Routine Name:	paron

Description:	This command initializes the parallel simulation. It performs
		the following tasks :
			* Creates the postmaster /post
			* If global node zero then spawn all the other nodes
			* Partitions the parallel platform into zones 
			* Adds the parallel event loop ParEventLoop as a job
				at priority 1 (which is high but not top)
		The command should be issued before starting any parallel
		functions.

Usage:		paron [option [arguments]]+

		Several paron options control how the nodes are spawned
		by the master.  Worker nodes ignore these options in the
		paron command, except the -debug option.

		-executable filename	(default: "parnxgenesis")
			the file in $HOME/pvm4/bin/ARCH to execute

		-nodes number		(default: $NNODES if it is defined,
					 otherwise the size of the parallel
					 machine)
			the number of nodes to use in the parallel platform

		-execdir directory-name	(default: master's working directory
					 at paron time)
			the name of the directory which will become "." for
			the workers

		-altsimrc filename	(default: ".parnxsimrc")
			the Genesis configuration file to use, located in $HOME
			or "."

		-startup filename	(default: same name as master's
					 startup file)
			the name of the .g file on the SIMPATH to read on
			startup

		-silent level		(default: 3)
			the Genesis level of error/feedback reporting

		-debug flags		(default: 0)
			the PVM debug options for spawning tasks.  See the PVM
			manual and section ??? for details.  4 means debug.

		-output filename	(no default)
			the name of the file (relative to the master's working
			directory if not an absolute pathname) to which
			stdout/err from workers is directed

		-nice level		(master's nice level)
			the nice level to run the workers at.  Positive values only,
			a higher level means a lower priority.

		-dbgout filename	(stdout, for implementors only)
			the name of the file which workers will print debug messages
			to, an extension is added (the worker's PID).
			[NOT IMPLEMENTED]

		-batch
			if present, the worker will be run in batch mode
			so any interaction with the user will be suppressed

	The remaining options for paron relate to specification of zones.
	It is an error, currently NOT detected, if the nodes do not all
	have the same specification of zones.

	        -farm
		        each node is in a separate zone (default).

	        -parallel 
			all nodes in the same zone.

		-mixed nnodes nzones [nnodes nzones] ...
			This is the most general option. It sets up 'nzones'
			zones with 'nnodes' nodes in each. Out of the remainder,
			a similar specification can be used, and so on. The nodes
			left over are placed in single-node zones.  If
	                nnodes or nzones is <1 it means divide the remaining
	                number of nodes by the non-negative value to obtain
	                the other value. Remainders go on as before.
			There is a special case when the first zone is of
			size 1 (e.g. paron mixed 1 1	 10 10 ....). This case
			usually occurs when one wants a master node to coordinate
			the operation of all the rest, as in a parameter search
			simulation. In this situation the zero zone is placed
			at the real zero node of the parallel machine, which is
			usually the processor with a TTY interface if any exiss.
		
Examples:
		paron
			By default this just sets up a simulation where each node is
			in a separate zone.

		paron -parallel
			Sets up a simulation where each node is in the same zone, and
			can send messages to each other.

		paron -mixed 10 5     3 others
			If this were starting with 64 nodes, the simulation would look
			like this :
			Zone 0,1,2,3,4   : 10 nodes each  = 50 nodes
			Zone 5,6,7,8     : 3 nodes each   = 12 nodes
			Zone 9,10        : 1 nodes each  =  2 nodes

(C) Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC)
Revised: Sep 3, 1996
URL file://www.psc.edu/general/software/packages/genesis/paron.txt