Yes, MPI allows a process to send data to itself but one has to be extra careful about possible deadlocks when blocking operations are used. In that case one usually pairs a non-blocking send with blocking receive or vice versa, or one uses calls like MPI_Sendrecv
. Sending a message to self usually ends up with the message simply being memory-copied from the source buffer to the destination one with no networking or other heavy machinery involved.
And no, communicating with self is not necessary a bad thing. The most obvious benefit is that it makes the code more symmetric as it removes/reduces the special logic needed to handle self-interaction. Sending to/receiving from self also happens in most collective communication calls. For example, MPI_Scatter
also sends part of the data to the root process. To prevent some send-to-self cases that unnecessarily replicate data and decrease performance, MPI allows in-place mode (MPI_IN_PLACE
) for most communication-related collectives.