MPI Selector 1.0 release notes December 2008 ============================== OFED contains a simple mechanism for system administrators and end users to select which MPI implementation they want to use. The MPI selector functionality is not specific to any MPI implementation; it can be used with any implementation that provides shell startup files that correctly set the environment for that MPI. The OFED installer will automatically add MPI selector support for each MPI that it installs. Additional MPI's not known by the OFED installer can be listed in the MPI selector; see the mpi-selector(1) man page for details. Note that MPI selector only affects the default MPI environment for *future* shells. Specifically, if you use MPI selector to select MPI implementation ABC, this default selection will not take effect until you start a new shell (e.g., logout and login again). Other packages (such as environment modules) provide functionality that allows changing your environment to point to a new MPI implementation in the current shell. The MPI selector was not meant to duplicate or replace that functionality. The MPI selector functionality can be invoked in one of two ways: 1. The mpi-selector-menu command. This command is a simple, menu-based program that allows the selection of the system-wide MPI (usually only settable by root) and a per-user MPI selection. It also shows what the current selections are. This command is recommended for all users. 2. The mpi-selector command. This command is a CLI-equivalent of the mpi-selector-menu, allowing for the same functionality as mpi-selector-menu but without the interactive menus and prompts. It is suitable for scripting. See the mpi-selector(1) man page for more information.