*Summary:* - Suggestion to introduce MPI_TAG_NULL in the standard with an obviously illegal value (i.e. <0) - Explicitly allow Point-to-Point messages to have one of more of: tag MPI_TAG_NULL, datatype MPI_DATATYPE_NULL, invalid buffer addresses (including MPI_ADDRESS_NULL) and communicator MPI_COMM_NULL, if (and only if) the corresponding send or receive argument is MPI_PROC_NULL. *Argument:* When writing code it is useful if it goes off with a bang when you do something wrong. To catch matching errors in sends and receives I looked for a MPI_TAG_NULL to use as a default value to catch cases where the tag was not set correctly. I found that there was no such item. Referring to the standard I found that tag values are restricted to the values 0...MPI_TAG_UB, where MPI_TAG_UB (>=32767) can be found using the MPI_Comm_get_attr() function. So I used my own value for MPI_TAG_NULL as -1 and coded away. However, the MPI implementation I was using blew up when I used it in a MPI_Sendrecv with the remote task being MPI_PROC_NULL throwing an error message "illegal tag value", which was no surprise to me since I had set it to this value explicitly. The workaround is of course to put a if( PartnerTask != MPI_PROC_NULL ) { ... } around every point-to-point call, but I find it unnecessary and makes the code look more complex. I think that MPI_PROC_NULL was invented for exactly this purpose, to be a transparent if(...) clause for the operation. Is there really a need to be restrictive on datat ype, tag or any other argument when the P2P operation is with MPI_PROC_NULL? I would expect implementations to choose MPI_ADDRESS_NULL be equal to (*) 0 in C and 0_MPI_ADDRESS_KIND in Fortran and MPI_TAG_NULL to be default integer kind -1. *Implementation:* Append to section "3.10 Null processes" text along the lines of: A call to any point-to-point messaging function with a process argument of MPI_PROC_NULL is allowed to have any value for buffer address, data type, tag and communicator including MPI_ADDRESS_NULL, MPI_DATATYPE_NULL, MPI_TAG_NULL and MPI_COMM_NULL without causing an error condition in the execution. Insert into appendix "A1 Assorted constants" MPI_TAG_NULL and MPI_ADDRESS_NULL Insert into section "9.1.2 Environmental Inquiries" (which is an odd place where Tag values are specified in the standard): (Line 34, end of first paragraph) [... is also a valid value for MPITAG_UB]. The constant MPI_TAG_NULL shall have a value outside of the 0...MPI_TAG_UB range. The value MPI_TAG_NULL is erroneous to use in any communication unless the associated process argument is MPI_PROC_NULL. Add to section "15.3.3 Convention for Returning Strings" The constant MPI_ADDRESS_NULL can be used as an equivalent to the null pointer. /Nils Smeds