[Mpi-forum] MPI_Request_free restrictions

[Jeff Hammond]

Yes, but do we think the use case of never detecting completion is likely?
I am not arguing for that, but rather that users might free the request but
then detect completion another way, such as by waiting on the request on a
subset of processes.

Jeff

On Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 5:40 PM Skjellum, Anthony <Tony-Skjellum at utc.edu>
wrote:

> FYI, one argument (also used to force us to add restrictions on MPI
> persistent collective initialization to be blocking)... The
> MPI_Request_free on an NBC poses a problem for the cases where there are
> array types
> posed (e.g., Alltoallv/w)... It will not be knowable to the application if
> the vectors are in use by MPI still after
> the  free on an active request.  We do *not* mandate that the MPI
> implementation copy such arrays currently, so they are effectively "held as
> unfreeable" by the MPI implementation till MPI_Finalize.  The user cannot
> deallocate them in a correct program till after MPI_Finalize.
>
> Another effect for NBC of releasing an active request, IMHO,  is that you
> don't know when send buffers are free to be deallocated or receive buffers
> are free to be deallocated... since you don't know when the transfer is
> complete OR the buffers are no longer used by MPI (till after MPI_Finalize).
>
> Tony
>
>
>
>
> Anthony Skjellum, PhD
>
> Professor of Computer Science and Chair of Excellence
>
> Director, SimCenter
>
> University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)
>
> tony-skjellum at utc.edu  [or skjellum at gmail.com]
>
> cell: 205-807-4968
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* mpi-forum <mpi-forum-bounces at lists.mpi-forum.org> on behalf of
> Jeff Hammond via mpi-forum <mpi-forum at lists.mpi-forum.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, August 8, 2020 12:07 PM
> *To:* Main MPI Forum mailing list <mpi-forum at lists.mpi-forum.org>
> *Cc:* Jeff Hammond <jeff.science at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [Mpi-forum] MPI_Request_free restrictions
>
> We should fix the RMA chapter with an erratum. I care less about NBC but
> share your ignorance of why it was done that way.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 8, 2020, at 6:51 AM, Balaji, Pavan via mpi-forum <
> mpi-forum at lists.mpi-forum.org> wrote:
>
>  Folks,
>
> Does someone remember why we disallowed users from calling
> MPI_Request_free on nonblocking collective requests?  I remember the
> reasoning for not allowing cancel (i.e., the operation might have completed
> on some processes, but not all), but not for Request_free.  AFAICT,
> allowing the users to free the request doesn’t make any difference to the
> MPI library.  The MPI library would simply maintain its own refcount to the
> request and continue forward till the operation completes.  One of our
> users would like to free NBC requests so they don’t have to wait for the
> operation to complete in some situations.
>
> Unfortunately, when I added the Rput/Rget operations in the RMA chapter, I
> copy-pasted that text into RMA as well without thinking too hard about it.
> My bad!  Either the RMA committee missed it too, or they thought of a
> reason that I can’t think of now.
>
> Can someone clarify or remind me what the reason was?
>
> Regards,
>
>   — Pavan
>
> MPI-3.1 standard, page 197, lines 26-27:
>
> “It is erroneous to call MPI_REQUEST_FREE or MPI_CANCEL for a request
> associated with a nonblocking collective operation.”
>
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>

-- 
Jeff Hammond
jeff.science at gmail.com
http://jeffhammond.github.io/
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