Re: How to use mpirun with C or C++ Org-babel?

[Leo Butler]

On Fri, Dec 08 2023, tbanelwebmin <tbanelwebmin@free.fr> wrote:

> Caution: This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba.
>
> On 23-12-08 00:10, Edgar Lux wrote:
>
>     Hello, I found [1][2] that it is possible to change the compiler for C 
> and C++
>     source blocks. I would like to know if there is a way to add =mpirun -np 
> 2=
>     (where 2 can be any other number) to run the resulting executable. 
> Thanks! [1] 
>     https://orgmode.org/worg//org-contrib/babel/languages/ob-doc-C.html [2] 
>     https://github.com/gheber/literate-hdf5
>
> I guess you want to run the executable after it has been compiled, with a 
> command
> like this one:
>
> mpirun -np 2 /tmp/babel-ad2pdk/C-bin-JTvjS4
>
> Currently it is not possible.
>
> There is the :cmdline specifier which adds parameters to the executable, like 
> this:
>
> #+begin_src C++ :cmdline AAA BBB CCC
> int main (int nargs, char** argv)
> {
>    // argv will be {
>    //   "/tmp/babel-ad2pdk/C-bin-JTvjS4",
>    //   "AAA",
>    //   "BBB",
>    //   "CCC"
>    // }
> }
> #+end_src
>
> Those parameters come AFTER the executable, whereas mpirun should come BEFORE 
> the
> executable.
>
> An extension may be written in ob-C.el, in the org-babel-C-execute function.
> The relevant line is:
>   (concat tmp-bin-file cmdline)
>
> If you want to contribute...

If you are wanting to run jobs with mpirun, then I will guess that they
are relatively long-running. However, ob-C.el does not support
asynchronous (background) execution, so your emacs would be tied up for
the duration. I doubt you want that.

I submitted an imperfect patch some time ago [1] that targeted your use
case: allow ob-C.el to create a named binary. Unfortunately, Ihor
dropped the issue due to lack of interest from other users.

My goal was to enable something like this to work:

#+begin_src cpp :includes <iostream> :results none :file ./hello-world
std::cout << "Hello World!\n";
#+end_src

#+begin_src bash :async t
mpirun -np 4 ./hello-world
#+end_src

As I said, the patch I wrote was not perfect, but I am happy to re-visit
the issue. The ability to create named binaries would significantly
increase the usability of ob-C for projects where you want to compile
the source once and run the binary repeatedly for potentially long
periods of time.

Leo

[1] https://list.orgmode.org/87fs81egk5.fsf@t14.reltub.ca/