To install do the following:

Go to the pvm3 directory (or to the directory wherever you want
to install pvm). Set the environment variable PVM_ROOT to point
to this directory (in csh-like shells do "setenv PVM_ROOT `pwd`",
in sh-like shells do "PVM_ROOT=`pwd`; export PVM_ROOT").  After
this has been done, make can be started. This is however not
necessary as all binaries (except for the example programs) and
libraries have been precompiled and are included. The examples
and group examples can be compiled easily by entering the
respective directory and typing "aimk all".

To use pvm be sure that ${PVM_ROOT}/bin/${PVM_ARCH} is included
in the path of all computers you use with pvm. Also be sure that
${PVM_ROOT}/lib is included. This is necessary for starting some
programs like the pvm console itself or the daemon. Then invoke
"pvm" on one host and just type "add otherhost" inside the pvm
console. This should result in a message like "1 host added".
Having done this you can try running the first parallel programs.
One very nice example is "xep" which calculates fractals in a
highly parallel way. The speed is really impressing if you run it
on a whole network of computers.

Have fun with pvm, Christian



TIPS AND KNOWN PROBLEMS

Be careful, some "in.rshd" are broken, especially those which
came with an old slackware version (I think it was 1.2). These
can not be used as the initialization files are not handled
correctly and therefore the path is wrong. One easy test is to an
rlogin to otherhost and do a "echo $PATH". This should give
exactly the same result as "rsh otherhost echo '$PATH'". If this
produces different output you have to get an new "in.rshd".

All programs which you want to run with pvm must be on every
computer you wish to use for building the parallel virtual
machine. This of course include the pvmd itself. The best idea is
probably to have a single home directory which is used on all
computers and mounted via NFS.


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Christian Winkler                         Inst. Theor. Physik III
                                          Uni Erlangen-Nuernberg
+49 9131 858478                           Staudtstr. 7
cwinkler@theorie3.physik.uni-erlangen.de  91052 Erlangen
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