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</style><div class="section" id="unusual-jobs">
<h1><span class="section-number">10.11. </span>Unusual jobs<a class="headerlink" href="#unusual-jobs" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h1>
<p>Open MPI can run many types of applications, including non-MPI programs.
This section describes some of the less common kinds of programs that can
be executed.</p>
<div class="section" id="running-non-mpi-programs-with-mpirun-1">
<h2><span class="section-number">10.11.1. </span>Running non-MPI programs with <a class="reference internal" href="../man-openmpi/man1/mpirun.1.html#man1-mpirun"><span class="std std-ref">mpirun(1)</span></a><a class="headerlink" href="#running-non-mpi-programs-with-mpirun-1" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>Non-MPI programs can be launched with <a class="reference internal" href="../man-openmpi/man1/mpirun.1.html#man1-mpirun"><span class="std std-ref">mpirun(1)</span></a>,
for example:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>shell$ mpirun -n 2 --host a,b uptime
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This will launch a copy of the Unix command <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">uptime</span></code> on the hosts <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">a</span></code>
and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">b</span></code>.</p>
<p><a class="reference internal" href="../man-openmpi/man1/mpirun.1.html#man1-mpirun"><span class="std std-ref">mpirun(1)</span></a> works equally well for MPI and non-MPI
applications.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="running-gui-applications">
<h2><span class="section-number">10.11.2. </span>Running GUI applications<a class="headerlink" href="#running-gui-applications" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>Running GUI applications depends on your local setup and may require additional
setup.</p>
<p>You will need to have graphics forwarding (e.g., X11
forwarding) enabled from the remote processes to the display where you
want output to appear. In a secure environment, you can simply allow
all X requests to be shown on the target display and set the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DISPLAY</span></code> environment variable in all MPI processes’ environments to
the target display, perhaps something like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>shell$ hostname
my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com
shell$ xhost +
shell$ mpirun -n 4 -x DISPLAY=my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com a.out
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>However, this technique is not generally suitable for unsecure
environments (because it allows anyone to read and write to your
display). A slightly more secure way is to only allow X connections
from the nodes where your application will be running:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>shell$ hostname
my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com
shell$ xhost +compute1 +compute2 +compute3 +compute4
compute1 being added to access control list
compute2 being added to access control list
compute3 being added to access control list
compute4 being added to access control list
shell$ mpirun -n 4 -x DISPLAY=my_desktop.secure-cluster.example.com a.out
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>(assuming that the four nodes you are running on are <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compute1</span></code>
through <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compute4</span></code>).</p>
<p>Other methods are available, but they involve sophisticated X
forwarding through <a class="reference internal" href="../man-openmpi/man1/mpirun.1.html#man1-mpirun"><span class="std std-ref">mpirun(1)</span></a> and are generally
more complicated than desirable.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="running-curses-based-applications">
<h2><span class="section-number">10.11.3. </span>Running curses-based applications<a class="headerlink" href="#running-curses-based-applications" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>Open MPI provides fairly sophisticated stdin / stdout / stderr
forwarding. However, it does not work well with curses, ncurses,
readline, or other sophisticated I/O packages that generally require
direct control of the terminal.</p>
<p>Every application and I/O library is different — you should try to
see if yours is supported. But chances are that it won’t work.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="launching-an-mpmd-mpi-job">
<h2><span class="section-number">10.11.4. </span>Launching an MPMD MPI job<a class="headerlink" href="#launching-an-mpmd-mpi-job" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>Open MPI supports multiple program, multiple data (MPMD) style launches,
either from the command line or from a file. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>shell$ mpirun -n 2 a.out : -n 2 b.out
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This will launch a single parallel application, but the first two
processes will be instances of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">a.out</span></code> executable, and the
second two processes will be instances of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">b.out</span></code> executable.
In MPI terms, this will be a single <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MPI_COMM_WORLD</span></code>, but the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">a.out</span></code> processes will be ranks 0 and 1 in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MPI_COMM_WORLD</span></code>, while
the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">b.out</span></code> processes will be ranks 2 and 3 in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MPI_COMM_WORLD</span></code>.</p>
<p><a class="reference internal" href="../man-openmpi/man1/mpirun.1.html#man1-mpirun"><span class="std std-ref">mpirun(1)</span></a> can also accept a parallel application
specified in a file instead of on the command line. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>shell$ mpirun --app my_appfile
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>where the file <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">my_appfile</span></code> contains the following:</p>
<div class="highlight-sh notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># Comments are supported; comments begin with #</span>
<span class="c1"># Application context files specify each sub-application in the</span>
<span class="c1"># parallel job, one per line. The first sub-application is the 2</span>
<span class="c1"># a.out processes:</span>
-n<span class="w"> </span><span class="m">2</span><span class="w"> </span>a.out
<span class="c1"># The second sub-application is the 2 b.out processes:</span>
-n<span class="w"> </span><span class="m">2</span><span class="w"> </span>b.out
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This will result in the same behavior as running <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">a.out</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">b.out</span></code>
from the command line.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="connecting-independent-mpi-applications">
<h2><span class="section-number">10.11.5. </span>Connecting independent MPI applications<a class="headerlink" href="#connecting-independent-mpi-applications" title="Permalink to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>In certain environments, Open MPI supports connecting multiple,
independent MPI applications using mechanism defined in the MPI
specification such as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MPI_Comm_connect()</span> <span class="pre">/</span> <span class="pre">MPI_Comm_accept()</span></code> and
publishing connection information using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MPI_Publish_name()</span> <span class="pre">/</span>
<span class="pre">MPI_Lookup_name()</span></code>. These mechanisms require a centralized service
to exchange contact information across multiple jobs.</p>
<p>Beginning with Open MPI v5.0.0 this can be achieved by starting an
instance of the prte server with the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">report-uri</span></code> option to
display the contact information of the prte server. This information
can then be used for launching subsequent MPI applications.</p>
<p>The following commands show an example for launching two MPI jobs
that will connect to each other at runtime using the MPI-2 based
functionality.</p>
<p>Step 1: start the standalone prte server</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>user@myhost:~/ompi-install/bin$ ./prte --report-uri <filename>
DVM ready
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Step 2: Launch the first MPI application providing the uri of the
prte server</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>user@myhost:~/app1-dir$ mpiexec --dvm file:<filename> -np 4 ./mpi_app_1
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Step 3: Launch the second MPI application providing the uri of the
prte server again</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>user@myhost:~/app2-dir$ mpiexec --dvm file:<filename> -np 4 ./mpi_app_2
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In case the prte server has been started as a system server using the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--system-server</span></code> argument (e.g. the nodes used by the MPI
applications are not shared by multiple jobs), the sequence can be
simplified by using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mpiexec</span> <span class="pre">--dvm</span> <span class="pre">system</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mpiexec</span> <span class="pre">--dvm</span>
<span class="pre">system-first</span></code> instead of the uri of the prte server.</p>
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