DeinoMPI

The Great and Terrible implementation of MPI-2

function index

MPI_Bcast

Broadcasts a message from the process with rank "root" to all other processes of the communicator
int MPI_Bcast(
  void *buffer,
  int count,
  MPI_Datatype datatype,
  int root,
  MPI_Comm comm
);

Parameters

buffer
[in/out] starting address of buffer (choice)
count
[in] number of entries in buffer (integer)
datatype
[in] data type of buffer (handle)
root
[in] rank of broadcast root (integer)
comm
[in] communicator (handle)

Remarks

MPI_BCAST broadcasts a message from the process with rank root to all processes of the group, itself included. It is called by all members of group using the same arguments for comm, root. On return, the contents of root's communication buffer has been copied to all processes.

General, derived datatypes are allowed for datatype. The type signature of count, datatype on any process must be equal to the type signature of count, datatype at the root. This implies that the amount of data sent must be equal to the amount received, pairwise between each process and the root. MPI_BCAST and all other data-movement collective routines make this restriction. Distinct type maps between sender and receiver are still allowed.

The "in place" option is not meaningful here.

If comm is an intercommunicator, then the call involves all processes in the intercommunicator, but with one group (group A) defining the root process. All processes in the other group (group B) pass the same value in argument root, which is the rank of the root in group A. The root passes the value MPI_ROOT in root. All other processes in group A pass the value MPI_PROC_NULL in root. Data is broadcast from the root to all processes in group B. The receive buffer arguments of the processes in group B must be consistent with the send buffer argument of the root.

Thread and Interrupt Safety

This routine is thread-safe. This means that this routine may be safely used by multiple threads without the need for any user-provided thread locks. However, the routine is not interrupt safe. Typically, this is due to the use of memory allocation routines such as malloc or other non-MPICH runtime routines that are themselves not interrupt-safe.

Notes for Fortran

All MPI routines in Fortran (except for MPI_WTIME and MPI_WTICK) have an additional argument ierr at the end of the argument list. ierr is an integer and has the same meaning as the return value of the routine in C. In Fortran, MPI routines are subroutines, and are invoked with the call statement.

All MPI objects (e.g., MPI_Datatype, MPI_Comm) are of type INTEGER in Fortran.

Errors

All MPI routines (except MPI_Wtime and MPI_Wtick) return an error value; C routines as the value of the function and Fortran routines in the last argument. Before the value is returned, the current MPI error handler is called. By default, this error handler aborts the MPI job. The error handler may be changed with MPI_Comm_set_errhandler (for communicators), MPI_File_set_errhandler (for files), and MPI_Win_set_errhandler (for RMA windows). The MPI-1 routine MPI_Errhandler_set may be used but its use is deprecated. The predefined error handler MPI_ERRORS_RETURN may be used to cause error values to be returned. Note that MPI does not guarentee that an MPI program can continue past an error; however, MPI implementations will attempt to continue whenever possible.

MPI_SUCCESS
No error; MPI routine completed successfully.
MPI_ERR_COMM
Invalid communicator. A common error is to use a null communicator in a call (not even allowed in MPI_Comm_rank).
MPI_ERR_COUNT
Invalid count argument. Count arguments must be non-negative; a count of zero is often valid.
MPI_ERR_TYPE
Invalid datatype argument. May be an uncommitted MPI_Datatype (see MPI_Type_commit).
MPI_ERR_BUFFER
Invalid buffer pointer. Usually a null buffer where one is not valid.
MPI_ERR_ROOT
Invalid root. The root must be specified as a rank in the communicator. Ranks must be between zero and the size of the communicator minus one.

Example Code

The following sample code illustrates MPI_Bcast.

#include "mpi.h"
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define ROOT 0
#define NUM_REPS 5
#define NUM_SIZES 3

int main( int argc, char **argv)
{
   
int *buf;
   
int i, rank, reps, n;
   
int bVerify = 1;
   
int sizes[NUM_SIZES] = { 100, 64*1024, 128*1024 };
   
int num_errors=0, tot_errors;

    MPI_Init(&argc, &argv);
    MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &rank);
   
if (argc > 1)
    {
       
if (strcmp(argv[1], "-novalidate") == 0 || strcmp(argv[1], "-noverify") == 0)
            bVerify = 0;
    }
    buf = (
int *) malloc(sizes[NUM_SIZES-1]*sizeof(int));
    memset(buf, 0, sizes[NUM_SIZES-1]*
sizeof(int));
   
for (n=0; n<NUM_SIZES; n++)
    {
       
if (rank == ROOT)
        {
            printf("bcasting %d MPI_INTs %d times\n", sizes[n], NUM_REPS);
            fflush(stdout);
        }
       
for (reps=0; reps < NUM_REPS; reps++)
        {
           
if (bVerify)
            {
               
if (rank == ROOT)
                {
                   
for (i=0; i<sizes[n]; i++)
                    {
                        buf[i] = 1000000 * (n * NUM_REPS + reps) + i;
                    }
                }
               
else
               
{
                   
for (i=0; i<sizes[n]; i++)
                    {
                        buf[i] = -1 - (n * NUM_REPS + reps);
                    }
                }
            }
            MPI_Bcast(buf, sizes[n], MPI_INT, ROOT, MPI_COMM_WORLD);
           
if (bVerify)
            {
                num_errors = 0;
               
for (i=0; i<sizes[n]; i++)
                {
                   
if (buf[i] != 1000000 * (n * NUM_REPS + reps) + i)
                    {
                        num_errors++;
                       
if (num_errors < 10)
                        {
                            printf("Error: Rank=%d, n=%d, reps=%d, i=%d, buf[i]=%d expected=%d\n", rank, n, reps, i, buf[i],
                                    1000000 * (n * NUM_REPS + reps) +i);
                            fflush(stdout);
                        }
                    }
                }
               
if (num_errors >= 10)
                {
                    printf("Error: Rank=%d, num_errors = %d\n", rank, num_errors);
                    fflush(stdout);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    MPI_Reduce( &num_errors, &tot_errors, 1, MPI_INT, MPI_SUM, 0, MPI_COMM_WORLD );
   
if (rank == 0 && tot_errors == 0)
        printf(" No Errors\n");
    fflush(stdout);
    free(buf);
    MPI_Finalize();
   
return 0;
}