1LAM-HELPFILE(5)                LAM FILE FORMATS                LAM-HELPFILE(5)
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NAME

6       lam-helpfile - LAM help message file
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DESCRIPTION

9       The  lam-helpfile  provides detailed error messages and suggestions for
10       help on how to fix common problems.  In many places  in  LAM,  when  an
11       error occurs, this help file is consulted to display a detailed message
12       of what the error was and, when possible, suggestions on how to fix the
13       problem.  It consists of much of the information from the LAM FAQ (par‐
14       ticularly in dealing with getting LAM up and running)
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16       At present, the following LAM tools use this help file (it is  expected
17       that  more will use it in future releases.  If you have suggestions for
18       locations where more detailed error messages would be  helpful,  please
19       let us know):
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21       hboot
22       lamboot
23       lamexec
24       lamhalt
25       lamnodes
26       lamwipe
27       mpicc (hcc)
28       mpiCC (hcp)
29       mpif77 (hf77)
30       mpirun
31       recon
32       tkill
33       tping
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STRUCTURE AND SYNTAX

36       The  help file is multiple blocks of help text separated by single line
37       delimiters.  The delimiter lines are of the format:
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39       -*-programname:topicname-*-
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41       Where programname is the general name of the program (or group of  pro‐
42       grams) that this help message applies to, and topicname is the specific
43       topic that this message applies two.
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45       The special keyword ALL can be used for either the programname  or  the
46       topicname in some cases; this is usually a "wildcard" value where  lit‐
47       tle specific information is available.
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49       Within the block of the message,  lines  that  begin  with  a  "#"  are
50       treated as comments; they are not printed out.
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52       Three special escape sequences can be used within the help message:
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54       %N     Where  N  is a number from 1 to the number of arguments that the
55              help message is invoked with.  The "%N" string is replaced  with
56              the value of the Nth argument from the argument list.  The argu‐
57              ments are passed from the LAM binaries themselves;  they  cannot
58              be  edited.   The  comments in the default LAM help file explain
59              how many arguments each message is invoked with, and  what  each
60              argument is.
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62       %perror
63              Shows the result of the Unix perror(3) function.
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65       %terror
66              Shows  the  result of the LAM terror() function, which is essen‐
67              tially a wrapper around the Unix perror(3) function.
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LOCATION OF HELP FILE

70       The exact location of the help file is configurable.  This allows  sys‐
71       tem  administrators  and/or  users to customize the help file for their
72       particular environment.
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74       When LAM attempts to print an error message  from  the  help  file,  it
75       looks for the help file in the following locations (in order):
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77       $HOME/lam-helpfile
78       $HOME/lam-7.1.2-helpfile
79       $HOME/etc/lam-helpfile
80       $HOME/etc/lam-7.1.2-helpfile
81       $LAMHELPDIR/lam-helpfile
82       $LAMHELPDIR/lam-7.1.2-helpfile
83       $LAMHOME/etc/lam-helpfile
84       $LAMHOME/etc/lam-7.1.2-helpfile
85       $TROLLIUSHOME/etc/lam-helpfile
86       $TROLLIUSHOME/etc/lam-7.1.2-helpfile
87       $SYSCONFDIR/lam-helpfile
88       $SYSCONFDIR/lam-7.1.2-helpfile
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90       Note  the  variable  $LAMHELPDIR; this variable can be set according to
91       platform, for example, to provide  operating  system-specific  informa‐
92       tion,  or  information  specific to particular groups of machines, etc.
93       It can also be set to provide help messages in different languages.
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95       $SYSCONFIDIR is typically $prefix/etc, where $prefix is the location to
96       where LAM was installed; it was the option supplied to ./configure when
97       LAM was built (or /usr/local/lam-7.1.2,  by  default).   However,  note
98       that  the value of $SYSCONFDIR can be overridden when LAM is configured
99       with the --sysconfdir switch.
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EXAMPLES

102       The following is an example customization of the help for the hboot and
103       lamboot  programs,  when the user supplies a host file name that is not
104       found.
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106       -*-boot:open-hostfile-*-
107       %1 could not open the hostfile "%2" for the following reason:
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109                   %perror
110       Things to check:
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112                   - ensure that the file exists
113                     try "ls -l %2"
114                   - ensure that you have read permissions on the file
115                     try "cat %2"
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117       You may not need to specify a host file at all; the system
118       administrators have defined the all of Beowulf cluster host names in
119       the LAM default host name list.  If you wish to use all of the Beowulf
120       nodes, simply execute:
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122                   %1 -v
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124       If you have any problems with LAM, please send mail to:
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126                   lam-admin@your.domain.com
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FILES

129       $LAMHOME/etc/lam-7.1.2-helpfile
130           default LAM help file
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SEE ALSO

133       hboot(1), lamboot(1), lamexec(1), lamhalt(1), lamnodes(1),  lamwipe(1),
134       mpicc(1), mpiCC(1), mpif77(1), mpirun(1), recon(1), tkill(1), tping(1),
135       perror(3)
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140LAM 7.1.2                         March, 2006                  LAM-HELPFILE(5)