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NAME
orterun, mpirun, mpiexec - Execute serial and parallel jobs in Open
MPI.
Note: mpirun, mpiexec, and orterun are all exact synonyms for each
other. Using any of the names will result in exactly identical behav-
ior.
SYNOPSIS
Single Process Multiple Data (SPMD) Model:
mpirun [ options ] <program> [ <args> ]
Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD) Model:
mpirun [ global_options ]
[ local_options1 ] <program1> [ <args1> ] :
[ local_options2 ] <program2> [ <args2> ] :
... :
[ local_optionsN ] <programN> [ <argsN> ]
Note that in both models, invoking mpirun via an absolute path name is
equivalent to specifying the --prefix option with a <dir> value equiva-
lent to the directory where mpirun resides, minus its last subdirec-
tory. For example:
shell$ /usr/local/bin/mpirun ...
is equivalent to
shell$ mpirun --prefix /usr/local
QUICK SUMMARY
If you are simply looking for how to run an MPI application, you proba-
bly want to use a command line of the following form:
shell$ mpirun [ -np X ] [ --hostfile <filename> ] <program>
This will run X copies of <program> in your current run-time environ-
ment (if running under a supported resource manager, Open MPI's mpirun
will usually automatically use the corresponding resource manager
process starter, as opposed to, for example, rsh or ssh, which require
the use of a hostfile, or will default to running all X copies on the
localhost), scheduling (by default) in a round-robin fashion by CPU
slot. See the rest of this page for more details.
OPTIONS
mpirun will send the name of the directory where it was invoked on the
local node to each of the remote nodes, and attempt to change to that
directory. See the "Current Working Directory" section below for fur-
ther details.
<args> Pass these run-time arguments to every new process. These
must always be the last arguments to mpirun. If an app con-
text file is used, <args> will be ignored.
Provide an appfile, ignoring all other command line options.
-bynode, --bynode
Allocate (map) the processes by node in a round-robin scheme.
-byslot, --byslot
Allocate (map) the processes by slot in a round-robin scheme.
This is the default.
-c <#> Synonym for -np.
-debug, --debug
Invoke the user-level debugger indicated by the
orte_base_user_debugger MCA parameter.
-debugger, --debugger
Sequence of debuggers to search for when --debug is used
(i.e. a synonym for orte_base_user_debugger MCA parameter).
-gmca, --gmca <key> <value>
Pass global MCA parameters that are applicable to all con-
texts. <key> is the parameter name; <value> is the parameter
value.
-h, --help
Display help for this command
-H <host1,host2,...,hostN>
Synonym for -host.
-host, --host <host1,host2,...,hostN>
List of hosts on which to invoke processes.
-hostfile, --hostfile <hostfile>
Provide a hostfile to use.
-machinefile, --machinefile <machinefile>
Synonym for -hostfile.
-mca, --mca <key> <value>
Send arguments to various MCA modules. See the "MCA" sec-
tion, below.
-n, --n <#>
Synonym for -np.
-nolocal, --nolocal
Do not run any copies of the launched application on the same
node as orterun is running. This option will override list-
ing the localhost with --host or any other host-specifying
mechanism.
-nooversubscribe, --nooversubscribe
Do not oversubscribe any nodes; error (without starting any
processes) if the requested number of processes would cause
oversubscription. This option implicitly sets "max_slots"
equal to the "slots" value for each node.
model and will return an error (without beginning execution
of the application) otherwise.
-nw, --nw Launch the processes and do not wait for their completion.
mpirun will complete as soon as successful launch occurs.
-path, --path <path>
<path> that will be used when attempting to locate requested
executables.
--prefix <dir>
Prefix directory that will be used to set the PATH and
LD_LIBRARY_PATH on the remote node before invoking Open MPI
or the target process. See the "Remote Execution" section,
below.
-q, --quiet
Suppress informative messages from orterun during application
execution.
--tmpdir <dir>
Set the root for the session directory tree for mpirun only.
-tv, --tv Launch processes under the TotalView debugger. Deprecated
backwards compatibility flag. Synonym for --debug.
--universe <email-address-removed:universe_name>
For this application, set the universe name as:
email-address-removed:universe_name
-v, --verbose
Be verbose
-V, --version
Print version number. If no other arguments are given, this
will also cause orterun to exit.
-wd <dir> Synonym for -wdir.
-wdir <dir>
Change to the directory <dir> before the user's program exe-
cutes. See the "Current Working Directory" section for notes
on relative paths. Note: If the -wdir option appears both on
the command line and in an application context, the context
will take precedence over the command line.
-x <env> Export the specified environment variables to the remote
nodes before executing the program. Existing environment
variables can be specified (see the Examples section, below),
or new variable names specified with corresponding values.
The parser for the -x option is not very sophisticated; it
does not even understand quoted values. Users are advised to
set variables in the environment, and then use -x to export
(not define) them.
The following options are useful for developers; they are not generally
useful to most ORTE and/or MPI users:
--debug-daemons-file
Enable debugging of any OpenRTE daemons used by this applica-
tion, storing output in files.
--no-daemonize
Do not detach OpenRTE daemons used by this application.
DESCRIPTION
One invocation of mpirun starts an MPI application running under Open
MPI. If the application is single process multiple data (SPMD), the
application can be specified on the mpirun command line.
If the application is multiple instruction multiple data (MIMD), com-
prising of multiple programs, the set of programs and argument can be
specified in one of two ways: Extended Command Line Arguments, and
Application Context.
An application context describes the MIMD program set including all
arguments in a separate file. This file essentially contains multiple
mpirun command lines, less the command name itself. The ability to
specify different options for different instantiations of a program is
another reason to use an application context.
Extended command line arguments allow for the description of the appli-
cation layout on the command line using colons (:) to separate the
specification of programs and arguments. Some options are globally set
across all specified programs (e.g. --hostfile), while others are spe-
cific to a single program (e.g. -np).
Process Slots
Open MPI uses "slots" to represent a potential location for a process.
Hence, a node with 2 slots means that 2 processes can be launched on
that node. For performance, the community typically equates a "slot"
with a physical CPU, thus ensuring that any process assigned to that
slot has a dedicated processor. This is not, however, a requirement for
the operation of Open MPI.
Slots can be specified in hostfiles after the hostname. For example:
host1.example.com slots=4
Indicates that there are 4 process slots on host1.
If no slots value is specified, then Open MPI will automatically assign
a default value of "slots=1" to that host.
When running under resource managers (e.g., SLURM, Torque, etc.), Open
MPI will obtain both the hostnames and the number of slots directly
from the resource manger. For example, if running under a SLURM job,
Open MPI will automatically receive the hosts that SLURM has allocated
to the job as well as how many slots on each node that SLURM says are
usable - in most high-performance environments, the slots will equate
to the number of processors on the node.
When deciding where to launch processes, Open MPI will first fill up
all available slots before oversubscribing (see "Location Nomencla-
ture", below, for more details on the scheduling algorithms available).
Unless told otherwise, Open MPI will arbitrarily oversubscribe nodes.
For example, if the only node available is the localhost, Open MPI will
Indicates that there are 4 process slots on host2. Further, Open
MPI is limited to launching a maximum of 6 processes on host2.
host3.example.com slots=2 max_slots=2
Indicates that there are 2 process slots on host3 and that no over-
subscription is allowed (similar to the --nooversubscribe option).
host4.example.com max_slots=2
Shorthand; same as listing "slots=2 max_slots=2".
Note that Open MPI's support for resource managers does not currently
set the "max_slots" values for hosts. If you wish to prevent oversub-
scription in such scenarios, use the --nooversubscribe option.
In scenarios where the user wishes to launch an application across all
available slots by not providing a "-n" option on the mpirun command
line, Open MPI will launch a process on each process slot for each host
within the provided environment. For example, if a hostfile has been
provided, then Open MPI will spawn processes on each identified host up
to the "slots=x" limit if oversubscription is not allowed. If oversub-
scription is allowed (the default), then Open MPI will spawn processes
on each host up to the "max_slots=y" limit if that value is provided.
In all cases, the "-bynode" and "-byslot" mapping directives will be
enforced to ensure proper placement of process ranks.
Location Nomenclature
As described above, mpirun can specify arbitrary locations in the cur-
rent Open MPI universe. Locations can be specified either by CPU or by
node.
Note: This nomenclature does not force Open MPI to bind processes to
CPUs -- specifying a location "by CPU" is really a convenience mecha-
nism for SMPs that ultimately maps down to a specific node.
Specifying locations by node will launch one copy of an executable per
specified node. Using the --bynode option tells Open MPI to use all
available nodes. Using the --byslot option tells Open MPI to use all
slots on an available node before allocating resources on the next
available node. For example:
mpirun --bynode -np 4 a.out
Runs one copy of the the executable a.out on all available nodes in
the Open MPI universe. MPI_COMM_WORLD rank 0 will be on node0,
rank 1 will be on node1, etc. Regardless of how many slots are
available on each of the nodes.
mpirun --byslot -np 4 a.out
Runs one copy of the the executable a.out on each slot on a given
node before running the executable on other available nodes.
Specifying Hosts
Hosts can be specified in a number of ways. The most common of which is
in a 'hostfile' or 'machinefile'. If our hostfile contain the following
information:
shell$ cat my-hostfile
node00 slots=2
node01 slots=2
Here can can include and exclude hosts from the set of hosts to run on.
For example:
mpirun -np 3 --host a a.out
Runs three copies of the executable a.out on host a.
mpirun -np 3 --host a,b,c a.out
Runs one copy of the executable a.out on hosts a, b, and c.
mpirun -np 3 --hostfile my-hostfile --host node00 a.out
Runs three copies of the executable a.out on host node00.
mpirun -np 3 --hostfile my-hostfile --host node10 a.out
This will prompt an error since node10 is not in my-hostfile;
mpirun will abort.
shell$ mpirun -np 1 --host a hostname : -np 2 --host b,c uptime
Runs one copy of the executable hostname on host a. And runs one
copy of the executable uptime on hosts b and c.
No Local Launch
Using the --nolocal option to orterun tells the system to not launch
any of the application processes on the same node that orterun is run-
ning. While orterun typically blocks and consumes few system
resources, this option can be helpful for launching very large jobs
where orterun may actually need to use noticable amounts of memory
and/or processing time. --nolocal allows orteun to run without sharing
the local node with the launched applications, and likewise allows the
launched applications to run unhindered by orterun's system usage.
Note that --nolocal will override any other specification to launch the
application on the local node. It will disqualify the localhost from
being capable of running any processes in the application.
shell$ mpirun -np 1 --host localhost --nolocal hostname
This example will result in an error because orterun will not
find anywhere to launch the application.
No Oversubscription
Using the --nooversubscribe option causes Open MPI to implicitly set
the "max_slots" value to be the same as the "slots" value for each
node. This can be especially helpful when running jobs under a
resource manager because Open MPI currently only sets the "slots" value
for each node that it obtains from the resource manager.
Application Context or Executable Program?
To distinguish the two different forms, mpirun looks on the command
line for --app option. If it is specified, then the file named on the
command line is assumed to be an application context. If it is not
specified, then the file is assumed to be an executable program.
Locating Files
If no relative or absolute path is specified for a file, Open MPI will
look for files by searching the directories in the user's PATH environ-
ment variable as defined on the source node(s).
If a relative directory is specified, it must be relative to the ini-
tial working directory determined by the specific starter used. For
ries on specific nodes and/or for specific applications.
If the -wdir option appears both in a context file and on the command
line, the context file directory will override the command line value.
If the -wdir option is specified, Open MPI will attempt to change to
the specified directory on all of the remote nodes. If this fails,
mpirun will abort.
If the -wdir option is not specified, Open MPI will send the directory
name where mpirun was invoked to each of the remote nodes. The remote
nodes will try to change to that directory. If they are unable (e.g.,
if the directory does not exit on that node), then Open MPI will use
the default directory determined by the starter.
All directory changing occurs before the user's program is invoked; it
does not wait until MPI_INIT is called.
Standard I/O
Open MPI directs UNIX standard input to /dev/null on all processes
except the MPI_COMM_WORLD rank 0 process. The MPI_COMM_WORLD rank 0
process inherits standard input from mpirun. Note: The node that
invoked mpirun need not be the same as the node where the
MPI_COMM_WORLD rank 0 process resides. Open MPI handles the redirection
of mpirun's standard input to the rank 0 process.
Open MPI directs UNIX standard output and error from remote nodes to
the node that invoked mpirun and prints it on the standard output/error
of mpirun. Local processes inherit the standard output/error of mpirun
and transfer to it directly.
Thus it is possible to redirect standard I/O for Open MPI applications
by using the typical shell redirection procedure on mpirun.
shell$ mpirun -np 2 my_app < my_input > my_output
Note that in this example only the MPI_COMM_WORLD rank 0 process will
receive the stream from my_input on stdin. The stdin on all the other
nodes will be tied to /dev/null. However, the stdout from all nodes
will be collected into the my_output file.
Signal Propagation
When orterun receives a SIGTERM and SIGINT, it will attempt to kill the
entire job by sending all processes in the job a SIGTERM, waiting a
small number of seconds, then sending all processes in the job a
SIGKILL. SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2 signals received by orterun are propa-
gated to all processes in the job. Other signals are not currently
propagated by orterun.
Process Termination / Signal Handling
During the run of an MPI application, if any rank dies abnormally
(either exiting before invoking MPI_FINALIZE, or dying as the result of
a signal), mpirun will print out an error message and kill the rest of
the MPI application.
User signal handlers should probably avoid trying to cleanup MPI state
(Open MPI is, currently, neither thread-safe nor async-signal-safe).
For example, if a segmentation fault occurs in MPI_SEND (perhaps
Processes in the MPI application inherit their environment from the
Open RTE daemon upon the node on which they are running. The environ-
ment is typically inherited from the user's shell. On remote nodes,
the exact environment is determined by the boot MCA module used. The
rsh launch module, for example, uses either rsh/ssh to launch the Open
RTE daemon on remote nodes, and typically executes one or more of the
user's shell-setup files before launching the Open RTE daemon. When
running dynamically linked applications which require the
LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to be set, care must be taken to
ensure that it is correctly set when booting Open MPI.
See the "Remote Execution" section for more details.
Remote Execution
Open MPI requires that the PATH environment variable be set to find
executables on remote nodes (this is typically only necessary in rsh-
or ssh-based environments -- batch/scheduled environments typically
copy the current environment to the execution of remote jobs, so if the
current environment has PATH and/or LD_LIBRARY_PATH set properly, the
remote nodes will also have it set properly). If Open MPI was compiled
with shared library support, it may also be necessary to have the
LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable set on remote nodes as well (espe-
cially to find the shared libraries required to run user MPI applica-
tions).
However, it is not always desirable or possible to edit shell startup
files to set PATH and/or LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The --prefix option is pro-
vided for some simple configurations where this is not possible.
The --prefix option takes a single argument: the base directory on the
remote node where Open MPI is installed. Open MPI will use this direc-
tory to set the remote PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH before executing any
Open MPI or user applications. This allows running Open MPI jobs with-
out having pre-configued the PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH on the remote
nodes.
Open MPI adds the basename of the current node's "bindir" (the direc-
tory where Open MPI's executables are installed) to the prefix and uses
that to set the PATH on the remote node. Similarly, Open MPI adds the
basename of the current node's "libdir" (the directory where Open MPI's
libraries are installed) to the prefix and uses that to set the
LD_LIBRARY_PATH on the remote node. For example:
Local bindir: /local/node/directory/bin
Local libdir: /local/node/directory/lib64
If the following command line is used:
shell$ mpirun --prefix /remote/node/directory
Open MPI will add "/remote/node/directory/bin" to the PATH and
"/remote/node/directory/lib64" to the D_LIBRARY_PATH on the remote node
before attempting to execute anything.
Note that --prefix can be set on a per-context basis, allowing for dif-
ferent values for different nodes.
name to mpirun. For example:
shell$ /usr/local/bin/mpirun ...
is equivalent to
shell$ mpirun --prefix /usr/local
Exported Environment Variables
All environment variables that are named in the form OMPI_* will auto-
matically be exported to new processes on the local and remote nodes.
The -x option to mpirun can be used to export specific environment
variables to the new processes. While the syntax of the -x option
allows the definition of new variables, note that the parser for this
option is currently not very sophisticated - it does not even under-
stand quoted values. Users are advised to set variables in the envi-
ronment and use -x to export them; not to define them.
MCA (Modular Component Architecture)
The -mca switch allows the passing of parameters to various MCA mod-
ules. MCA modules have direct impact on MPI programs because they
allow tunable parameters to be set at run time (such as which BTL com-
munication device driver to use, what parameters to pass to that BTL,
etc.).
The -mca switch takes two arguments: <key> and <value>. The <key>
argument generally specifies which MCA module will receive the value.
For example, the <key> "btl" is used to select which BTL to be used for
transporting MPI messages. The <value> argument is the value that is
passed. For example:
mpirun -mca btl tcp,self -np 1 foo
Tells Open MPI to use the "tcp" and "self" BTLs, and to run a sin-
gle copy of "foo" an allocated node.
mpirun -mca btl self -np 1 foo
Tells Open MPI to use the "self" BTL, and to run a single copy of
"foo" an allocated node.
The -mca switch can be used multiple times to specify different <key>
and/or <value> arguments. If the same <key> is specified more than
once, the <value>s are concatenated with a comma (",") separating them.
Note: The -mca switch is simply a shortcut for setting environment
variables. The same effect may be accomplished by setting correspond-
ing environment variables before running mpirun. The form of the envi-
ronment variables that Open MPI sets are:
OMPI_<key>=<value>
Note that the -mca switch overrides any previously set environment
variables. Also note that unknown <key> arguments are still set as
environment variable -- they are not checked (by mpirun) for correct-
ness. Illegal or incorrect <value> arguments may or may not be
reported -- it depends on the specific MCA module.
EXAMPLES
Be sure to also see the examples in the "Location Nomenclature" sec-
mpirun -np 4 -mca btl ib,tcp,self prog1
Run 4 copies of prog1 using the "ib", "tcp", and "self" BTL's for
the transport of MPI messages.
RETURN VALUE
mpirun returns 0 if all ranks started by mpirun exit after calling
MPI_FINALIZE. A non-zero value is returned if an internal error
occurred in mpirun, or one or more ranks exited before calling
MPI_FINALIZE. If an internal error occurred in mpirun, the correspond-
ing error code is returned. In the event that one or more ranks exit
before calling MPI_FINALIZE, the return value of the rank of the
process that mpirun first notices died before calling MPI_FINALIZE will
be returned. Note that, in general, this will be the first rank that
died but is not guaranteed to be so.
However, note that if the -nw switch is used, the return value from
mpirun does not indicate the exit status of the ranks.
Open MPI March 2006 MPIRUN(1)
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