Thank you all! Regarding the posted Recv, I am aware that neither send nor buffered send tell the sender if it is posted. Regarding the distinction between blocking and unblocking calls in general, everything is clear as well.
On the other hand, a slight confusion when Buffered send is concerned remains: In my understanding, MPI_SEND (standard, blocking) does not return until the send operation it invoked has completed. Completion can mean the message was copied into an MPI internal buffer, or it can mean the sending and receiving processes synchronized on the message. So, if we decide to use buffered send (Bsend, so blocking), and we say "I want to allocate a large enough buffer, I want my data to be copied into the buffer then, because I do not want anyone else to decide if I am going to syncronize completely my sends and receives on the message - I know what I'm doing :-)!" then as soon as the data is copied to the buffer, the call returns and the buffer can be reused. Is the difference in comparison to Ibsend that with Ibsend the data doesn't even have to be copied to the buffer when the call returns, or something like that? Because otherwise, I still do not see the difference: data copied into buffer-> call returns! Why wouldn't I reuse my message-buffer then?! Sorry for bothering you so much, but for the type of applications I am involved in this is very important issue, thus, it is crucial that this becomes completely clear to me. Thank you again! Cheers, Jovana > An MPI send (of any kind), is defined by "local completion semantics". > When a send is complete, the send buffer may be reused. The only kind of > send that gives any indication whether the receive is posted is the > synchronous send. Neither standard send nor buffered send tell the sender > if the recv was posted. > > The difference between blocking and nonblocking is that a return from a > blocking send call indicates the send buffer may be reused. A return from a > nonblocking send does not allow the send buffer tpo be reused (but other > things can be done). The send buffer becomes available to reuse after a > wait or successful test. > > Dick Treumann - MPI Team > IBM Systems & Technology Group > Dept X2ZA / MS P963 -- 2455 South Road -- Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 > Tele (845) 433-7846 Fax (845) 433-8363 > > > > |------------> > | From: | > |------------> > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |Bill Rankin <bill.ran...@sas.com> > | > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |------------> > | To: | > |------------> > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |Open MPI Users <us...@open-mpi.org> > | > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |------------> > | Date: | > |------------> > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |05/06/2010 10:35 AM > | > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |------------> > | Subject: | > |------------> > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |Re: [OMPI users] MPI_Bsend vs. MPI_Ibsend > | > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |------------> > | Sent by: | > |------------> > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > |users-boun...@open-mpi.org > | > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| > > > > > > Actually the 'B' in MPI_Bsend() specifies that it is a blocking *buffered* > send. So if I remember my standards correctly, this call requires: > > 1) you will have to explicitly manage the send buffers via > MPI_Buffer_[attach|detach](), and > > 2) the send will block until a corresponding receive is posted. > > The MPI_Ibsend() is the immediate version of the above and will return w/o > the requirement for the corresponding received. Since it is a buffered > send the local data copy should be completed before it returns, allowing > you to change the contents of the local data buffer. But there is no > guaranty that the message has been send, so you should not reuse the send > buffer until after verifying the completion of the send via MPI_Wait() or > similar. > > In your example, since MPI_Test() won't block, you can have a problem. Use > MPI_Wait() instead or change your send buffer to one that is not being > used. > > -bill > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: users-boun...@open-mpi.org [mailto:users-boun...@open-mpi.org] On > Behalf Of Jovana Knezevic > Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 4:44 AM > To: us...@open-mpi.org > Subject: [OMPI users] MPI_Bsend vs. MPI_Ibsend > > Dear all, > > Could anyone please clarify me the difference between MPI_Bsend and > MPI_Ibsend? Or, in other words, what exactly is "blocking" in > MPI_Bsend, when the data is stored in the buffer and we "return"? :-) > Another, but similar, question: > > What about the data-buffer - when can it be reused in each of the > cases - simple examples: > > for (i=0; i<NUMBER_OF_SLAVES; i++) { > > MPI_Bsend (&data_buffer[0], ..., slave_id1...); > > } // Can any problem occur here, since we send the data_buffer several > times? > > for (i=0; i<NUMBER_OF_SLAVES; i++) { > > MPI_Ibsend (&data_buffer[0], ..., slave[i]..., &request); > MPI_Test(&request...) > > } // Any difference to previous example? Concerning the re-use of > data_buffer? > > Thank you a lot in advance. > > Regards > Jovana > _______________________________________________ > users mailing list > us...@open-mpi.org > http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users >
