;
unit_result_t result;
MPI_Status status;
/* Find out how many processes there are in the default
communicator */
MPI_Comm_size(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &ntasks);
/* Seed the slaves; send one unit of work to each slave. */
for (rank = 1; rank < ntasks; ++rank) {
/* Find the next item of work to do */
work = get_next_work_item();
/* Send it to each rank */
MPI_Send(&work, /* message buffer */
1, /* one data item */
MPI_INT, /* data item is an integer */
rank, /* destination process rank */
WORKTAG, /* user chosen message tag */
MPI_COMM_WORLD); /* default communicator */
}
/* Loop over getting new work requests until there is no more work
to be done */
work = get_next_work_item();
while (work != NULL) {
/* Receive results from a slave */
MPI_Recv(&result, /* message buffer */
1, /* one data item */
MPI_DOUBLE, /* of type double real */
MPI_ANY_SOURCE, /* receive from any sender */
MPI_ANY_TAG, /* any type of message */
MPI_COMM_WORLD, /* default communicator */
&status); /* info about the received message */
/* Send the slave a new work unit */
MPI_Send(&work, /* message buffer */
1, /* one data item */
MPI_INT, /* data item is an integer */
status.MPI_SOURCE, /* to who we just received from */
WORKTAG, /* user chosen message tag */
MPI_COMM_WORLD); /* default communicator */
/* Get the next unit of work to be done */
work = get_next_work_item();
}
/* There's no more work to be done, so receive all the outstanding
results from the slaves. */
for (rank = 1; rank < ntasks; ++rank) {
MPI_Recv(&result, 1, MPI_DOUBLE, MPI_ANY_SOURCE,
MPI_ANY_TAG, MPI_COMM_WORLD, &status);
}
/* Tell all the slaves to exit by sending an empty message with the
DIETAG. */
for (rank = 1; rank < ntasks; ++rank) {
MPI_Send(0, 0, MPI_INT, rank, DIETAG, MPI_COMM_WORLD);
}
}
static void
slave(void)
{
unit_of_work_t work;
unit_result_t results;
MPI_Status status;
while (1) {
/* Receive a message from the master */
MPI_Recv(&work, 1, MPI_INT, 0, MPI_ANY_TAG,
MPI_COMM_WORLD, &status);
/* Check the tag of the received message. */
if (status.MPI_TAG == DIETAG) {
return;
}
/* Do the work */
result = do_work(work);
/* Send the result back */
MPI_Send(&result, 1, MPI_DOUBLE, 0, 0, MPI_COMM_WORLD);
}
}
static unit_of_work_t
get_next_work_item(void)
{
/* Fill in with whatever is relevant to obtain a new unit of work
suitable to be given to a slave. */
}
static void
process_results(unit_result_t result)
{
/* Fill in with whatever is relevant to process the results returned
by the slave */
}
static unit_result_t
do_work(unit_of_work_t work)
{
/* Fill in with whatever is necessary to process the work and
generate a result */
}
The World of MPI
Processes are represented by a unique "rank" (integer) and ranks are
numbered 0, 1, 2, ..., N-1. MPI_COMM_WORLD means "all the processes
in the MPI application." It is called a communicator and it provides
all information necessary to do message passing. Portable libraries
do more with communicators to provide synchronization protection that
most other systems cannot handle.
Enter and Exit MPI
As with other systems, two functions are provided to initialize and
cleanup a MPI process:
MPI_Init(&argc, &argv);
MPI_Finalize();
Who Am I? Who Are They?
Typically, a process in a parallel application needs to know who it is
(its rank) and how many other processes exist. A process finds out its
own rank by calling MPI_Comm_rank():
int myrank;
MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &myrank);
The total number of processes is returned by MPI_Comm_size():
int nprocs;
MPI_Comm_size(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &nprocs);
Sending Messages
A message is an array of elements of a given datatype. MPI supports
all the basic datatypes and allows a more elaborate application to
construct new datatypes at runtime.
A message is sent to a specific process and is marked by a tag (integer
value) specified by the user. Tags are used to distinguish between
different message types a process might send/receive. In the sample
code above, the tag is used to distinguish between work and termination
messages.
MPI_Send(buffer, count, datatype, destination, tag,
MPI_COMM_WORLD);
Receiving Messages
A receiving process specifies the tag and the rank of the sending process.
MPI_ANY_TAG and MPI_ANY_SOURCE may be used optionally to receive a message
of any tag and from any sending process.
MPI_Recv(buffer, maxcount, datatype, source, tag,
MPI_COMM_WORLD, &status);
Information about the received message is returned in a status variable.
The received message tag is status.MPI_TAG and the rank of the sending
process is status.MPI_SOURCE.
Another function, not used in the sample code, returns the number of
datatype elements received. It is used when the number of elements
received might be smaller than `maxcount'.
MPI_Get_count(&status, datatype, &nelements);
With these few functions, you are ready to program almost any application.
There are many other, more exotic functions in MPI, but all can be built
upon those presented here so far.
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