17.2.333. MPI_Start

MPI_Start — Initiates a communication using a persistent request handle.

17.2.333.1. SYNTAX

17.2.333.1.1. C Syntax

#include <mpi.h>

int MPI_Start(MPI_Request *request)

17.2.333.1.2. Fortran Syntax

USE MPI
! or the older form: INCLUDE 'mpif.h'
MPI_START(REQUEST, IERROR)
     INTEGER REQUEST, IERROR

17.2.333.1.3. Fortran 2008 Syntax

USE mpi_f08
MPI_Start(request, ierror)
     TYPE(MPI_Request), INTENT(INOUT) :: request
     INTEGER, OPTIONAL, INTENT(OUT) :: ierror

17.2.333.2. INPUT PARAMETER

  • request: Communication request (handle).

17.2.333.3. OUTPUT PARAMETER

  • ierror: Fortran only: Error status (integer).

17.2.333.4. DESCRIPTION

A communication (send or receive) that uses a persistent request is initiated by the function MPI_Start.

The argument, request, is a handle returned by one of the persistent communication-request initialization functions (MPI_Send_init, MPI_Bsend_init, MPI_Ssend_init, MPI_Rsend_init, MPI_Recv_init). The associated request should be inactive and becomes active once the call is made.

If the request is for a send with ready mode, then a matching receive should be posted before the call is made. From the time the call is made until after the operation completes, the communication buffer should not be accessed.

The call is local, with semantics similar to the nonblocking communication operations (see Section 3.7 in the MPI Standard, “Nonblocking Communication.”) That is, a call to MPI_Start with a request created by MPI_Send_init starts a communication in the same manner as a call to MPI_Isend; a call to MPI_Start with a request created by MPI_Bsend_init starts a communication in the same manner as a call to MPI_Ibsend; and so on.

17.2.333.5. ERRORS

Almost all MPI routines return an error value; C routines as the return result of the function and Fortran routines in the last argument.

Before the error value is returned, the current MPI error handler associated with the communication object (e.g., communicator, window, file) is called. If no communication object is associated with the MPI call, then the call is considered attached to MPI_COMM_SELF and will call the associated MPI error handler. When MPI_COMM_SELF is not initialized (i.e., before MPI_Init/MPI_Init_thread, after MPI_Finalize, or when using the Sessions Model exclusively) the error raises the initial error handler. The initial error handler can be changed by calling MPI_Comm_set_errhandler on MPI_COMM_SELF when using the World model, or the mpi_initial_errhandler CLI argument to mpiexec or info key to MPI_Comm_spawn/MPI_Comm_spawn_multiple. If no other appropriate error handler has been set, then the MPI_ERRORS_RETURN error handler is called for MPI I/O functions and the MPI_ERRORS_ABORT error handler is called for all other MPI functions.

Open MPI includes three predefined error handlers that can be used:

  • MPI_ERRORS_ARE_FATAL Causes the program to abort all connected MPI processes.

  • MPI_ERRORS_ABORT An error handler that can be invoked on a communicator, window, file, or session. When called on a communicator, it acts as if MPI_Abort was called on that communicator. If called on a window or file, acts as if MPI_Abort was called on a communicator containing the group of processes in the corresponding window or file. If called on a session, aborts only the local process.

  • MPI_ERRORS_RETURN Returns an error code to the application.

MPI applications can also implement their own error handlers by calling:

Note that MPI does not guarantee that an MPI program can continue past an error.

See the MPI man page for a full list of MPI error codes.

See the Error Handling section of the MPI-3.1 standard for more information.

See also