[MPICH] Forking exisiting mpi processes

[James S Perrin]

Hi,
	I'm looking for some details of what can and can't be done if a running mpi 
process forks.

	From a simple test program it seems, at least with MPICH, that the child 
process inherits the mpi environment and credentials of the parent and can make 
MPI calls as if it were the parent process. The child process should simply exit 
on completion and only the parent process should call MPI_Finalize. Child to 
child communication is best done using a dedicated MPI_Comm, the same as working 
with threads. However is thread support actaully required? Should 
MPI_thread_init be called?

Regards
James
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
James S. Perrin,                   | email: james.perrin at manchester.ac.uk
Manchester Visualization Centre,   | www.sve.man.ac.uk/General/Staff/perrin
Kilburn Building, The University,  | tel: +44 161 275 6945
Manchester, England. M13 9PL.      | fax: +44 161 275 6800/6040
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The test of intellect is the refusal to belabour the obvious" -Alfred Bester
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------