diff --git a/README b/README index e235a9ffae..0ed4b986a4 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -12,24 +12,8 @@ Additional copyrights may follow $HEADER$ -The Open MPI development team is pleased to announce an beta-quality -release of the current state of our software to the public. The -software is "mostly stable", but is definitely rough around the edges --- it is not complete and not completely debugged. Our intent with -this release is to get the Open MPI software onto other people's -machines and see what creative ways you can come up with to break it, -and to send us your comments and suggestions. - -However, we want to stress the following point: this is an *beta* -quality release. We're quite aware that there are several things -still broken (but report them anyway!). - -Also note that many performance enhancements were applied to the Open -MPI code repository *after* we forked for this beta release (in -mid-May, 2005). To get the most recent advancements, you'll need to -get a checkout of the current code base (keeping in mind that that is -the head of development, and is not always stable!). See -http://www.open-mpi.org/svn/ for details. +This is a preliminary README file. It will be scrubbed formally +before release. The best way to report bugs, send comments, or ask questions is to sign up on the user's and/or developer's mailing list (for user-level @@ -52,22 +36,14 @@ Thanks for your time. =========================================================================== -This tarball is a beta release of Open MPI, representing the head of -development as of mid-May 2005. It is not yet complete. - -- All MPI point-to-point transports were extensively tuned for - performance after branching for this beta. As result, some - point-to-point transports in this beta do not perform well, - especially for large messages (e.g,. shared memory). +The following abbreviated list of release notes applies to this code +base as of this writing (8 Aug 2005): - The Open MPI installation must be in your PATH on all nodes (and potentially LD_LIBRARY_PATH, if libmpi is a shared library). - LAM/MPI-like mpirun notation of "C" and "N" is not yet supported. -- Support for Quadrics and Infiniband (both mVAPI and OpenIB) is - missing (see the current code base). - - Shared memory support will not function properly on machines that have a weak memory consistency mode. The default in this beta is to disable shared memory support on all Power PC architectures, even @@ -136,18 +112,30 @@ shell$ ./configure [...options...] shell$ make all install --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -There are many available configure options; a summary of the more -important ones follows: +There are many available configure options (see "./configure --help" +for a full list); a summary of the more important ones follows: --prefix= Install Open MPI into the base directory named . Hence, Open MPI will place its executables in /bin, its header files in /include, its libraries in /lib, etc. ---with-ptl-gm= +--with-btl-gm= Specify the directory where the GM libraries and header files are located. This enables GM support in Open MPI. +--with-btl-mx= + Specify the directory where the MX libraries and header files are + located. This enables MX support in Open MPI. + +--with-btl-mvapi= + Specify the directory where the mVAPI libraries and header files are + located. This enables mVAPI support in Open MPI. + +--with-btl-openib= + Specify the directory where the Open IB libraries and header files are + located. This enables mVAPI support in Open MPI. + --with-mpi-param_check(=value) "value" can be one of: always, never, runtime. If no value is specified, or this option is not used, "always" is the default. @@ -185,16 +173,6 @@ important ones follows: Build libmpi as a static library, and statically link in all components. ---enable-ptl-sm - This beta does not support shared memory on platforms with weak - memory consistency models. As such, the default in this beta is to - disable shared memory support for all Power PC platforms. However, - some Power PC platforms have strong memory consistency models (e.g., - G4 and POWER3). On these platforms, shared memory support can be - enabled with the --enable-ptl-sm flag. It is strongly discouraged - to enable shared memory support on other Power PC platforms (e.g., - G5, POWER4). - There are other options available -- see "./configure --help". Open MPI supports all the "make" targets that are provided by GNU @@ -335,7 +313,7 @@ MPI component frameworks: coll - MPI collective algorithms io - MPI-2 I/O pml - MPI point-to-point management layer -ptl - MPI point-to-point transport layer +btl - MPI point-to-point byte transfer layer topo - MPI topology routines Back-end run-time environment component frameworks: @@ -371,9 +349,9 @@ Each component typically has some tunable parameters that can be changed at run-time. Use the ompi_info command to check a component to see what its tunable parameters are. For example: -shell$ ompi_info --param ptl tcp +shell$ ompi_info --param btl tcp -shows all the parameters (and default values) for the tcp ptl +shows all the parameters (and default values) for the tcp btl component. These values can be overridden at run-time in several ways. At @@ -397,17 +375,17 @@ values of parameters: Where is the name of the parameter. For example, set the - variable named OMPI_MCA_ptl_tcp_frag_size to the value 65536 + variable named OMPI_MCA_btl_tcp_frag_size to the value 65536 (Bourne-style shells): - shell$ OMPI_MCA_ptl_tcp_frag_size=65536 - shell$ export OMPI_MCA_ptl_tcp_frag_size + shell$ OMPI_MCA_btl_tcp_frag_size=65536 + shell$ export OMPI_MCA_btl_tcp_frag_size 4. the mpirun command line: --mca Where is the name of the parameter. For example: - shell$ mpirun --mca ptl_tcp_frag_size 65536 -np 2 hello_world_mpi + shell$ mpirun --mca btl_tcp_frag_size 65536 -np 2 hello_world_mpi These locations are checked in order. For example, a parameter value passed on the mpirun command line will override an environment @@ -429,6 +407,20 @@ Common Questions shell$ mpirun --mca pls_rsh_agent rsh -np 4 a.out +2. When I run "make", it looks very much like the build system is + going into a loop, and I see messages similar to: + + Warning: File `Makefile.am' has modification time 3.6e+04 s in + the future + + Open MPI uses an Automake-based build system, and is therefore + highly dependent upon filesystem timestamps. If building on a + networked file system, you *must* ensure that the time of the + machine that you are building on is tightly synchronized with the + time on your network fileserver (e.g., using ntp). If this is not + possible, you will need to build Open MPI on a non-networked + filesystem. + ...we'll add more questions here as they are asked by real users. ===========================================================================