Using PVM

In order to use PVM, you need to have the PVM_ROOT and PVM_RSH set for your non-interactive shells.

PVM_ROOT should be /usr/share/pvm3
PVM_RSH should be /usr/bin/ssh

To do this, add the following to your ~/.bashrc

   1 PVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3
   2 PVM_RSH=/usr/bin/ssh
   3 export PVM_ROOT PVM_RSH

In the default Gentoo ~/.bashrc, there is a return statement near the top for non-interactive shells. Don't make the same mistake I did, declare these variables before that or you will be very confused.

After that is all configured, run this to update your environment variables.

source /etc/profile

Check your environment variables with the shell builtin set.

kuffs@clotho ~ $ set
BASH=/bin/bash
BASH_ARGC=()
BASH_ARGV=()
[...TRUNCATED...]
PVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3
PVM_RSH=/usr/bin/ssh

Now you can check to make sure everything is working by using the pvm shell. Simply run pvm to start it.

kuffs@clotho ~ $ pvm
pvm>

You will be presented with the pvm> prompt as above. Now attempt to add a node with add nodename. (where 'nodename' is obviously the name of the computer you want to add.)

pvm> add danrack9
add danrack9
1 successful
                    HOST     DTID
                danrack9    80000
pvm>

Now we can enter conf and get a list of all the nodes that have been added.

pvm> conf
conf
2 hosts, 1 data format
                    HOST     DTID     ARCH   SPEED       DSIG
                  clotho    40000    LINUX    1000 0x00408841
                danrack9    80000    LINUX    1000 0x00408841
pvm>

Now type halt to kill the pvm process on all added nodes and quit the program.

pvm> halt
halt
Terminated
kuffs@clotho ~ $

There, PVM is working properly for you, now start coding :).

Issues

If you get some nasty errors when trying to add a node, chances are that you didn't set your variables properly. Double-check your ~/.bashrc and try again. Remember not to make the same mistake I have warned about above.