# PCMGSetLevels
Sets the number of levels to use with `PCMG`. Must be called before any other `PCMG` routine. 
## Synopsis
```
#include "petscksp.h" 
PetscErrorCode PCMGSetLevels(PC pc, PetscInt levels, MPI_Comm *comms)
```
Logically Collective on pc


## Input Parameters

- ***pc -*** the preconditioner context
- ***levels -*** the number of levels
- ***comms -*** optional communicators for each level; this is to allow solving the coarser problems
on smaller sets of processes. For processes that are not included in the computation
you must pass `MPI_COMM_NULL`. Use comms = NULL to specify that all processes
should participate in each level of problem.





## Notes
If the number of levels is one then the multigrid uses the -mg_levels prefix
for setting the level options rather than the -mg_coarse prefix.

You can free the information in comms after this routine is called.

The array of MPI communicators must contain `MPI_COMM_NULL` for those ranks that at each level
are not participating in the coarser solve. For example, with 2 levels and 1 and 2 ranks on
the two levels, rank 0 in the original communicator will pass in an array of 2 communicators
of size 2 and 1, while rank 1 in the original communicator will pass in array of 2 communicators
the first of size 2 and the second of value `MPI_COMM_NULL` since the rank 1 does not participate
in the coarse grid solve.

Since each coarser level may have a new `MPI_Comm` with fewer ranks than the previous, one
must take special care in providing the restriction and interpolation operation. We recommend
providing these as two step operations; first perform a standard restriction or interpolation on
the full number of ranks for that level and then use an MPI call to copy the resulting vector
array entries (after calls to VecGetArray()) to the smaller or larger number of ranks, note in both
cases the MPI calls must be made on the larger of the two communicators. Traditional MPI send and
recieves or MPI_AlltoAllv() could be used to do the reshuffling of the vector entries.


## Fortran Note
Use comms = `PETSC_NULL_MPI_COMM` as the equivalent of NULL in the C interface. Note `PETSC_NULL_MPI_COMM`
is not `MPI_COMM_NULL`. It is more like `PETSC_NULL_INTEGER`, `PETSC_NULL_REAL` etc.


## See Also
 `PCMGSetType()`, `PCMGGetLevels()`

## Level
intermediate

## Location
<A HREF="PETSC_DOC_OUT_ROOT_PLACEHOLDER/src/ksp/pc/impls/mg/mg.c.html#PCMGSetLevels">src/ksp/pc/impls/mg/mg.c</A>

## Examples
<A HREF="PETSC_DOC_OUT_ROOT_PLACEHOLDER/src/dm/impls/stag/tutorials/ex4.c.html">src/dm/impls/stag/tutorials/ex4.c.html</A><BR>
<A HREF="PETSC_DOC_OUT_ROOT_PLACEHOLDER/src/ksp/ksp/tutorials/ex35.cxx.html">src/ksp/ksp/tutorials/ex35.cxx.html</A><BR>
<A HREF="PETSC_DOC_OUT_ROOT_PLACEHOLDER/src/ksp/ksp/tutorials/ex36.cxx.html">src/ksp/ksp/tutorials/ex36.cxx.html</A><BR>
<A HREF="PETSC_DOC_OUT_ROOT_PLACEHOLDER/src/ksp/ksp/tutorials/ex42.c.html">src/ksp/ksp/tutorials/ex42.c.html</A><BR>

## Implementations

<A HREF="PETSC_DOC_OUT_ROOT_PLACEHOLDER/src/ksp/pc/impls/mg/mg.c.html#PCMGSetLevels_MG">PCMGSetLevels_MG in src/ksp/pc/impls/mg/mg.c</A><BR>


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[Edit on GitLab](https://gitlab.com/petsc/petsc/-/edit/release/src/ksp/pc/impls/mg/mg.c)


[Index of all PC routines](index.md)  
[Table of Contents for all manual pages](/docs/manualpages/index.md)  
[Index of all manual pages](/docs/manualpages/singleindex.md)  
