int MPI_Win_create(
  void *base,
  MPI_Aint size,
  int disp_unit,
  MPI_Info info,
  MPI_Comm comm,
  MPI_Win *win
);

Parameters

base

[in] initial address of window (choice)

size

[in] size of window in bytes (nonnegative integer)

disp_unit

[in] local unit size for displacements, in bytes (positive integer)

info

[in] info argument (handle)

comm

[in] communicator (handle)

win

[out] window object returned by the call (handle)

Remarks

The initialization operation allows each process in an intracommunicator group to specify, in a collective operation, a "window" in its memory that is made accessible to accesses by remote processes. The call returns an opaque object that represents the group of processes that own and access the set of windows, and the attributes of each window, as specified by the initialization call.

This is a collective call executed by all processes in the group of comm. It returns a window object that can be used by these processes to perform RMA operations. Each process specifies a window of existing memory that it exposes to RMA accesses by the processes in the group of comm. The window consists of size bytes, starting at address base. A process may elect to expose no memory by specifying size = 0.

The displacement unit argument is provided to facilitate address arithmetic in RMA operations: the target displacement argument of an RMA operation is scaled by the factor disp_unit specified by the target process, at window creation.

Rationale.

The window size is specified using an address sized integer, so as to allow windows that span more than 4 GB of address space. (Even if the physical memory size is less than 4 GB, the address range may be larger than 4 GB, if addresses are not contiguous.)

Advice to users.

Common choices for disp_unit are 1 (no scaling), and (in C syntax) sizeof(type), for a window that consists of an array of elements of type type. The later choice will allow one to use array indices in RMA calls, and have those scaled correctly to byte displacements, even in a heterogeneous environment. ( End of advice to users.)
The info argument provides optimization hints to the runtime about the expected usage pattern of the window. The following info key is predefined:

 

no_locks --- if set to true, then the implementation may assume that the local window is never locked (by a call to MPI_WIN_LOCK). This implies that this window is not used for 3-party communication, and RMA can be implemented with no (less) asynchronous agent activity at this process.

Advice to users.

A window can be created in any part of the process memory. However, on some systems, the performance of windows in memory allocated by MPI_ALLOC_MEM will be better. Also, on some systems, performance is improved when window boundaries are aligned at "natural" boundaries (word, double-word, cache line, page frame, etc.).

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 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_INFO

Invalid Info

MPI_ERR_OTHER

Other error; use MPI_Error_string to get more information about this error code.

Example Code

The following sample code illustrates MPI_Win_create.