DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

HBOOT(1)                           LAM TOOLS                          HBOOT(1)

NAME
       hboot - Start LAM on the local node.

SYNOPSIS
       hboot [-dhstvNV] [-c conf] [-I inet_topo] [-R rtr_topo]

OPTIONS
       -d              Turn on debugging.  This implies -v.

       -h              Print the command help menu.

       -s              Close stdio of child processes.

       -t              Terminate (tkill(1)) any previous LAM session before
                       starting.

       -v              Be verbose.

       -N              Go through the motions but do not actually take any
                       action.

       -V              Format and print the process schema.

       -c conf         Use conf as the process schema.

       -I inet_topo    Set the $inet_topo variable in the process schema.

       -R rtr_topo     Set the $rtr_topo variable in the process schema.

DESCRIPTION
       Most MPI users will probably not need to use the hboot command; see
       lamboot(1).

       The hboot tool can be understood as a generic utility that starts
       multiple processes on the local node, based on information in a process
       schema.  It is not restricted to starting LAM.  It is part of the
       startup sequence preformed by lamboot(1).

       A process schema is a description of the processes which constitute the
       operating system on a given node.  Naturally, the process schema used
       by hboot should be the one that describes LAM on a node.  The grammar
       of the process schema is described in conf(5).

       When starting LAM on a remote machine using rsh(1), the open file
       descriptors of the processes started by hboot must be closed in order
       for rsh(1) to exit.  This is done by using the -s option.  The -t
       option can be used to force a tkill(1) on the machine before attempting
       to start LAM.  This feature is used by lamboot(1) to handle the case
       where a user might start a machine a second time without using
       lamwipe(1) to terminate the previous LAM session.

       The -I and -R options set their respective variables to the given
       values.  The $inet_topo variable is typically used by the LAM Internet
       datalinks that communicate with other nodes.  The $rtr_topo variable is
       passed to the LAM router that handles network and topology information.
       The variables can also be set in the process schema file (see conf(5))
       but their values are overridden by the command line options.

       When LAM is started, the kernel records all processes that attach to
       it, including all the processes in the process schema.  It is the job
       of tkill(1) to use this information to remove these processes from the
       node.

EXAMPLES
       hboot -v
           Start LAM on the local node with the default process schema.
           Report about every step as it is done.

       hboot -c myconfig
           Boot the local node with the custom process schema, myconfig.

FILES
       laminstalldir/etc/lam-conf.lamd
                                     default node process schema, where
                                     "laminstalldir" is the directory where
                                     LAM/MPI was installed

       laminstalldir/etc/lam7.1.5b2helpfile
                                     Default location for help file for
                                     diagnostic messages that hboot may
                                     generate.

       /tmp/lam-$USER@hostname       kill file for the LAM session on machine
                                     hostname, where $USER is the userid.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Using ps(1) after hboot will display, among others, the LAM processes
       that have been started.  They may be killed one by one with kill(1), or
       all at once by killing the LAM kernel process with a HUP signal.  The
       preferred method is to use the LAM tool tkill(1) which should kill them
       all at once, and also remove the kill file.  New users should make
       liberal use of ps(1) to gain confidence that the system is working
       properly.  In a disaster, ps(1) and kill(1) are your only hope of
       recovery.

SEE ALSO
       lamboot(1), tkill(1), conf(5), lam-helpfile(5)

LAM 7.1.5b2                       June, 2008                          HBOOT(1)