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MPI_T_EVENTS(3) Open MPI MPI_T_EVENTS(3)

NAME

MPI_T_Events - UNKNOWN

Open MPI’s MPI_T events - overview and the built-in event sources and types

DESCRIPTION

The MPI tool information interface (“MPI_T”) events facility (MPI-5.0 §15.3.8) lets a tool register callback functions that the MPI implementation invokes when it raises an event. Each event instance carries a timestamp, originates from a source (a clock and ordering domain), and conveys a typed data payload. See MPI_T <#mpi-t> for the broader MPI_T interface and MPI_T_init_thread <#mpi-t-init-thread> to initialize it.

Open MPI implements this facility and ships a set of built-in event sources and event types, described below.

Note:

The sources and event types listed on this page are an initial set – implemented in large part as worked examples and to exercise Open MPI’s MPI_T events infrastructure – and are not exhaustive. They may be only a subset of what a given Open MPI installation exposes: the exported set depends on the platform, the Open MPI version, and MCA parameters, and more sources and event types may be added over time. Do not hard-code these names; discover the actual set at run time. From a program, enumerate with the MPI_T API (MPI_T_source_get_num <#mpi-t-source-get-num> / MPI_T_source_get_info <#mpi-t-source-get-info>, and MPI_T_event_get_num <#mpi-t-event-get-num> / MPI_T_event_get_info <#mpi-t-event-get-info> / MPI_T_event_get_index <#mpi-t-event-get-index>). From the command line, list them with ompi_info --event.


Scope of the current implementation

Event delivery is synchronous and occurs only in normal (non-signal) execution contexts. A callback registered at the MPI_T_CB_REQUIRE_ASYNC_SIGNAL_SAFE safety level is accepted but is never selected for delivery in this release. Raising an event is near-free when no tool is listening (a single atomic read plus a predicted branch), so the built-in producers impose negligible overhead on applications that do not use MPI_T.

Discovering and controlling the built-in events

List the registered sources and event types on an installation with:

shell$ ompi_info --event


Event types are filtered by verbosity with --level: the built-in types register at levels 2 through 4. A plain ompi_info --event shows all of them (--event defaults to showing every event-type level); pass --level to narrow the set. Event sources are always listed, regardless of --level. Add --parsable for machine-readable output.

The MCA parameter mca_base_event_register_producers is the master switch for all built-in producers (default: enabled). When set to 0, no sources or event types are registered, which exercises (and is a valid, conformant) empty event set.

RECEIVING EVENTS

A tool receives events by registering a callback on an event type. The typical sequence is:

1.
Initialize MPI_T with MPI_T_init_thread <#mpi-t-init-thread>.
2.
Locate the event type, either by name with MPI_T_event_get_index <#mpi-t-event-get-index> or by iterating 0..N-1 from MPI_T_event_get_num <#mpi-t-event-get-num> and inspecting each with MPI_T_event_get_info <#mpi-t-event-get-info>.
3.
Allocate a registration handle with MPI_T_event_handle_alloc <#mpi-t-event-handle-alloc>. All built-in event types use MPI_T_BIND_NO_OBJECT, so pass a NULL object handle.
4.
Attach a callback with MPI_T_event_register_callback <#mpi-t-event-register-callback>, choosing a callback safety level (MPI_T_CB_REQUIRE_NONE, MPI_T_CB_REQUIRE_MPI_RESTRICTED, or MPI_T_CB_REQUIRE_THREAD_SAFE; see Scope above for the ASYNC_SIGNAL_SAFE limitation). Optionally, register a dropped-event handler with MPI_T_event_set_dropped_handler <#mpi-t-event-set-dropped-handler>.
5.
The implementation invokes the callback whenever it raises the event. Inside the callback, read the payload element by element with MPI_T_event_read <#mpi-t-event-read> (or copy it whole with MPI_T_event_copy <#mpi-t-event-copy>), obtain the originating source with MPI_T_event_get_source <#mpi-t-event-get-source>, and the timestamp with MPI_T_event_get_timestamp <#mpi-t-event-get-timestamp>.
6.
Tear down with MPI_T_event_handle_free <#mpi-t-event-handle-free>, then MPI_T_finalize <#mpi-t-finalize>.

For example, to observe communicator creation:

void my_cb(MPI_T_event_instance event, MPI_T_event_registration reg,


           MPI_T_cb_safety cb_safety, void *user_data)
{


    int32_t size;


    uint32_t context_id;


    int source_index;


    MPI_Count timestamp;


    MPI_T_event_read(event, 0, &size);        /* element 0: communicator size */


    MPI_T_event_read(event, 1, &context_id);  /* element 1: context id        */


    MPI_T_event_get_source(event, &source_index);


    MPI_T_event_get_timestamp(event, &timestamp);


    /* ... record the observation ... */
}
/* ... elsewhere, during setup ... */
int provided, index;
MPI_T_event_registration reg;
MPI_T_init_thread(MPI_THREAD_SINGLE, &provided);
if (MPI_SUCCESS == MPI_T_event_get_index("ompi.mpi.communicator_created", &index)) {


    MPI_T_event_handle_alloc(index, NULL, MPI_INFO_NULL, &reg);


    MPI_T_event_register_callback(reg, MPI_T_CB_REQUIRE_THREAD_SAFE,


                                  MPI_INFO_NULL, NULL, my_cb);


    /* ... run the application; my_cb fires as communicators are created ... */


    MPI_T_event_handle_free(reg, NULL, NULL);
}
MPI_T_finalize();


EVENT SOURCES

All built-in event types are split across just two sources, distinguished by the one property that differs between them: ordering. Both use Open MPI’s default event clock – the same underlying system clock that backs MPI_Wtime <#mpi-wtime> (ticks_per_second is 1,000,000,000, i.e. nanoseconds, and max_ticks is the largest value representable in an MPI_Count) – and both support ad-hoc timestamp reads via MPI_T_source_get_timestamp <#mpi-t-source-get-timestamp>. Query these properties at run time with MPI_T_source_get_info <#mpi-t-source-get-info>.

Ordered (MPI_T_SOURCE_ORDERED); default clock; supports ad-hoc timestamp reads. The domain for essentially all of Open MPI’s lifecycle events: initialization/finalization, communicator, RMA window, and error-handler events. Because the source is ordered, the timestamps of successive events from it are monotonically non-decreasing, so a tool can use them to order the events.
Unordered (MPI_T_SOURCE_UNORDERED); default clock; supports ad-hoc timestamp reads. Registered only on platforms whose memory-release hooks can report releases (for example, Linux); absent elsewhere. The domain for events whose underlying occurrences are aggregated before delivery, so per-occurrence chronology is not preserved – currently just the OS-level memory-release event (ompi.mca.memory.patcher.released, below).

Why two sources, and what timestamps mean

A source in MPI_T is fundamentally a clock-and-ordering domain, not a way to group events by subsystem (event names and MPI_T categories already serve that purpose). Two sources suffice here because the built-in events differ in exactly one source-visible property: the ompi events are individually timestamped and ordered, whereas the ompi.unordered memory-release event is aggregated and therefore unordered.

Timestamps are only comparable within a single source. A timestamp obtained from one source must not be compared against a timestamp from another; only timestamps that share a source establish an ordering.

Note:

The event clock and MPI_Wtime <#mpi-wtime> read the same underlying system clock and advance at the same rate, but their values are not directly comparable: an event timestamp is a 64-bit integer count of nanoseconds from a lazily-captured origin, whereas MPI_Wtime returns double-precision seconds from a different origin. The unit (integer nanoseconds vs. floating-point seconds) and the zero-point both differ, and the MPI standard does not require any relationship between the two.


EVENT TYPES

Most built-in event types bind to no MPI object: the bind value returned by MPI_T_event_get_info <#mpi-t-event-get-info> is MPI_T_BIND_NO_OBJECT, so a tool passes a NULL object handle to MPI_T_event_handle_alloc <#mpi-t-event-handle-alloc> and a single registration observes every instance. One event type, ompi.mpi.communicator_name_set, is instead bound to a communicator (bind is MPI_T_BIND_MPI_COMM): a tool binds each registration to one specific communicator and is notified only when that communicator is affected. See Binding an event to a specific object below. The element layout described for each event is the ordered sequence of typed fields each instance carries, read with MPI_T_event_read <#mpi-t-event-read> or copied with MPI_T_event_copy <#mpi-t-event-copy>. The source of an instance can be queried in the callback with MPI_T_event_get_source <#mpi-t-event-get-source>. The “level” shown is the MPI_T verbosity level (on the 1-9 scale used by ompi_info --level).

Binding an event to a specific object

For an event type whose bind is not MPI_T_BIND_NO_OBJECT, a tool binds each registration handle to one specific object: it passes the address of that object’s handle as the obj_handle argument of MPI_T_event_handle_alloc <#mpi-t-event-handle-alloc>. The registration is then notified only when the event occurs for that particular object; the event for any other object of the same class is not delivered to that registration. (To watch several objects, a tool allocates one registration per object.) For a MPI_T_BIND_NO_OBJECT event, obj_handle is ignored.

The bound object is not passed as a callback argument – the tool already knows it, having bound to it, and typically records it in the callback’s user_data. A bound event whose payload would otherwise just echo the bound object instead carries only the minimal data the callback needs; a callback queries any further detail directly from the object it bound to.

Note:

Several payloads carry an MPI object’s handle (a communicator, window, error-handler, or session) as a uint64 element. This is an opaque token, reported in the MPI ABI representation of the tool that registered the callback, and intended for identifying the object and correlating related events (for example pairing a “created” event with its “freed”). Do not dereference it. Under the Open MPI ABI the value is the C handle the application holds; with the (forthcoming) MPI Standard ABI it is that ABI’s integer handle.


Source ompi; level 2. Raised after Open MPI successfully creates a new communicator – for example via MPI_Comm_dup <#mpi-comm-dup>, MPI_Comm_split <#mpi-comm-split>, MPI_Comm_create <#mpi-comm-create>, the intercommunicator calls, and the communicators Open MPI builds internally – once the communicator is usable. Payload (2 elements):
  • size (int32) – the new communicator’s group size.
  • handle (uint64) – the MPI_Comm handle value, an opaque token for identifying the communicator and pairing this event with its “freed” event; it must not be dereferenced.

Source ompi; level 2. Raised while a communicator is being destroyed (for example via MPI_Comm_free <#mpi-comm-free>, or when Open MPI tears down an internal communicator), while its handle is still valid. Payload (1 element):
•
handle (uint64) – the MPI_Comm handle value; matching it against a “created” event pairs creation with destruction.

Source ompi; level 4. Bound to a communicator (bind = MPI_T_BIND_MPI_COMM; see Binding an event to a specific object): a tool binds a registration to one communicator and is notified only when that communicator’s name is set with MPI_Comm_set_name <#mpi-comm-set-name>. Payload (1 element):
•
handle (uint64) – the MPI_Comm handle value (the bound communicator); an opaque token that must not be dereferenced.

The new name itself is not in the payload: a callback reads it with MPI_Comm_get_name <#mpi-comm-get-name> on the communicator it bound to. Open MPI also names some predefined and internal communicators, so a registration bound to such a communicator may observe those namings too.

Source ompi; level 2. Raised when an MPI instance has been initialized and is ready for use, for both MPI models: the world model (MPI_Init <#mpi-init> / MPI_Init_thread <#mpi-init-thread>) and the session model (MPI_Session_init <#mpi-session-init>), which run through the same internal instance-init path. Payload (5 elements):
  • model (int32) – the MPI model, as an OMPI_T_MODEL_* value from <mpi.h>: OMPI_T_MODEL_WORLD or OMPI_T_MODEL_SESSION.
  • thread_level (int32) – the thread-support level the implementation provided (e.g. MPI_THREAD_MULTIPLE).
  • world_rank (int32) – this process’ rank in MPI_COMM_WORLD; meaningful only for the world model, and -1 for a session (a process has no rank until a communicator is derived from a session).
  • world_size (int32) – the size of MPI_COMM_WORLD; meaningful only for the world model, and -1 for a session.
  • instance_id (uint64) – an opaque token that correlates this event with the matching ompi.mpi.finalization event for the same instance (most useful in the session model, where many instances may coexist); it must not be dereferenced.

The world-model event fires during MPI_Init once MPI_COMM_WORLD exists, so a tool must attach before MPI_Init to observe it.

Source ompi; level 2. Raised when an MPI instance is about to be finalized, for both models: the world model (MPI_Finalize <#mpi-finalize>) and the session model (MPI_Session_finalize <#mpi-session-finalize>). Payload (3 elements):
  • model (int32) – the MPI model, as an OMPI_T_MODEL_* value from <mpi.h>: OMPI_T_MODEL_WORLD or OMPI_T_MODEL_SESSION.
  • world_rank (int32) – this process’ rank in MPI_COMM_WORLD for the world model; -1 for a session.
  • instance_id (uint64) – correlates with the ompi.mpi.initialization event for the same instance.

Source ompi; level 4. Raised each time Open MPI invokes an error handler – that is, whenever an MPI operation detects an error and calls the error handler attached to the relevant communicator, window, file, or session (including the predefined MPI_ERRORS_ARE_FATAL / MPI_ERRORS_RETURN) – before the handler’s effect (such as aborting the job) takes place. Payload (4 elements):
  • err_code (int32) – the MPI error code being raised.
  • object_type (int32) – which kind of MPI object the handler is associated with, as an MPI_T_BIND_* value: MPI_T_BIND_NO_OBJECT (a predefined handler, or none), MPI_T_BIND_MPI_COMM, MPI_T_BIND_MPI_WIN, MPI_T_BIND_MPI_FILE, or MPI_T_BIND_MPI_SESSION.
  • errhandler_handle (uint64) – the MPI_Errhandler handle value.
  • object_handle (uint64) – the handle of the MPI object the handler is invoked on, of the kind given by object_type.

The two handle values are opaque tokens (each 0 when not available – for example when an error is routed to a predefined handler before MPI_Init); they must not be dereferenced.

Source ompi; level 4. Raised after Open MPI successfully creates a new RMA window, for any window flavor (MPI_Win_create <#mpi-win-create>, MPI_Win_allocate <#mpi-win-allocate>, MPI_Win_allocate_shared <#mpi-win-allocate-shared>, or MPI_Win_create_dynamic <#mpi-win-create-dynamic>), once the window is usable. Payload (4 elements):
  • size (int64) – the local window size in bytes; 0 for a dynamic window.
  • disp_unit (int32) – the displacement unit.
  • flavor (int32) – the MPI_WIN_FLAVOR_* value identifying how the window was created.
  • handle (uint64) – the MPI_Win handle value, an opaque token for identifying the window and pairing this event with its “freed” event.

Source ompi; level 4. Raised by MPI_Win_free <#mpi-win-free>, before the window is torn down. Payload (2 elements):
  • flavor (int32) – the MPI_WIN_FLAVOR_* value of the window being freed.
  • handle (uint64) – the MPI_Win handle value.

Source ompi.unordered; level 4. Present only where the ompi.unordered source is (see above). It reports memory returned to the operating system, as observed by Open MPI’s memory-release hooks (the “patcher” memory component, which intercepts munmap, mremap, madvise, brk / sbrk shrink, and SysV shmdt). Payload (2 elements, both uint64):
  • count – the number of release operations aggregated since the previous delivery.
  • bytes – their cumulative size in bytes.

This event differs from the others in how it is produced and delivered. The hook runs inside the intercepted call (e.g. munmap), a context where it may not lock, allocate, or walk data structures, so it cannot deliver an event there. Instead it accumulates count and bytes in a lock-free sink, and the framework drains that sink and delivers one aggregated event at the next safe framework operation – notably a MPI_T_source_get_timestamp <#mpi-t-source-get-timestamp> read of the ompi.unordered source (and also event-handle allocation and free). A registration that has only a dropped-event handler (no callback) instead observes each aggregated batch as a single dropped event (see MPI_T_event_set_dropped_handler <#mpi-t-event-set-dropped-handler>).

Two consequences follow from relying on these memory hooks. First, the hooks are chunk-level: they fire only when memory is actually returned to the OS (for example a large free() that unmaps, or a heap-shrinking sbrk), not on every free(). Second, the hook cannot distinguish which call caused a release, so the payload is a coarse aggregate. A per-API breakdown, and capture of the individual freed addresses, are possible future extensions but are intentionally not provided here: they would require extending the memory-hook interface and, for addresses, allocating memory in a context where allocation is unsafe.


See also:

  • MPI_T <#mpi-t>
  • MPI_T_init_thread <#mpi-t-init-thread>
  • MPI_T_source_get_num <#mpi-t-source-get-num>
  • MPI_T_source_get_info <#mpi-t-source-get-info>
  • MPI_T_source_get_timestamp <#mpi-t-source-get-timestamp>
  • MPI_T_event_get_num <#mpi-t-event-get-num>
  • MPI_T_event_get_info <#mpi-t-event-get-info>
  • MPI_T_event_get_index <#mpi-t-event-get-index>
  • MPI_T_event_handle_alloc <#mpi-t-event-handle-alloc>
  • MPI_T_event_register_callback <#mpi-t-event-register-callback>
  • MPI_T_event_get_source <#mpi-t-event-get-source>
  • MPI_T_event_read <#mpi-t-event-read>
  • MPI_T_event_set_dropped_handler <#mpi-t-event-set-dropped-handler>



Author

The Open MPI community

Copyright

2003-2026, The Open MPI Community

October 13, 2026