I am trying to use the following to catch failed processes, MPI::COMM_WORLD.Get_attr(MPICH_ATTR_FAILED_PROCESSES, void*) I am using MPICH2 1.4 and g++. Someone posted a C program that does this successfully. The link is http://hi.baidu.com/ejoywx/item/74233ccb9dd20815515058ae. However, I am having trouble making my C++ testing program (attached) working. The code compiled ok but produces the following runtime error, terminate called after throwing an instance of 'MPI::Exception' APPLICATION TERMINATED WITH THE EXIT STRING: Aborted (signal 6) If I comment out the line "MPI::COMM_WORLD.Get_attr(MPICH_ATTR_FAILED_PROCESSES, void*)" or put it in a try and catch block, the test program runs fine. Thank you for your help. Zhaoming