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MPI_Comm_split(3OpenMPI)                                                            MPI_Comm_split(3OpenMPI)



NAME
       MPI_Comm_split  - Creates new communicators based on colors and keys.


SYNTAX
C Syntax
       #include <mpi.h>
       int MPI_Comm_split(MPI_Comm comm, int color, int key,
            MPI_Comm *newcomm)


Fortran Syntax
       INCLUDE 'mpif.h'
       MPI_COMM_SPLIT(COMM, COLOR, KEY, NEWCOMM, IERROR)
            INTEGER   COMM, COLOR, KEY, NEWCOMM, IERROR


C++ Syntax
       #include <mpi.h>
       MPI::Intercomm MPI::Intercomm::Split(int color, int key) const

       MPI::Intracomm MPI::Intracomm::Split(int color, int key) const


INPUT PARAMETERS
       comm      Communicator (handle).

       color     Control of subset assignment (nonnegative integer).

       key       Control of rank assigment (integer).


OUTPUT PARAMETERS
       newcomm   New communicator (handle).

       IERROR    Fortran only: Error status (integer).


DESCRIPTION
       This  function  partitions the group associated with comm into disjoint subgroups, one for each value
       of color. Each subgroup contains all processes of the same color. Within each subgroup, the processes
       are ranked in the order defined by the value of the argument key, with ties broken according to their
       rank in the old group. A new communicator is created for each subgroup and  returned  in  newcomm.  A
       process  may  supply the color value MPI_UNDEFINED, in which case newcomm returns MPI_COMM_NULL. This
       is a collective call, but each process is permitted to provide different values for color and key.

       When you call MPI_Comm_split on an inter-communicator, the processes on the left with the same  color
       as  those  on  the  right combine to create a new inter-communicator.  The key argument describes the
       relative  rank  of  processes  on  each  side  of  the  inter-communicator.   The  function   returns
       MPI_COMM_NULL for  those colors that are specified on only one side of the inter-communicator, or for
       those that specify MPI_UNEDEFINED as the color.

       A call to MPI_Comm_create(comm, group, newcomm) is  equivalent  to  a  call  to  MPI_Comm_split(comm,
       color,  key,  newcomm), where all members of group provide color = 0 and key = rank in group, and all
       processes that are not members of group provide color = MPI_UNDEFINED.  The  function  MPI_Comm_split
       allows more general partitioning of a group into one or more subgroups with optional reordering.

       The value of color must be nonnegative or MPI_UNDEFINED.


NOTES
       This is an extremely powerful mechanism for dividing a single communicating group of processes into k
       subgroups, with k chosen implicitly by the user (by the number of colors asserted over all  the  pro-cesses). processes).
       cesses).  Each  resulting  communicator  will  be nonoverlapping. Such a division could be useful for
       defining a hierarchy of computations, such as for multigrid or linear algebra.

       Multiple calls to MPI_Comm_split can be used to overcome the requirement that any call have no  over-lap overlap
       lap  of the resulting communicators (each process is of only one color per call). In this way, multi-ple multiple
       ple overlapping communication structures can be created. Creative use of the color and  key  in  such
       splitting operations is encouraged.

       Note  that,  for a fixed color, the keys need not be unique. It is MPI_Comm_split's responsibility to
       sort processes in ascending order according to this key, and to break ties in a  consistent  way.  If
       all  the  keys  are  specified in the same way, then all the processes in a given color will have the
       relative rank order as they did in their parent group. (In general, they will have different  ranks.)

       Essentially,  making  the  key  value  zero for all processes of a given color means that one needn't
       really pay attention to the rank-order of the processes in the new communicator.


ERRORS
       Almost all MPI routines return an error value; C routines as the value of the  function  and  Fortran
       routines  in  the  last argument. C++ functions do not return errors. If the default error handler is
       set to MPI::ERRORS_THROW_EXCEPTIONS, then on error the C++ exception mechanism will be used to  throw
       an MPI:Exception object.

       Before  the  error value is returned, the current MPI error handler is called. By default, this error
       handler aborts the MPI job, except for I/O function errors. The error handler  may  be  changed  with
       MPI_Comm_set_errhandler;  the  predefined  error handler MPI_ERRORS_RETURN may be used to cause error
       values to be returned. Note that MPI does not guarantee that an MPI  program  can  continue  past  an
       error.


SEE ALSO
       MPI_Comm_create
       MPI_Intercomm_create
       MPI_Comm_dup
       MPI_Comm_free





Open MPI 1.2                                   September 2006                       MPI_Comm_split(3OpenMPI)

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