Open MPI for Debian - Developer Notes
-------------------------------------

MPI Alternatives
----------------

The current Open MPI version of Debian uses the Debian Alternatives system.
Although Open MPI might replace most of the existing MPI implementations in the
future (see http://www.open-mpi.org/faq/?category=general#why), we decided to
not affect any other MPI implementation already installed on your system.

You can setup Open MPI as default MPI implementation by selecting openmpi as
the "mpi" alternative:

  update-alternatives --config mpi

Please note that there is a bug in update-alternatives (namely #388313) that
may cause trouble when you install several development packages of other
MPI implementations, i.e. LAM or MPICH.

If you would like to build Debian packages that link against multiple MPI 
implementations, we recommend to point your build system to the locations
under /usr/lib instead of relying on update-alternatives. This may also allow
parallel builds.

 -- Debian Open MPI Team <pkg-openmpi-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>, Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:34:30 +0200