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Parallel Tools Platform FAQ

Revision as of 13:47, 7 October 2011 by Tibbitts.us.ibm.com (Talk | contribs) (Q: Eclipse doesn't seem to find my environment variables for the [compiler, OpenMPI...])

Q: How do I download PTP?

PTP can now (as of 5.0, June 2011) be installed in two ways:

  • from the all-in-one package "Eclipse IDE for Parallel Application Developers" on the Eclipse downloads page
  • or installed into an existing eclipse via the Eclipse Installation Manager (Help > Install new software...).

See the PTP download page; check regularly there for new releases, too. The current released version of PTP is 5.0.x.

See the PTP 5.0 release notes for detailed instructions on how to install PTP.

Q: What version of Eclipse and CDT do I need?

PTP 5.0 is designed to work with Eclipse 3.7.x (Indigo) and CDT 8.0.x.

PTP 4.0 is designed to work with Eclipse 3.6.x (Helios) and CDT 7.0.x.

PTP 3.0 is designed to work with Eclipse 3.5.x (Galileo) and CDT 6.0.2.

Q: What version of MPI do I need to run PTP?

PTP supports the following MPI runtimes:

  • Open MPI 1.2.x, 1.3.x, or 1.4.x
  • MPICH2 1.0.6p1
  • IBM's Parallel Environment (PE)

The most recent OpenMPI (1.4.x) is recommended for PTP 4.0.x and 5.0.x, although it may work with older releases.

For the Parallel Language Development Tools only, there should be no difference between the different versions of MPI, such as OpenMPI and LamMPI. You just need to configure your project to be built using mpicc rather than gcc (for MPI releases that require that; most do), and to specify the include path to the MPI header files. This should be described in the PLDT help.

Q: What platforms and runtimes are supported by PTP now?

The current release of PTP runs on Linux, MacOS X, and Windows. PTP only supports target systems running Linux, MacOS X, and some kinds of Unix (e.g. AIX).

The Parallel Language Development Tools will run anywhere Eclipse and CDT will run. It may require a version of MPI (specifically, its header files) to aid in the search for MPI artifacts. And an OpenMP header file, if OpenMP analysis is needed. This means you can develop and analyze source files but you can't launch them.

The Remote Development Tools can be used on Linux, MacOS X, and Windows.

Q: How do I install Open MPI?

You may already have it installed. Try running the following command and check the output:

   ompi_info

If this doesn't work, download the latest version from the Open MPI site.

Unpack the distribution and run the commands (note that you may have to add extra options to configure to suit your local site - see the Open MPI help documentation for more information):

   ./configure --prefix=/path/to/your/ompi/install
   make
   make install

At this point it's a good idea to run a small mpi program to test you have installed Open MPI correctly.

mpicc -o testMPI testMPI.c mpirun -np 2 testMPI

Q: How do I build PTP myself?

See the PTP Environment Setup instructions

Q: How do I ask questions about PTP?

Subscribe to the PTP Mailing lists, especially ptp-user, and ask questions there. This is an excellent place to ask new-user questions. The ptp-user list is watched by most of our PTP developers as well as many users, and you can share in their experience. See http://www.eclipse.org/ptp/mailing_lists.php

Q: How do find out more about PTP?


Q: What's the most recent version of PTP?

The current released version is 5.0.x.

See the announcements on http://eclipse.org/ptp which should indicate the latest release number. As of Sep 2011 this is 5.0.1.

The most accurate latest release number is whatever is found on the update site at http://download.eclipse.org/tools/ptp/updates/indigo.

Q: How do I install the most recent released version of PTP?

There are two update sites:

Update Sites
  1. The Indigo update site (http://download.eclipse.org/releases/indigo) contains the last release of PTP that was built into the Eclipse general update site. Eclipse Indigo updates are released only in September and February. This update site (a.k.a. software repository) is enabled by default when you install Eclipse Indigo (a.k.a. 3.7).
    • Help > Install New Software.... and install PTP from there
    • Help > Check for Updates will find the updates for all your installed features that are found there.
  2. PTP maintains its own PTP-specific update site with the most recent release of PTP. Bug fix releases can be more frequent than Helios'.
    You must enable the PTP-specific update site before the updates will be found.
    1. Enable the PTP-specific update site
      • Help > Install new software...
      • Click Available Software Sites link
      • Enable/check the PTP site:
      • Choose OK and then Cancel to return to the Eclipse workbench, and ...
    2. Now do the update
      • Select Help > Check for updates
        • Follow prompts like a normal installation

Q: I want to live a bit on the bleeding edge. How do I install a more recent PTP build, e.g. to get a bug fix ?

Go to the PTP builds page and find the page for your release (e.g. if you have 4.0.x, find the page with the largest value of x) and download the archive file (ptp-master-xxx) then use that in the Help > Install New Software... dialog.

Q: When I launch a parallel job how do I stop it from building everything in my workspace ?

Open Preferences (Window > Preferences or on a Mac, Eclipse > Preferences), Open Run/Debug / Launching Under "General Options" on that page, Uncheck "Build (if required) before launching"

Q: How do I customize the new (JAXB) Configurable Resource Manager?

A detailed guide to the XML Schema for the new Configurable Resource Manager, along with an introductory tutorial slide-set demonstrating some simple modifications to an existing XML definition, are now available at PTP/resource-managers.

Q: How do I enable the Eclipse menu icons to show in Linux with GTK?

See this bug: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=293720

Q: How do use PTP to connect to a remote system via an intermediate host (multi hop)

You would first create the tunnel using a command such as:

ssh -L 22222:<target-host>:22 <intermediate-host>

where <intermediate-host> is the host name of the intermediate system and <target-host> is the host name of the target system. The first port number (22222) can be any port number greater than 1024 that is not already being used. The second port number must be 22. Once a connection is established to <intermediate-host>, you will need to leave this session connected while you're using PTP.

Next, when you configure a new resource manager, create a new connection (using Remote Tools) and specify the host name as 'localhost'. Click on the 'Advanced' button, and change the port number from 22 to the number you specified in the command above.

Use this same connection when configuring a remote or synchronized project.

Q: Eclipse doesn't seem to find my environment variables for the [compiler, OpenMPI...]

If you get an error, e.g. in the console, saying something cannot be found, such as:

 error
 /bin/sh: ifort: not found
 make: *** [test.o] Error 127

Then it likely means that the required file cannot be found, e.g. ifort in this case.

If you are starting Eclipse from a shell add the path you need to the PATH environment variable in your login script. (Note: document .profile vs. .bashrc, they run at different times)

If you are starting Eclipse from a Linux window manager (Gnome, KDE, etc.) then consult your window manager documentation for information on how to set environment variables.

If you are starting Eclipse from the MacOS X window manager (Aqua), the PATH must be set by creating a file called environment.plist in a directory called .MacOSX in your home directory. The file should look like this, with [path_to_something] replaced with the correct path:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>PATH</key>
  <string>[path_to_something]</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

Q: My Remote or Synchronized project doesn't find the remote environment variables correctly

Note that communication with your remote host is done via ssh.

...

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