ADRT_MASTER(1)

💅 ADRT_MASTER(1) — the group-chat guide 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to adrt_master, page one of the BRL-CAD manual set, and honestly? she's the mom friend of the ray tracer 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

adrt_master — the girl who dispatches and coordinates the distributed ADRT ray tracing slaves. she's not doing the rendering herself, she's running the whole operation 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

adrt_master [-bdv] [-c _comp_host_] [-e _script_] [-l _slave_list_] [-o _obs_port_] [-p _port_]

(yeah the underscores are placeholders, don't type them literally, iykyk 💀)

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

adrt_master is the coordinating node for the Advanced Distributed Ray Tracer (ADRT), which is a very fancy way of saying she's the main character energy of the whole render 🎀

here's the entire vibe: she distributes rendering work units out to one or more adrt_slave(1) compute nodes, then collects the resulting image tiles and shotline data back, then serves the assembled frames to connected observer clients like isst(1). it's giving project manager with a clipboard and a dream ✨

she listens on two TCP ports, and yes bestie, two:

• the master port, where slaves connect — default 1980
• the observer port, where clients connect — default 1982

she can optionally connect to a component-name server (default port 1983) so that the names of geometry components hit by shotlines can actually get reported. like, naming the thing instead of just pointing at it 💅

and the slaves? you can enumerate them from a host list file and have her launch them automatically through a user-supplied execution script. automatic. iconic. no cap.

the master runs until an observer issues a shutdown. at that point she does the graceful thing: drains any outstanding work, collects all pending results from the slaves, and exits. she does not leave the group chat mid-conversation, periodt 🫶

👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -b — print the build date and time of this adrt_master binary and exit. just the receipts, then she's gone 🌈
• -c comp_host — connect to the component-name server running on comp_host (port 1983). this server supplies the geometry component names used when reporting shotline intersections. it's the one who knows everybody's name 💖
• -d — run in daemon mode. once both the master and observer listening sockets are bound, adrt_master detaches from the controlling terminal and runs in the background. she said "i'll be in the back, don't worry about me" 🌙
• -e script — path to a script that adrt_master executes to start the slave compute nodes. she's delegating, as she should 🔥
• -l slave_list — path to a file containing the list of slave hosts to use as compute nodes. the guest list, basically 🎀
• -o obs_port — set the observer port that client applications (such as isst(1)) connect to. default is 1982. this is the front door 💅
• -p port — set the master port that adrt_slave(1) compute nodes connect to. default is 1980. this is the other front door 🚪
• -v — enable verbose output. she will tell you everything, and honestly? you'll love it ✨
• -h, -? — print a usage summary and exit. the "help me help you" combo 😭

🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

Example 1. Launch a master that auto-starts slaves from a host list

adrt_master -v -p 1980 -o 1982 -l hosts.txt -e start_slaves.sh

starts the master in verbose mode, listening for slaves on port 1980 and for observers on port 1982. the slave hosts named in hosts.txt are launched by running start_slaves.sh. then an observer such as isst(1) can connect to port 1982 to view the rendered geometry interactively. and that's the whole slay pipeline fr fr 🔥

Example 2. Run the master as a background daemon with a component server

adrt_master -d -c compsrv.example.org -l hosts.txt -e start_slaves.sh

connects to the component-name server on compsrv.example.org so shotline hits can be reported by component name (not just "idk some geometry??" — she's better than that), launches the listed slaves, and detaches to run as a daemon once both sockets are bound. background queen behavior 👑

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

brlcad(1), adrt_slave(1), isst(1), rt(1)

(the whole friend group 💖 go read their pages too)

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

BRL-CAD Team 🌟

⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

(like, respectfully, that's the whole legal vibe 🫡)

🙈 BUG REPORTS 🙈

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org

please actually email them bestie, a subtweet will not get your bug fixed 💀

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that's the whole page! sourced from BRL-CAD (with ADRT_MASTER(1) in the corner like a little name tag), and that's a wrap, mwah 💋🌸