MPI_PUBLISH_NAME(3)

📦

version 5.0.10 · 7 versions

💖 MPI_PUBLISH_NAME 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Open MPI era of the manual pages, because this one is literally the glow-up your service names have been waiting for 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

MPI_Publish_name — publishes a service name associated with a port. it's giving matchmaker, it's giving "here's my friend's @, go say hi" 🫶

✨ SYNTAX ✨

💅 C Syntax

#include <mpi.h>

int MPI_Publish_name(const char *service_name, MPI_Info info,
     const char *port_name)

💅 Fortran Syntax

USE MPI
! or the older form: INCLUDE 'mpif.h'
MPI_PUBLISH_NAME(SERVICE_NAME, INFO, PORT_NAME, IERROR)
     CHARACTER*(*)   SERVICE_NAME, PORT_NAME
     INTEGER         INFO, IERROR

💅 Fortran 2008 Syntax

USE mpi_f08
MPI_Publish_name(service_name, info, port_name, ierror)
     TYPE(MPI_Info), INTENT(IN) :: info
     CHARACTER(LEN=*), INTENT(IN) :: service_name, port_name
     INTEGER, OPTIONAL, INTENT(OUT) :: ierror

✨ INPUT PARAMETERS ✨

service_name — a service name (string). this is the ✨name✨ everyone's gonna be looking up, so make it cute and make it memorable.
info — options to the name service functions (handle). like the settings panel of this whole operation 🎛️
port_name — a port name (string). the actual address-y thing being paired with the name.

✨ OUTPUT PARAMETER ✨

ierror — Fortran only: error status (integer).

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So what does this do?? It publishes the pair (service_name, port_name), so that an application can get port_name back later by calling MPI_Lookup_name with service_name as the argument. basically: you post the pairing, bestie, and anyone who knows the name can come find the port. 🦋

🚨 it is an error to publish the same service_name twice, no cap. also it's an error to use a port_name argument that wasn't previously opened by the calling process via a call to MPI_Open_port. the port has to have been opened by you, by this process. no borrowing, no sneaking, no "oh it worked last time" 💀

✨ INFO ARGUMENTS ✨

The following keys for info are recognized:

ompi_global_scope — type bool. If set to true, publish the name in the global scope. Publish in the local scope otherwise. See the NAME SCOPE section for more details. 🌍 vs 🏠
ompi_unique — type bool. If set to true, return an error if the specified service_name already exists. Default to overwriting any pre-existing value. so by default it's like "new phone, who dis" and just steamrolls whatever was there 😭

btw bool info keys are actually strings but they get evaluated like this, so listen up:

if the string value is a number, it is converted to an integer and cast to a boolean — meaning zero integers are false and non-zero values are true.
if the string value is (case-insensitive) "yes" or "true", the boolean is true.
if the string value is (case-insensitive) "no" or "false", the boolean is false.
all other string values are unrecognized, and therefore false. so typing "perhaps" gets you nothing, babe 🙈

If no info key is provided, the function will first check to see if a global server has been specified and is available. If so, then the publish function will default to global scope first, followed by local. Otherwise, the data will default to publish with local scope.

✨ NAME SCOPE ✨

Open MPI supports two name scopes: global and local. It's the two friend groups of data storage 💅

Local scope will place the specified service/port pair in a data store located on the mpirun of the calling process' job. Thus, data published with local scope will only be accessible to processes in jobs spawned by that mpirun — e.g., processes in the calling process' job, or in jobs spawned via MPI_Comm_spawn. it's the group chat, not the public post 🔒

Global scope places the specified service/port pair in a data store located on a central server that is accessible to all jobs running in the cluster or environment. Thus, data published with global scope can be accessed by multiple mpiruns and used for MPI_Comm_connect and MPI_Comm_accept between jobs. that's the main character energy, everyone can see it 👑

⚠️ Note that global scope operations require both the presence of the central server and that the calling process be able to communicate to that server. MPI_Publish_name will return an error if global scope is specified and a global server is either not specified or cannot be found. so if you didn't bring the server, don't expect the global scope to show up.

Open MPI provides a server called ompi-server to support global scope operations. Please refer to its manual page for a more detailed description of data store/lookup operations. 📖

As an example of the impact of these scoping rules, consider the case where a job has been started with mpirun — call this job "job1". A process in job1 creates and publishes a service/port pair using a local scope. Open MPI will store this data in the data store within mpirun.

A process in job1 (perhaps the same as did the publish, or perhaps some other process in the job) subsequently calls MPI_Comm_spawn to start another job (call it "job2") under this mpirun. Since the two jobs share a common mpirun, both jobs have access to local scope data. Hence, a process in job2 can perform an MPI_Lookup_name with a local scope to retrieve the information. 🎉

However, assume another user starts a job using mpirun — call this job "job3". Because the service/port data published by job1 specified local scope, processes in job3 cannot access that data. 🙅‍♀️ In contrast, if the data had been published using global scope, then any process in job3 could access the data, provided that mpirun was given knowledge of how to contact the central server and the process could establish communication with it.

✨ ERRORS ✨

Almost all MPI routines return an error value — C routines as the return result of the function and Fortran routines in the last argument.

Before the error value is returned, the current MPI error handler associated with the communication object (e.g., communicator, window, file) is called. If no communication object is associated with the MPI call, then the call is considered attached to MPI_COMM_SELF and will call the associated MPI error handler. When MPI_COMM_SELF is not initialized (i.e., before MPI_Init/MPI_Init_thread, after MPI_Finalize, or when using the Sessions Model exclusively) the error raises the initial error handler. The initial error handler can be changed by calling MPI_Comm_set_errhandler on MPI_COMM_SELF when using the World model, or the mpi_initial_errhandler CLI argument to mpiexec or info key to MPI_Comm_spawn/MPI_Comm_spawn_multiple. If no other appropriate error handler has been set, then the MPI_ERRORS_RETURN error handler is called for MPI I/O functions and the MPI_ERRORS_ABORT error handler is called for all other MPI functions. 😵‍💫 okay that's a lot but like, write it down, it matters.

Open MPI includes three predefined error handlers that can be used:

MPI_ERRORS_ARE_FATAL — Causes the program to abort all connected MPI processes. the nuclear option 💥
MPI_ERRORS_ABORT — An error handler that can be invoked on a communicator, window, file, or session. When called on a communicator, it acts as if MPI_Abort was called on that communicator. If called on a window or file, acts as if MPI_Abort was called on a communicator containing the group of processes in the corresponding window or file. If called on a session, aborts only the local process.
MPI_ERRORS_RETURN — Returns an error code to the application. the chill one, it just hands you the receipt 🧾

MPI applications can also implement their own error handlers by calling:

MPI_Comm_create_errhandler then MPI_Comm_set_errhandler
MPI_File_create_errhandler then MPI_File_set_errhandler
MPI_Session_create_errhandler then MPI_Session_set_errhandler or at MPI_Session_init
MPI_Win_create_errhandler then MPI_Win_set_errhandler

go off, build your own, we love a DIY queen 👑

Note that MPI does not guarantee that an MPI program can continue past an error.

See the MPI man page for a full list of MPI error codes.

See the Error Handling section of the MPI-3.1 standard for more information.

✨ Copyright ✨

2003-2026, The Open MPI Community

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this was the Open MPI flopped-open-to-page-MPI_PUBLISH_NAME(3), dated Sep 10, 2026, and you absolutely ate it. go publish something iconic 🌈✨👑

📦 where this page comes from

ubuntu stonking: openmpi-doc 5.0.10-6 · other
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-11-03: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms