Skip to main content

Notice: This Wiki is now read only and edits are no longer possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.

Jump to: navigation, search

PTP/release notes/4.0

Overview

This document describes how to install PTP and its pre-requisites. This is intended for PTP users. If you are a PTP Developer and want to build PTP from the plug-ins yourself, see PTP 4.0 Development Environment Setup

The installation process for PTP depends on a number of factors, including the versions of software you have installed on your system, your operating system, and the types of target systems you want to use. The basic installation steps are:

  1. Install or Update Java
  2. Download and Install Eclipse
  3. Install PTP (including pre-requisites)
  4. Install optional PTP server components
  5. Install optional RDT server component

Additional installation information is available on:

  1. Installing Open MPI
  2. Installing PTP from an archive site

Note! The PTP SC10 tutorial contains detailed information about installing PTP on your workstation or laptop, including screenshots. You may wish to use the slides from the tutorial as a guide for installing Eclipse and PTP. Then see below for information about installing components on your remote cluster as needed.

Components and Pre-Requisites

PTP is a set of plugins that extend the functionality of Eclipse. The following are the minimum requirements for PTP:

  • Java 1.5 or later
  • Eclipse 3.6 or later
  • C/C++ Developer Tools (CDT) 7.0 or later
  • Remote System Explorer 3.2 or later (optional: If you want remote projects and you want to use RSE as opposed to RemoteTools)

The client side of PTP (the system running Eclipse) is supported on the following platforms:

  • Linux
  • Mac OS X
  • Windows

The server-side of PTP (the remote system used to launch/debug and host remote projects) is supported on the following platforms:

  • Linux
  • Mac OS X
  • Unix (e.g. AIX)

Main Features

The PTP plugins are grouped into the following three main components:

PTP End-User Runtime 
This feature contains the core PTP components, including all supported resource managers, the Parallel Language Development Tools (PLDT), and the External Tools Framework (ETFw).
PTP Remote Development Tools (RDT) 
This feature adds support for the development of projects that are located on remote systems.
Fortran Development Tools (Photran) 
This feature adds support for editing, compiling, and debugging programs written using the Fortran language.

The following table summarizes the components and the pre-requisites required for installation of the PTP features.

Component C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) Remote System Explorer End-User Runtime (RSE) Other
PTP End-User Runtime required optional Open MPI 1.2.x, 1.3.x, or 1.4.x, MPICH 2 1.0.x, gdb 6.3 or later
PTP Remote Development Tools (RDT) required required N/A
Fortran Development Tools (Photran) required N/A N/A

Optional Features

The PTP optional features are a set of features that provide additional functionality not included in the core PTP components. Most of these features require the installation of third party software or specialized components of CDT. The PTP Optional Features are summarized in the table below:

Component C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) Remote System Explorer End-User Runtime (RSE) Other
PTP RDT Remote Tools Adapter required N/A Allows RDT to use the light-weight Remote Tools functionality provided by PTP. Should be installed when installing RDT.
PTP External Tools Framework TAU Extension N/A N/A Adds support for performance analysis using TAU. Requires installation of TAU on the target system.
PTP Graphical Explorer of MPI Programs (GEM) N/A N/A Adds support for performance analysis using ISP. Requires installation of ISP on the target system.
PTP Parallel Performance Wizard (PPW) N/A N/A Adds support for performance analysis using PPW. Requires installation of PPW on the target system.
PTP Parallel Language Development Tools UPC Support required N/A Adds PLDT support for UPC. Requires CDT UPC support.
PTP RDT XL C/C++ Compiler Support required N/A Adds support for the IBM XL C/C++ compiler toolchain to RDT. Requires CDT XL C/C++ Compiler Support, and the XL C/C++ compilers to be installed on the target system.
PTP Remote System Explorer Adapter N/A required Enables support for connecting to remote systems using the Remote System Explorer (RSE). Requires RSE End-User Runtime.
PTP Scalable Communication Infrastructure (SCI) N/A N/A Installs source code for the Scalable Communication Infrastructure (SCI).

Installation

Install or Update Java

Ensure that a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.5 or higher is installed. This can be done with the command:

   java -version

In addition an IBM, Sun, or equivalent JRE is required; The gcj-based Java shipped with most Linux distributions does not work with Eclipse. If in doubt, run the above command and check if there is a reference to gcj. If you are using the Linux operating system, download and install either the Sun Java Runtime Environment or the IBM Java Runtime Environment. See also Installing Java for use with Eclipse and PTP.

Download and install Eclipse

Download Eclipse 3.6 (Helios latest release) from http://eclipse.org/downloads/

We recommend either:

  • "Eclipse Classic" - if you also plan to do Java and/or plugin development, or
  • "Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers" - only includes support for C/C++, which is simpler and smaller

Unpack and launch Eclipse

After downloading and extracting Eclipse (zip or tar file), there's nothing else to the installation process from the Eclipse side. In the extracted folder, simply run the eclipse executable file. It will ask for a workspace location; the default is fine.

Multi-user installs: Note that the default install assumes that the user has write access to the location where Eclipse in installed (unzipped or un-tarred). See multi-user install information for other scenarios.

Install PTP (including pre-requisites)

Using the table above, choose the components you wish to install, and note the pre-requisites required.

  • If you are unsure, just choose "PTP End-User Runtime"

Make sure Eclipse is running, then follow the steps below:

  1. Open "Help > Install New Software..."
  2. From the "Work with:" drop down, choose "Helios - http://download.eclipse.org/releases/helios"
    • See below for possible more recent updates to PTP
  3. Open the "General Purpose Tools" category
    • Check the PTP components you require
      • If you are unsure, just choose "PTP End-User Runtime"
    • If your selection requires RSE as a pre-requisite, check "Remote System Explorer End-User Runtime"
  4. Open the "Programming Languages" category
    • If you want to add Fortran support, check "Fortran Development Tools (Photran)" (See the Photran 6.0 User's Guide for more information on installing and using Photran)
    • If any of your selections require CDT as a pre-requisite, check "C/C++ Development Tools"
  5. Select the "Finish" button and follow the prompts
    • You should restart Eclipse when prompted.

More recent updates to PTP

  1. Note that there may be more recent PTP releases available than what is available on the Eclipse Helios repository.
  2. As of February 25, 2011, Release 4.0.6 is available which is the same on the Helios and PTP update sites.
    • So, it is not necessary to: enable the update site above and do a Help > Check for Updates

Install optional PTP server components

The installation of PTP includes a number of optional server components to support the following:

  • IBM LoadLeveler
  • IBM Parallel Environment
  • SLURM
  • Parallel Debugging
  • (Note: PBS does not require a server component copied by the user)

If your environment uses any of these, you will need to follow the steps below to install the additional components. Also, if you wish to use the PTP debugger, you will need to install the Scalable Debug Manager (SDM). If you are using PTP from a laptop or workstation, and plan to run or debug applications on a remote target machine, these components must be installed on the target machine before PTP can be used.

NOTE: If the target machine and the local machine are the same (e.g. if you are running OpenMPI on your Mac/Linux laptop), you already have the optional components installed. Change to your Eclipse installation's plugins directory and skip to step 5 below.

In the following steps, 4.0.5.201011100956 corresponds to the numeric version and build date of the PTP release. Later releases will have a different version number and build date. Use the latest one installed on your system.

  1. Download the (ptp-proxy) server zip file from here: [1]
  2. Copy the server zip file to the target machine
  3. Unzip the server zip file into a temporary location
  4. Change to the proxy directory
  5. Locate the following directory, replacing <os> and <arch> with the target system's operating system and architecture respectively:
    • org.eclipse.ptp.<os>.<arch>_4.0.5.201011100956
  6. Change to this directory and run the command:
     sh BUILD

This should build the executables. Check the bin directory to see if there are executables in it (e.g. ptp_ibmpe_proxy or sdm). If you see any errors during the build, please refer to the Trouble Shooting section below.

Copy server executables to any convenient directory. When you create a resource manager, you will need to navigate to the this directory (the bin directory by default) and select the appropriate resource manager proxy agent (if it requires one). When you configure a debug launch configuration, you will need to select the sdm executable in this directory.

Install optional RDT server component

RDT provides advanced parsing and indexing functionality for C/C++ projects in a remote client-server scenario. The RDT server component, which contains the parser and index database, must be located on the same remote machine as the project files.

The RDT server component must be installed manually only if you are using Remote System Explorer (RSE) for remote connections. If you use Remote Tools (supplied as part of the PTP End-User Runtime), the server component is installed and launched automatically. If you plan to use Remote Tools, you can skip this section.

Note: The RDT server component is based on the RSE dstore server. Therefore setting up the RDT server is very similar to setting up the RSE dstore server. The guide to setting up the RSE dstore server can be found here, however this section contains documentation specific to the RDT server.

Installation on the following systems is covered below:

Server Installation on Unix, Linux and MacOS X

The following documentation explains how to install the Linux or UNIX server code, start the server daemon, and make a connection to a remote Linux or UNIX server.

Prerequisites

To use the Remote System Explorer communications server daemon you need to install Perl. Using the daemon helps eliminate some of the manual steps when you connect to the server.

Installing the server code

  • Ensure that Perl is installed.
  • Ensure that a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.5 or higher is installed. An IBM, Sun or equivalent JRE is required; The gcj-based Java shipped with most Linux distributions does not work. If in doubt, run the command java -version and check if there is a reference to gcj.
  • Choose a directory where you want to install the server code. These instructions will use the /home/user/ directory as an example, but you are free to use any directory. When the server archive file is expanded it will create a directory named rdt-server in the location where it is expanded.
  • Go to the PTP 3.0 Builds page and download the RDT server package that suits your operating system to this directory.
  • Switch to the /home/user/ directory.
  • Run the following command in the /home/user directory to extract the server code from the package appropriate to your operating system. For example, for Linux this command is:
    tar -xvf rdt-server-linux-1.0.tar
  • A directory named /home/user/rdt-server will be created that contains the server files.

Starting the server

You can start the RSE communications server with the server daemon, or manually. Before starting the server, make sure the Java command is in your path, you can do this by running the following command:

   java -version

You should see something similar to the following:

   java version "1.5.0_16"
   Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_16-b06-284)
   Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_16-133, mixed mode, sharing)
   

If you receive a "command not found" error, then try creating a symbolic link to the java command in /usr/bin by running the following command:

   ln -s  /opt/IBMJava2-141/jre/bin/java /usr/bin/java

To start the server with the server daemon

Ensure that you are running using the root user ID. (If the daemon is not run under root, it will be unable to authenticate connecting users.) Run the following commands:

   su -l root
   cd /home/user/rdt-server
   perl ./daemon.pl [daemonPort] [serverPortRange]

Note that the server daemon runs on port 4075 by default. You can pass the optional daemonPort argument to force a different port if you want. If your daemon runs behind a firewall, you may want to specify the optional serverPortRange argument to restrict selected server ports to the range given:

   perl ./daemon.pl 4075 10000-10010

To start the server manually

Note: In the following discussion we assume that the RSE server has been installed on Linux. If you are running on a UNIX system the script name is server.sh" rather than server.pl.

If you do not have root access on a remote machine, you can start the server manually for your particular user id only. Run the following commands:

   cd /home/user/rdt-server
   perl ./server.pl [port]

These commands run the server.pl script located in the /opt/rseserver directory. The port parameter to the server.pl script is optional. If you do not specify a port, then the server will pick the first one available and print the port number to standard out. By default, it is usually 4033. If you would like to use a different port, you will then have to enter this port number in port property for the Files subsystem for your connection in the Remote System Explorer (see Connecting to the Remote Server, below). Otherwise, you do not need to change this property.

Note: When you connect RSE to the server, the server will terminate as soon as you disconnect the client. The daemon, however, will not terminate.

Server Installation on Windows

The following documentation explains how to install the Windows server code, start the server daemon, and make a connection to a remote Windows server.

Installing the server code

  1. Choose a directory where you want to install the server code. These instructions will use the C:/ directory as an example, but you are free to use any directory. When the server archive file is expanded it will create a directory named rdt-server in the location where it is expanded.
  2. Go to the PTP 4.0.x Builds page and download the RDT Windows server package.
  3. Copy the file rdt-server-windows-1.0.zip to the <code>C:\ directory (this could be on a different machine).
  4. Use an unzip utility to extract the server code.
  5. A directory named C:\rdt-server will be created that contains the server files.

Starting the server

You can start the RDT communications server manually, or as a daemon.

To start the server as a daemon

Note that the server daemon does not enforce any user authentication. If you run the server daemon, any user can connect to the machine, work with the file system and run commands. Use of the server daemon on Windows systems is not recommended.

Simply double click the daemon.bat program to start a server daemon. You can edit the daemon.bat file to change properties for the daemon, like a specific daemon port to use or to force a port range for the server (in order to comply with firewalls).

The server daemon runs on port 4075 by default. You can pass the optional daemonPort argument to force a different port if you want. If your daemon runs behind a firewall, you may want to specify the optional serverPortRange argument to restrict selected server ports to the range given:

   daemon.bat 4075 10000-10010

To start the server manually

Simply double click on the server.bat program to start the RDT server. The server will pick the first port available and print the port number. By default, it is usually 4033. You will then have to enter this port number in port property for the Files subsystem for your connection in the Remote System Explorer.

For security reasons, the server will only wait a limited time until a client connects (12000 seconds by default). In order to start the server with an exactly specified port or timeout, open a Windows command prompt and enter:

   c:
   cd \rdt-server
   server.bat [port] [timeout]

When you connect RDT to the server, the server will terminate as soon as you disconnect the client. The daemon, however, will not terminate.

Installing Open MPI

If you do want to build OpenMPI yourself, here are instructions for building OpenMPI 1.4.2. See the Open MPI FAQ for more information on building and installing Open MPI.

  1. Download the openmpi-1.4.2.tar.gz file
  2. Untar it using the command tar -xzvf openmpi-1.4.2.tar.gz and cd to the directory it creates
  3. Run ./configure
    • The default installation location is /usr/local
    • To install into a different location, e.g. /usr/local/openmpi1.4.2, use the command:
      • ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/openmpi-1.4.2
    • To add the Fortran bindings (test): add --enable-mpi-f77 and/or --enable-mpi-f90
    • Then don't forget to modify PATH, etc:
      • export PATH=/usr/local/openmpi-1.4.2/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
      • export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/openmpi-1.4.2/lib:/usr/local/lib
    • If you have problems with Fortran bindings (e.g. Snow Leopard), you can disable this by adding --disable-mpi-f77 to the configure script
  4. Build and install with sudo make install

Then to check your install:

  1. ompi_info should return version info including version that matches what you installed above.

Build and run a small MPI test case, for example: testMPI.c

  1. mpicc -o testMPI testMPI.c
  2. mpirun -np 4 testMPI

Installing PTP from an archive site

Launch Eclipse, then follow the instructions below.

Note: The "Install New Software" Dialog in Eclipse can be confusing when installing from multiple update sites at the same time, which is why we recommend installing each component separately. If you wish to install them all at the same time, add each site if it is not already listed, then use the "Work with:" dropdown box to choose "-- All Available Sites--". You can then check items from the multiple update sites. If you do this, make sure items you check while perusing one update site still stay checked after looking thru another one.

For offline installation of PTP and its pre-reqs, download the following archived update sites:

  1. CDT 7.0.0
    • Save the cdt-master-xxx.zip file to a known location
  2. PTP/builds
    • Find the most recent 4.0.x release, and save the ptp-master-xxx.zip file to a known location

Installation steps:

  1. Install Remote System Explorer (RSE) 3.2.0 from the Helios update site
    • Open "Help > Install New Software..."
    • In the "Work With" drop-down box, select the Helios Site.
    • Open "General Purpose Tools"
    • Check "Remote System Explorer End-User Runtime"
    • Check "Remote System Explorer User Actions"
    • Finish the install by following the prompts
      • You don't need to restart Eclipse; you can hit the "Not Now" button and continue with installation.
  2. Install the C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) 7.0.0
    • You can install it from a downloaded archive or from the Helios update site.
      • The Helios update site (already in your list of update sites on most platforms) contains only the Main Features of CDT
      • The full CDT 7.0 archive (download instructions above), or the CDT-specific update site, contains the optional features as well
    • Open "Help > Install New Software..."
    • Click "Add..." to add an update site
    • Now do either of the following:
      • Install from Helios update site - Select the Helios update site to install the Main Features of CDT
        • In the "Work With" drop-down box, select the Helios Site.
        • Open "Programming Languages"
        • Check "Eclipse C/C++ Development Tools"
          • Note that if you want UPC, and/or are installing all of the Parallel Language Development Tools (PLDT), you'll need UPC, so be sure to check "Unified Parallel C Support" (under "CDT Optional Features")
        • Finish the install by following the prompts
          • You don't need to restart Eclipse; you can hit the "Not Now" button and continue with installation.
        • You don't need to restart Eclipse yet.

Test your installation

The easiest way to test your installation is to create and run an MPI application.

  1. Start Eclipse. (You may need to use the -clean parameter to force it to recognize new features and plug-ins).
  2. Switch to the C/C++ perspective (Window > Open Perspective > Other...)
  3. Create a small MPI C project.
  4. Open the PTP Runtime perspective (Window>Open Perspective>Other...).
  5. Create a new resource manager (e.g. Open MPI) and start it. You should see a machine and one or more nodes appear in the 'Machines View'.
  6. Create a launch configuration (Run > Run Configurations...) and create a launch configuration for a Parallel Application.
    • Fill in the information for the particular type of resource manager.
    • For example, for an Open MPI application this includes (but may not be limited to):
      • On Resources tab, select Number of processes
      • On Application tab, select your Project for Parallel Project, and the executable for Application Program.
      • On Debugger tab, find the sdm executable that you build from the command line during the installation process as the "Path to debugger executable"
  7. Launch the application.

More details on using PTP can be found in Help > Help Contents. Click on "Parallel Tools Platform User Guide".

The PTP help is also available online.

Troubleshooting

  1. I created a resource manager using the "Remote Tools" remote services but I entered the wrong username/password. How do I change these?
  2. Solution: Open the "Remote Environments" view by selecting "Window > Show View > Other...", open the "Remote Tools" folder, and selecting "Remote Environments". In the view, open "PTP Remote Host" and double click on the name of the connection you used in the resource manager configuration.

  3. The parallel debugger does not start (may be stuck in "Upload file" or "Waiting for connection...".)
  4. Solution: There are many reasons that this could be happing:

    • Check that you can run the MPI program successfully (non-debug), both from the command line, and from within Eclipse
    • Check that you have compiled the application for debugging with -g
    • If you are tunneling over ssh using "Remote Tools", check that the debugger session address is set to "localhost"
    • If you are not tunneling, or are using "RSE", check that the debugger session address is set to the hostname of the machine running Eclipse. Try disabling any firewall you have on your local machine.
    • Check that you have installed the sdm on the remote machine, and the path is correct on the "Debugger" tab in the launch configuration
    • See Known Issues - Debugger below

    If still have a problem, ask on ptp-dev mailing list, and be sure to list your platform, version of Open MPI (or other system), and what the debugger session address is set to.

  5. I've created an Open MPI resource manager, but it fails to start with the message "Unable to determine version of Open MPI. Please check discover command is correct."
  6. Solution: If the resource manager is local, see troubleshooting local resource managers below. If the resource manager is remote, then it is probably an issue with your PATH or LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or both) on the remote machine. Try running the command ssh remote_host ompi_info -a --parseable. If the ompi_info command is not found, then you need to set your PATH correctly on the remote machine. If you see a message like "ompi_info: error while loading shared libraries: libmpi.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" then you also need to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH on the remote machine.

  7. Eclipse is unable to start a local resource manager.
  8. Solution: This is usually because your PATH is not being picked up by Eclipse. Most window systems do not get their paths from the shell, so when you launch Eclipse it will have the wrong PATH set. Consult the documentation on your window system for details on how to set the path, or alternatively, launch Eclipse directly from a shell.

  9. Every time I run an application, all the projects in my workspace build.
  10. Solution: Open the Eclipse preferences. Go to "Run/Debug" and click on the "Launching" preference. Uncheck "Build (if required) before launching".

  11. I only see one node when I start an Open MPI resource manager, how do I simulate multiple nodes on a single machine?
  12. Solution: Edit /usr/local/etc/openmpi-default-hostfile (or wherever you installed Open MPI) and add lines containing
    node0
    node1
    ...
    

    Edit /etc/hosts and add a localhost entry for each name you added to the openmpi-default-hostfile:

    127.0.0.1 node0
    127.0.0.1 node1
    ...
    

    Edit /usr/local/etc/openmpi-mca-params.conf and add the following to the end:

    orte_default_hostfile = /usr/local/etc/openmpi-default-hostfile
    
  13. I want to alter the hostfile information but don't have root access.
    Solution: Create a file, say 'hostfile' in your home directory containing the hostnames of the nodes. Then set the 'OMPI_MCA_orte_default_hostfile' environment variable to '$HOME/hostfile'. You'll need to do this in your .bashrc or .tcshrc (the one which is executed when a new shell is created.) Using .bash_profile or .login won't work.
  14. How do I launch eclipse?
    Solution: Normally just run the eclipse executable - however, you may want to try this from a command line instead of from a "shortcut" - some OS's or windowing systems do not properly send the environment information. And, some OS's send the wrong info from the command line. Your mileage may vary.
  15. Why are there XML tags in my parallel program output when I run my OpenMPI program in PTP?
    Solution: XML tags should be gone in OpenMPI version 1.3.4 and later
  16. Why can't I set a normal (non-parallel) CDT breakpoint in my editor? (Version 4.0.0)
    Solution: The Remote C/C++ Editor does not currently support CDT breakpoints. Open the C/C++ Editor on the file instead by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Open With > C/C++ Editor. This problem should be addressed in 4.0.1. Update your version of PTP to 4.0.1 or later.

Known Issues

Resource Managers

  1. Resource managers seem to get stuck at "Opening connection" when starting.
  2. Connecting to a remote resource manager on some operating systems (in particular Fedora Core 11) generate a Kerberos authentication request. Check the command line where you started Eclipse for a Kerberos prompt. Enter your login name and password when requested.

    Your operating system documentation may provide information on how to disable this request from being generated.

  3. A "Secure Storage" dialog is seen when starting Eclipse on Linux.
  4. Eclipse stores usernames/passwords in secure storage. On some systems, a password (usually your login password) must be entered to unlock this storage before Eclipse can access it. Check your operating system documentation for ways to disable this prompt.

  5. There are synchronization issues when two (or more) remote resource managers attempt to start simultaneously.
  6. This only happens when PTP is first launched, and attempts to reconnect to resource managers that were running when Eclipse was closed.

    Reproduce By: Start two remote resource managers that use remote tools connections. Exit from Eclipse. Restart Eclipse.

    Workaround: Shutdown resource managers before exiting Eclipse

  7. If two resource managers share the same remote connection, stopping one will also stop the other.
  8. Reproduce By: Create two resource managers that use the same remote connection. Start both resource managers. Stop one resource manager.

    Workaround: None. This is expected behavior since shutting down a resource manager also closes the connection.

Debugger

  1. The debugger gets stuck at "Upload file"
  2. When the debugger launches onto a remote system, it attempts to make a connection back to your local machine running Eclipse. If you have the "SSH Tunneling" option enabled on the resource manager, then this connection will be made over the main ssh connection using an ssh tunnel. For this to work, your remote target sshd configuration needs to enable the "GatewayPorts" option. See the sshd_config(5) for more information on this option.

    Workaround: If you are not able to change the sshd configuration on the remote target, the only option is to not use tunneling. This requires direct access from the remote target to your local Eclipse client machine (i.e. you from the remote target system, you should be able to use "ping <local_client_host>".) Also, you'll need to disable the firewall on the local client machine so that the incoming connection is permitted.

  3. The debugger gets stuck at "Waiting for connection"
  4. The debugger requires a filesystem that is shared across all nodes in the cluster in order to distribute routing information. If this routing file doesn't exist, then one or more of the debugger server processes will appear to hang.

    Workaround: In this situation, the routing file must be manually distributed in order for the server processes to proceed.

    This limitation will be addressed in a future version of the debugger.

  5. Accelerator keys (F5, F6) operate on the current process selected in Debug view.
  6. There is currently no way to use these keys for the Parallel Debug view.

Remote Development Tools (RDT)

  1. The Remote C/C++ Editor is used by default for local files
  2. RDT currently provides a framework for developing C/C++ programs on remote machines. Although it is our intention that RDT work seamlessly with CDT and other Eclipse plug-ins, there is a problem with the Eclipse platform which hinders interoperabilty between base CDT and RDT, namely that the Remote C/C++ Editor provided by RDT is always used by default for editing C/C++ files.

    Workaround: Although this issue can be worked around by manually selecting the CDT editor (Context Menu >Open With >C/C++ Editor) when you are working with a local CDT project, it can be tedious having to do this for every single file you open. As such, we recommend that you install RDT into an Eclipse installation which you do not intend to do local C/C++ development with. Future versions of Eclipse and RDT should better support local development.

  3. Unable to set CDT breakpoints in the Remote C/C++ Editor
  4. This issue is similar to the previous problem. Right-click on the file and select Open With > C/C++ Editor. Note also that debugging remote projects with the CDT debugger has not been tested. It is likely that problems will occur if the debugger assumes files reside locally, but are actually located on a remote machine. Use at your own risk.

  5. Remote projects are always closed when Eclipse restarts
  6. When you exit and restart Eclipse, all your remote projects are closed. This happens because the .project file is on the remote server and when eclipse starts there is no connection yet, so eclipse thinks the .project file is missing and closes the project.

    Workaround: To work around this issue, simply reopen your projects after the connection to the remote machine has been re-established.

  7. Remote editors are not properly restored on Eclipse restart
  8. If you leave remote editors open upon closing down the workbench, when you restart, the editors will not be properly initialized, showing a "resource not found" error. Closing and reopening the editor will not alleviate the problem. This problem occurs because on startup of the workbench, the remote connection is not yet established, and hence opening the editors fails.

    Workaround: To work around this problem, close all editors opened on remote resources before shutting down the workbench. If the problem occurs, you can alleviate it by closing the affected editors and restarting the workbench.

  9. Cannot cancel builds when using the RSE provider
  10. There is an RSE bug which prevents RSE from forcibly terminating remote processes. As a result, if you use RSE to build, you won't be able to cancel a build while it's in progress.

    Workaround: Use the Remote Tools provider if possible. Otherwise there is no workaround.

  11. Quick Type Hierarchy does nothing
  12. Invoking Quick Type Hierarchy from the editor context menu does not currently do anything.

    Workaround: Use "Open Type Hierarchy" instead to open the Type Hierarchy View for an alternate method of viewing type hierarchy information.

Parallel Language Development Tools (PLDT)

  1. Analysis of parallel applications located on a remote server doesn't seem to work
  2. Note that not all PLDT features are tested and verified for running with RDT at this time.

    Since 4.0.3, finding artifacts (MPI, OpenMP, UPC) does work on remote projects.

    Workaround: To use other PLDT analysis features, use a local CDT project, instead of a remote project.


Installation and Update - after Helios SR1

  1. Check for Updates - after Helios SR1 (9/24/10) - gives Cannot Complete the install error.
      Because of a feature change we made in RDT for the 4.0.3 release, and what we think is a p2 bug (part of the way Eclipse deals with installing software, and handling updates), if you had PTP/RDT 4.0.0 (or 4.0.1 or 4.0.2) installed, and then did "Help > Check for Updates" after Helios SR1 was released (Friday Sept 24, 2010), you probably see the following error:  
    Cannot complete the install because of a conflicting dependency.  
    Software being installed: PTP Remote Development Tools (RDT) 4.0.3.201009162109 (org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.feature.group 4.0.3.201009162109)
    .... with lots more details....  

    We really do believe that we've made initial installation simpler and more foolproof, but unfortunately you may see the above error when you update from an older version.  

    To get around this error, I recommend doing the following:
    1. Uninstall PTP and RDT
      • Help > Install New Software ... and at the bottom, click the "What is already installed?" link.
      • In the next dialog, Select the pieces of PTP/RDT you have, e.g.:
        • Parallel Tools Platform (PTP) End-user runtime
        • PTP Remote Development Tools (RDT)
        • PTP RDT Remote Tools Support
          Then select the "Uninstall..." button at the bottom of the dialog. After the un-install, it should ask you to restart Eclipse. Do so.
    2. Help > Check for Updates....
      This should find the new changes to the platform and CDT.
      After update it may prompt you to restart Eclipse.
      You can say "Not now" to skip if you like.
    3. Re-install PTP and RDT
      • Help > Install New Software...
      • Select the Helios update site and install the following. Both are under General Purpose Tools:
        • Parallel Tools Platform (PTP) End-user runtime 4.0.3
        • PTP Remote Development Tools (RDT) 4.0.3
          Note that you no longer need to install the PTP RDT Remote Tools Support - it's now part of RDT.
          Sorry for any confusion.


If you are installing PTP/RDT in a new Eclipse installation, ALL YOU NEED now is

  • Parallel Tools Platform (PTP) End-user runtime
  • PTP Remote Development Tools (RDT) in order to use PTP with Remote Tools.

Remote Tools is part of PTP (as always) and the RDT Remote Tools Support is now part of RDT.

C/C++ Build Issues

  1. C/C++ build issue: I get the error "The Open MPI wrapper compiler was unable to find the specified compiler gcc in your PATH." when I build an MPI program (e.g. created with the Hello MPI World new project wizard) .
    • The PATH variable may not be getting communicated to CDT correctly. Copy the contents of your PATH variable in the clipboard, and open the Project Properties, c/c++ build, Environment, add var: PATH and paste in the PATH from cmd line
  2. The ptp_ibmpe_proxy and ptp_ibmll_proxy proxies for the IBM PE and IBM LoadLeveler resource managers do not work with LoadLeveler. Messages may be displayed stating that libllapi.so could not be loaded on Linux systems.
    • Depending on the version of LoadLeveler installed, libllapi.so may be a 32 bit shared library or a 64 bit shared library. This can be determined by locating libllapi.so in /opt/ibmll/LoadL. For 32 bit versions, it will be in /opt/ibmll/LoadL/full/lib, /opt/ibmll/LoadL/scheduler/lib, or /opt/ibmll/LoadL/so/lib. For 64 bit versions, libllapi.so will be in the corresponding lib64 directories. You should set the CFLAGS environment variable to contain either the -m32 or -m64 flags before invoking the BUILD script, for instance CFLAGS=" -m64" sh BUILD configure

Feature Descriptions

Feature Required Description
Parallel Tools Platform Core Y Core components of PTP
Parallel Tools Platform End-User Runtime Y Main PTP feature that combines PTP Core, resource managers, and other components
PTP Remote Services Y (for remote services) Adds a remote services abstraction that can be used to connect to remote systems using either Remote Tools or RSE. Can be installed as a stand-alone component.
PTP Common External Components Y (for proxy agents and debugger) Components that must be installed on a target system to support certain resource managers and the debugger
PTP Common Utilities Y Common utility functions. Can be installed as a stand-alone component.
PTP Parallel Language Development Tools N (recommended) Adds MPI, OpenMP, LAPI, and UPC analysis and assistance tools
PTP Parallel Language Development Tools LAPI Support N Adds LAPI assistance tools
PTP External Tools Framework N Adds support for the integration of external tools (formerly Performance Tools Framework)
PTP External Tools Framework TAU Support N Adds support for the integration of the Tuning and Analysis Utilities (TAU)
PTP Remote Tools N (recommended) Light weight ssh-based remote services. Can be installed as a stand-alone component.
PTP Remote Tools Enabler N (recommended) Adds support to allow PTP to use the remote services provided by Remote Tools
PTP RSE Enabler N (recommended) Adds support to allow PTP to use the remote services provided by RSE
PTP Scalable Debug Manager N (recommended) External component to allow debugging of parallel applications. Can be installed as a stand-alone component.
PTP Support For IBM LoadLeveler N Adds resource manager support for IBM LoadLeveler
PTP Support For IBM Parallel Environment N Adds resource manager support for IBM Parallel Environment
PTP Support For MPICH2 N Adds resource manager support for MPICH2 (Linux or Mac OS X only)
PTP Support For Open MPI N (recommended) Adds resource manager support for Open MPI
PTP Remote Development Tools (RDT) N (recommended) Adds capability to work with C/C++ projects on a remote machine

Back to the top