Newsgroups: comp.parallel.mpi
From: salo@mrjones.engr.sgi.com (Eric Salo)
Subject: Re: libmpi.a vs libmpi.so
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Date: 16 Aug 1996 19:41:40 GMT
Message-ID: <4v2itk$c8d@murrow.corp.sgi.com>

Our MPI distribution consists of four files:

	libmpi.so
	mpi.h
	mpif.h
	mpirun

The C, Fortran and PMPI_ entry points are all contained within the
one library. We do not distribute a static version because then we
would have to maintain compatibility; with a .so, I can change anything
in the library that I want to without having to worry about backward
compatibility as long as the headers remain the same. We have found
that the performance hit for using a .so is miniscule, so that's not
an issue either.

Eric Salo         Silicon Graphics Inc.             "Do you know what the
(415)933-2998     2011 N. Shoreline Blvd, 8U-802     last Xon said, just
salo@sgi.com      Mountain View, CA   94043-1389     before he died?"

