Thank you for your interest in contributing to PyTorch! If you're a new contributor, please first take a read through our [Contributing Guidelines](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oNhUeGE-8ajsYaMpoV6ZQANQZVeKrdFanI9VMbFzOzc/edit) that walks through the process of contributing a change to PyTorch. The rest of this document (CONTRIBUTING.md) covers some of the more technical aspects of contributing to PyTorch. # Table of Contents - [Developing PyTorch](#developing-pytorch) - [Tips and Debugging](#tips-and-debugging) - [Nightly Checkout & Pull](#nightly-checkout--pull) - [Codebase structure](#codebase-structure) - [Unit testing](#unit-testing) - [Python Unit Testing](#python-unit-testing) - [Better local unit tests with `pytest`](#better-local-unit-tests-with-pytest) - [Local linting](#local-linting) - [Running `mypy`](#running-mypy) - [C++ Unit Testing](#c-unit-testing) - [Run Specific CI Jobs](#run-specific-ci-jobs) - [Merging your Change](#merging-your-change) - [Writing documentation](#writing-documentation) - [Docstring type formatting](#docstring-type-formatting) - [Building documentation](#building-documentation) - [Tips](#tips) - [Building C++ Documentation](#building-c-documentation) - [Previewing changes locally](#previewing-changes-locally) - [Previewing documentation on PRs](#previewing-documentation-on-prs) - [Adding documentation tests](#adding-documentation-tests) - [Profiling with `py-spy`](#profiling-with-py-spy) - [Managing multiple build trees](#managing-multiple-build-trees) - [C++ development tips](#c-development-tips) - [Build only what you need](#build-only-what-you-need) - [Code completion and IDE support](#code-completion-and-ide-support) - [Make no-op build fast](#make-no-op-build-fast) - [Use Ninja](#use-ninja) - [Use CCache](#use-ccache) - [Use a faster linker](#use-a-faster-linker) - [Use pre-compiled headers](#use-pre-compiled-headers) - [Workaround for header dependency bug in nvcc](#workaround-for-header-dependency-bug-in-nvcc) - [C++ frontend development tips](#c-frontend-development-tips) - [GDB integration](#gdb-integration) - [C++ stacktraces](#c-stacktraces) - [CUDA development tips](#cuda-development-tips) - [Windows development tips](#windows-development-tips) - [Known MSVC (and MSVC with NVCC) bugs](#known-msvc-and-msvc-with-nvcc-bugs) - [Building on legacy code and CUDA](#building-on-legacy-code-and-cuda) - [Running clang-tidy](#running-clang-tidy) - [Pre-commit tidy/linting hook](#pre-commit-tidylinting-hook) - [Building PyTorch with ASAN](#building-pytorch-with-asan) - [Getting `ccache` to work](#getting-ccache-to-work) - [Why this stuff with `LD_PRELOAD` and `LIBASAN_RT`?](#why-this-stuff-with-ld_preload-and-libasan_rt) - [Why LD_PRELOAD in the build function?](#why-ld_preload-in-the-build-function) - [Why no leak detection?](#why-no-leak-detection) - [Caffe2 notes](#caffe2-notes) - [CI failure tips](#ci-failure-tips) - [Which commit is used in CI?](#which-commit-is-used-in-ci) - [Dev Infra Office Hours](#dev-infra-office-hours) ## Developing PyTorch Follow the instructions for [installing PyTorch from source](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch#from-source). If you get stuck when developing PyTorch on your machine, check out the [tips and debugging](#tips-and-debugging) section below for common solutions. ### Tips and Debugging * If you want to have no-op incremental rebuilds (which are fast), see [Make no-op build fast](#make-no-op-build-fast) below. * When installing with `python setup.py develop` (in contrast to `python setup.py install`) Python runtime will use the current local source-tree when importing `torch` package. (This is done by creating [`.egg-link`](https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonPackagingTerminology#egg-link) file in `site-packages` folder) This way you do not need to repeatedly install after modifying Python files (`.py`). However, you would need to reinstall if you modify Python interface (`.pyi`, `.pyi.in`) or non-Python files (`.cpp`, `.cc`, `.cu`, `.h`, ...). One way to avoid running `python setup.py develop` every time one makes a change to C++/CUDA/ObjectiveC files on Linux/Mac, is to create a symbolic link from `build` folder to `torch/lib`, for example, by issuing following: ```bash pushd torch/lib; sh -c "ln -sf ../../build/lib/libtorch_cpu.* ."; popd ``` Afterwards rebuilding a library (for example to rebuild `libtorch_cpu.so` issue `ninja torch_cpu` from `build` folder), would be sufficient to make change visible in `torch` package. To reinstall, first uninstall all existing PyTorch installs. You may need to run `pip uninstall torch` multiple times. You'll know `torch` is fully uninstalled when you see `WARNING: Skipping torch as it is not installed`. (You should only have to `pip uninstall` a few times, but you can always `uninstall` with `timeout` or in a loop if you're feeling lazy.) ```bash conda uninstall pytorch -y yes | pip uninstall torch ``` Next run `python setup.py clean`. After that, you can install in `develop` mode again. * If a commit is simple and doesn't affect any code (keep in mind that some docstrings contain code that is used in tests), you can add `[skip ci]` (case sensitive) somewhere in your commit message to [skip all build / test steps](https://github.blog/changelog/2021-02-08-github-actions-skip-pull-request-and-push-workflows-with-skip-ci/). Note that changing the pull request body or title on GitHub itself has no effect. * If you run into errors when running `python setup.py develop`, here are some debugging steps: 1. Run `printf '#include \nint main() { printf("Hello World");}'|clang -x c -; ./a.out` to make sure your CMake works and can compile this simple Hello World program without errors. 2. Nuke your `build` directory. The `setup.py` script compiles binaries into the `build` folder and caches many details along the way, which saves time the next time you build. If you're running into issues, you can always `rm -rf build` from the toplevel `pytorch` directory and start over. 3. If you have made edits to the PyTorch repo, commit any change you'd like to keep and clean the repo with the following commands (note that clean _really_ removes all untracked files and changes.): ```bash git submodule deinit -f . git clean -xdf python setup.py clean git submodule update --init --recursive # very important to sync the submodules python setup.py develop # then try running the command again ``` 4. The main step within `python setup.py develop` is running `make` from the `build` directory. If you want to experiment with some environment variables, you can pass them into the command: ```bash ENV_KEY1=ENV_VAL1[, ENV_KEY2=ENV_VAL2]* python setup.py develop ``` * If you run into issue running `git submodule update --init --recursive`. Please try the following: - If you encounter an error such as ``` error: Submodule 'third_party/pybind11' could not be updated ``` check whether your Git local or global config file contains any `submodule.*` settings. If yes, remove them and try again. (please reference [this doc](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#Documentation/git-config.txt-submoduleltnamegturl) for more info). - If you encounter an error such as ``` fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/pybind11/pybind11.git': could not load PEM client certificate ... ``` this is likely that you are using HTTP proxying and the certificate expired. To check if the certificate is valid, run `git config --global --list` and search for config like `http.proxysslcert=`. Then check certificate valid date by running ```bash openssl x509 -noout -in -dates ``` - If you encounter an error that some third_party modules are not checked out correctly, such as ``` Could not find .../pytorch/third_party/pybind11/CMakeLists.txt ``` remove any `submodule.*` settings in your local git config (`.git/config` of your pytorch repo) and try again. * If you're a Windows contributor, please check out [Best Practices](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Best-Practices-to-Edit-and-Compile-Pytorch-Source-Code-On-Windows). * For help with any part of the contributing process, please don’t hesitate to utilize our Zoom office hours! See details [here](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Dev-Infra-Office-Hours) ## Nightly Checkout & Pull The `tools/nightly.py` script is provided to ease pure Python development of PyTorch. This uses `conda` and `git` to check out the nightly development version of PyTorch and installs pre-built binaries into the current repository. This is like a development or editable install, but without needing the ability to compile any C++ code. You can use this script to check out a new nightly branch with the following: ```bash ./tools/nightly.py checkout -b my-nightly-branch conda activate pytorch-deps ``` Or if you would like to re-use an existing conda environment, you can pass in the regular environment parameters (`--name` or `--prefix`): ```bash ./tools/nightly.py checkout -b my-nightly-branch -n my-env conda activate my-env ``` You can also use this tool to pull the nightly commits into the current branch: ```bash ./tools/nightly.py pull -n my-env conda activate my-env ``` Pulling will reinstall the PyTorch dependencies as well as the nightly binaries into the repo directory. ## Codebase structure * [c10](c10) - Core library files that work everywhere, both server and mobile. We are slowly moving pieces from [ATen/core](aten/src/ATen/core) here. This library is intended only to contain essential functionality, and appropriate to use in settings where binary size matters. (But you'll have a lot of missing functionality if you try to use it directly.) * [aten](aten) - C++ tensor library for PyTorch (no autograd support) * [src](aten/src) - [README](aten/src/README.md) * [ATen](aten/src/ATen) * [core](aten/src/ATen/core) - Core functionality of ATen. This is migrating to top-level c10 folder. * [native](aten/src/ATen/native) - Modern implementations of operators. If you want to write a new operator, here is where it should go. Most CPU operators go in the top level directory, except for operators which need to be compiled specially; see cpu below. * [cpu](aten/src/ATen/native/cpu) - Not actually CPU implementations of operators, but specifically implementations which are compiled with processor-specific instructions, like AVX. See the [README](aten/src/ATen/native/cpu/README.md) for more details. * [cuda](aten/src/ATen/native/cuda) - CUDA implementations of operators. * [sparse](aten/src/ATen/native/sparse) - CPU and CUDA implementations of COO sparse tensor operations * [mkl](aten/src/ATen/native/mkl) [mkldnn](aten/src/ATen/native/mkldnn) [miopen](aten/src/ATen/native/miopen) [cudnn](aten/src/ATen/native/cudnn) - implementations of operators which simply bind to some backend library. * [quantized](aten/src/ATen/native/quantized/) - Quantized tensor (i.e. QTensor) operation implementations. [README](aten/src/ATen/native/quantized/README.md) contains details including how to implement native quantized operations. * [torch](torch) - The actual PyTorch library. Everything that is not in [csrc](torch/csrc) is a Python module, following the PyTorch Python frontend module structure. * [csrc](torch/csrc) - C++ files composing the PyTorch library. Files in this directory tree are a mix of Python binding code, and C++ heavy lifting. Consult `setup.py` for the canonical list of Python binding files; conventionally, they are often prefixed with `python_`. [README](torch/csrc/README.md) * [jit](torch/csrc/jit) - Compiler and frontend for TorchScript JIT frontend. [README](torch/csrc/jit/README.md) * [autograd](torch/csrc/autograd) - Implementation of reverse-mode automatic differentiation. [README](torch/csrc/autograd/README.md) * [api](torch/csrc/api) - The PyTorch C++ frontend. * [distributed](torch/csrc/distributed) - Distributed training support for PyTorch. * [tools](tools) - Code generation scripts for the PyTorch library. See [README](tools/README.md) of this directory for more details. * [test](test) - Python unit tests for PyTorch Python frontend. * [test_torch.py](test/test_torch.py) - Basic tests for PyTorch functionality. * [test_autograd.py](test/test_autograd.py) - Tests for non-NN automatic differentiation support. * [test_nn.py](test/test_nn.py) - Tests for NN operators and their automatic differentiation. * [test_jit.py](test/test_jit.py) - Tests for the JIT compiler and TorchScript. * ... * [cpp](test/cpp) - C++ unit tests for PyTorch C++ frontend. * [api](test/cpp/api) - [README](test/cpp/api/README.md) * [jit](test/cpp/jit) - [README](test/cpp/jit/README.md) * [tensorexpr](test/cpp/tensorexpr) - [README](test/cpp/tensorexpr/README.md) * [expect](test/expect) - Automatically generated "expect" files which are used to compare against expected output. * [onnx](test/onnx) - Tests for ONNX export functionality, using both PyTorch and Caffe2. * [caffe2](caffe2) - The Caffe2 library. * [core](caffe2/core) - Core files of Caffe2, e.g., tensor, workspace, blobs, etc. * [operators](caffe2/operators) - Operators of Caffe2. * [python](caffe2/python) - Python bindings to Caffe2. * ... * [.circleci](.circleci) - CircleCI configuration management. [README](.circleci/README.md) ## Unit testing ### Python Unit Testing **Prerequisites**: The following packages should be installed with either `conda` or `pip`: - `expecttest` and `hypothesis` - required to run tests - `mypy` - recommended for linting - `pytest` - recommended to run tests more selectively All PyTorch test suites are located in the `test` folder and start with `test_`. Run the entire test suite with ```bash python test/run_test.py ``` or run individual test suites using the command `python test/FILENAME.py`, where `FILENAME` represents the file containing the test suite you wish to run. For example, to run all the TorchScript JIT tests (located at `test/test_jit.py`), you would run: ```bash python test/test_jit.py ``` You can narrow down what you're testing even further by specifying the name of an individual test with `TESTCLASSNAME.TESTNAME`. Here, `TESTNAME` is the name of the test you want to run, and `TESTCLASSNAME` is the name of the class in which it is defined. Going off the above example, let's say you want to run `test_Sequential`, which is defined as part of the `TestJit` class in `test/test_jit.py`. Your command would be: ```bash python test/test_jit.py TestJit.test_Sequential ``` **Weird note:** In our CI (Continuous Integration) jobs, we actually run the tests from the `test` folder and **not** the root of the repo, since there are various dependencies we set up for CI that expects the tests to be run from the test folder. As such, there may be some inconsistencies between local testing and CI testing--if you observe an inconsistency, please [file an issue](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/issues/new/choose). ### Better local unit tests with `pytest` We don't officially support `pytest`, but it works well with our `unittest` tests and offers a number of useful features for local developing. Install it via `pip install pytest`. If you want to just run tests that contain a specific substring, you can use the `-k` flag: ```bash pytest test/test_nn.py -k Loss -v ``` The above is an example of testing a change to all Loss functions: this command runs tests such as `TestNN.test_BCELoss` and `TestNN.test_MSELoss` and can be useful to save keystrokes. ### Local linting Install all prerequisites by running ```bash make setup_lint ``` You can now run the same linting steps that are used in CI locally via `make`: ```bash make lint ``` Learn more about the linter on the [lintrunner wiki page](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/lintrunner) #### Running `mypy` `mypy` is an optional static type checker for Python. We have multiple `mypy` configs for the PyTorch codebase that are automatically validated against whenever the linter is run. See [Guide for adding type annotations to PyTorch](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Guide-for-adding-type-annotations-to-PyTorch) for more information on how to set up `mypy` and tackle type annotation tasks. ### C++ Unit Testing PyTorch offers a series of tests located in the `test/cpp` folder. These tests are written in C++ and use the Google Test testing framework. After compiling PyTorch from source, the test runner binaries will be written to the `build/bin` folder. The command to run one of these tests is `./build/bin/FILENAME --gtest_filter=TESTSUITE.TESTNAME`, where `TESTNAME` is the name of the test you'd like to run and `TESTSUITE` is the suite that test is defined in. For example, if you wanted to run the test `MayContainAlias`, which is part of the test suite `ContainerAliasingTest` in the file `test/cpp/jit/test_alias_analysis.cpp`, the command would be: ```bash ./build/bin/test_jit --gtest_filter=ContainerAliasingTest.MayContainAlias ``` ### Run Specific CI Jobs You can generate a commit that limits the CI to only run a specific job by using `tools/testing/explicit_ci_jobs.py` like so: ```bash # --job: specify one or more times to filter to a specific job + its dependencies # --filter-gha: specify github actions workflows to keep # --make-commit: commit CI changes to git with a message explaining the change python tools/testing/explicit_ci_jobs.py --job binary_linux_manywheel_3_6m_cpu_devtoolset7_nightly_test --filter-gha '*generated*gcc5.4*' --make-commit # Make your changes ghstack submit ``` **NB**: It is not recommended to use this workflow unless you are also using [`ghstack`](https://github.com/ezyang/ghstack). It creates a large commit that is of very low signal to reviewers. ## Merging your Change If you know the right people or team that should approve your PR (and you have the required permissions to do so), add them to the Reviewers list. If not, leave the Reviewers section empty. Our triage squad will review your PR, add a module label, and assign it to the appropriate reviewer in a couple business days. The reviewer will then look at your PR and respond. Occasionally, things might fall through the cracks (sorry!). In case your PR either doesn't get assigned to a reviewer or doesn't get any response from the reviewer for 4 business days, please leave comment on the PR (mentioning the reviewer if one has been assigned). That'll get it nudged back onto people's radar. If that still doesn't help, come see us during [our office hours](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Dev-Infra-Office-Hours) Once your PR is approved, you can merge it in by entering a comment with the content `@pytorchmergebot merge` ([what's this bot?](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Bot-commands)) ## Writing documentation So you want to write some documentation and don't know where to start? PyTorch has two main types of documentation: - **User facing documentation**: These are the docs that you see over at [our docs website](https://pytorch.org/docs). - **Developer facing documentation**: Developer facing documentation is spread around our READMEs in our codebase and in the [PyTorch Developer Wiki](https://pytorch.org/wiki). If you're interested in adding new developer docs, please read this [page on the wiki](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Where-or-how-should-I-add-documentation) on our best practices for where to put it. The rest of this section is about user-facing documentation. PyTorch uses [Google style](https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/extensions/example_google.html) for formatting docstrings. Each line inside a docstrings block must be limited to 80 characters so that it fits into Jupyter documentation popups. ### Docstring type formatting In addition to the standard Google Style docstring formatting rules, the following guidelines should be followed for docstring types (docstring types are the type information contained in the round brackets after the variable name): * The "`Callable`", "`Any`", "`Iterable`", "`Iterator`", "`Generator`" types should have their first letter capitalized. * The "`list`" and "`tuple`" types should be completely lowercase. * Types should not be made plural. For example: `tuple of int` should be used instead of `tuple of ints`. * The only acceptable delimiter words for types are `or` and `of`. No other non-type words should be used other than `optional`. * The word `optional` should only be used after the types, and it is only used if the user does not have to specify a value for the variable. Default values are listed after the variable description. Example: ``` my_var (int, optional): Variable description. Default: 1 ``` * Basic Python types should match their type name so that the [Intersphinx](https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/extensions/intersphinx.html) extension can correctly identify them. For example: * Use `str` instead of `string`. * Use `bool` instead of `boolean`. * Use `dict` instead of `dictionary`. * Square brackets should be used for the dictionary type. For example: ``` my_var (dict[str, int]): Variable description. ``` * If a variable has two different possible types, then the word `or` should be used without a comma. Otherwise variables with 3 or more types should use commas to separate the types. Example: ``` x (type1 or type2): Variable description. y (type1, type2, or type3): Variable description. ``` ### Building documentation To build the documentation: 1. Build and install PyTorch 2. Install the prerequisites ```bash cd docs pip install -r requirements.txt # `katex` must also be available in your PATH. # You can either install katex globally if you have properly configured npm: # npm install -g katex # Or if you prefer an uncontaminated global executable environment or do not want to go through the node configuration: # npm install katex && export PATH="$PATH:$(pwd)/node_modules/.bin" ``` > Note: if you installed `nodejs` with a different package manager (e.g., `conda`) then `npm` will probably install a version of `katex` that is not compatible with your version of `nodejs` and doc builds will fail. A combination of versions that is known to work is `node@6.13.1` and `katex@0.13.18`. To install the latter with `npm` you can run ```npm install -g katex@0.13.18``` > Note that if you are a Facebook employee using a devserver, yarn may be more convenient to install katex: ```bash yarn global add katex ``` > If a specific version is required you can use for example `yarn global add katex@0.13.18`. 3. Generate the documentation HTML files. The generated files will be in `docs/build/html`. ```bash make html ``` #### Tips The `.rst` source files live in [docs/source](docs/source). Some of the `.rst` files pull in docstrings from PyTorch Python code (for example, via the `autofunction` or `autoclass` directives). To vastly shorten doc build times, it is helpful to remove the files you are not working on, only keeping the base `index.rst` file and the files you are editing. The Sphinx build will produce missing file warnings but will still complete. For example, to work on `jit.rst`: ```bash cd docs/source find . -type f | grep rst | grep -v index | grep -v jit | xargs rm # Make your changes, build the docs, etc. # Don't commit the deletions! git add index.rst jit.rst ... ``` #### Building C++ Documentation For C++ documentation (https://pytorch.org/cppdocs), we use [Doxygen](http://www.doxygen.nl/) and then convert it to [Sphinx](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/) via [Breathe](https://github.com/michaeljones/breathe) and [Exhale](https://github.com/svenevs/exhale). Check the [Doxygen reference](http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/manual/index.html) for more information on the documentation syntax. We run Doxygen in CI (Travis) to verify that you do not use invalid Doxygen commands. To run this check locally, run `./check-doxygen.sh` from inside `docs/cpp/source`. To build the documentation, follow the same steps as above, but run them from `docs/cpp` instead of `docs`. ### Previewing changes locally To view HTML files locally, you can open the files in your web browser. For example, navigate to `file:///your_pytorch_folder/docs/build/html/index.html` in a web browser. If you are developing on a remote machine, you can set up an SSH tunnel so that you can access the HTTP server on the remote machine from your local machine. To map remote port 8000 to local port 8000, use either of the following commands. ```bash # For SSH ssh my_machine -L 8000:my_machine:8000 # For Eternal Terminal et my_machine -t="8000:8000" ``` Then navigate to `localhost:8000` in your web browser. **Tip:** You can start a lightweight HTTP server on the remote machine with: ```bash python -m http.server 8000 ``` Alternatively, you can run `rsync` on your local machine to copy the files from your remote machine: ```bash mkdir -p build cpp/build rsync -az me@my_machine:/path/to/pytorch/docs/build/html build rsync -az me@my_machine:/path/to/pytorch/docs/cpp/build/html cpp/build ``` ### Previewing documentation on PRs PyTorch will host documentation previews at `https://docs-preview.pytorch.org//` once the `pytorch_python_doc_build` GitHub Actions job has completed on your PR. You can visit that page directly or find its link in the automated Dr. CI comment on your PR. ### Adding documentation tests It is easy for code snippets in docstrings and `.rst` files to get out of date. The docs build includes the [Sphinx Doctest Extension](https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/extensions/doctest.html), which can run code in documentation as a unit test. To use the extension, use the `.. testcode::` directive in your `.rst` and docstrings. To manually run these tests, follow steps 1 and 2 above, then run: ```bash cd docs make doctest ``` ## Profiling with `py-spy` Evaluating the performance impact of code changes in PyTorch can be complicated, particularly if code changes happen in compiled code. One simple way to profile both Python and C++ code in PyTorch is to use [`py-spy`](https://github.com/benfred/py-spy), a sampling profiler for Python that has the ability to profile native code and Python code in the same session. `py-spy` can be installed via `pip`: ```bash pip install py-spy ``` To use `py-spy`, first write a Python test script that exercises the functionality you would like to profile. For example, this script profiles `torch.add`: ```python import torch t1 = torch.tensor([[1, 1], [1, 1.]]) t2 = torch.tensor([[0, 0], [0, 0.]]) for _ in range(1000000): torch.add(t1, t2) ``` Since the `torch.add` operation happens in microseconds, we repeat it a large number of times to get good statistics. The most straightforward way to use `py-spy` with such a script is to generate a [flame graph](http://www.brendangregg.com/flamegraphs.html): ```bash py-spy record -o profile.svg --native -- python test_tensor_tensor_add.py ``` This will output a file named `profile.svg` containing a flame graph you can view in a web browser or SVG viewer. Individual stack frame entries in the graph can be selected interactively with your mouse to zoom in on a particular part of the program execution timeline. The `--native` command-line option tells `py-spy` to record stack frame entries for PyTorch C++ code. To get line numbers for C++ code it may be necessary to compile PyTorch in debug mode by prepending your `setup.py develop` call to compile PyTorch with `DEBUG=1`. Depending on your operating system it may also be necessary to run `py-spy` with root privileges. `py-spy` can also work in an `htop`-like "live profiling" mode and can be tweaked to adjust the stack sampling rate, see the `py-spy` readme for more details. ## Managing multiple build trees One downside to using `python setup.py develop` is that your development version of PyTorch will be installed globally on your account (e.g., if you run `import torch` anywhere else, the development version will be used. If you want to manage multiple builds of PyTorch, you can make use of [conda environments](https://conda.io/docs/using/envs.html) to maintain separate Python package environments, each of which can be tied to a specific build of PyTorch. To set one up: ```bash conda create -n pytorch-myfeature source activate pytorch-myfeature # if you run python now, torch will NOT be installed python setup.py develop ``` ## C++ development tips If you are working on the C++ code, there are a few important things that you will want to keep in mind: 1. How to rebuild only the code you are working on. 2. How to make rebuilds in the absence of changes go faster. ### Build only what you need `python setup.py build` will build everything by default, but sometimes you are only interested in a specific component. - Working on a test binary? Run `(cd build && ninja bin/test_binary_name)` to rebuild only that test binary (without rerunning cmake). (Replace `ninja` with `make` if you don't have ninja installed). - Don't need Caffe2? Pass `BUILD_CAFFE2=0` to disable Caffe2 build. On the initial build, you can also speed things up with the environment variables `DEBUG`, `USE_DISTRIBUTED`, `USE_MKLDNN`, `USE_CUDA`, `BUILD_TEST`, `USE_FBGEMM`, `USE_NNPACK` and `USE_QNNPACK`. - `DEBUG=1` will enable debug builds (-g -O0) - `REL_WITH_DEB_INFO=1` will enable debug symbols with optimizations (-g -O3) - `USE_DISTRIBUTED=0` will disable distributed (c10d, gloo, mpi, etc.) build. - `USE_MKLDNN=0` will disable using MKL-DNN. - `USE_CUDA=0` will disable compiling CUDA (in case you are developing on something not CUDA related), to save compile time. - `BUILD_TEST=0` will disable building C++ test binaries. - `USE_FBGEMM=0` will disable using FBGEMM (quantized 8-bit server operators). - `USE_NNPACK=0` will disable compiling with NNPACK. - `USE_QNNPACK=0` will disable QNNPACK build (quantized 8-bit operators). - `USE_XNNPACK=0` will disable compiling with XNNPACK. For example: ```bash DEBUG=1 USE_DISTRIBUTED=0 USE_MKLDNN=0 USE_CUDA=0 BUILD_TEST=0 USE_FBGEMM=0 USE_NNPACK=0 USE_QNNPACK=0 USE_XNNPACK=0 python setup.py develop ``` For subsequent builds (i.e., when `build/CMakeCache.txt` exists), the build options passed for the first time will persist; please run `ccmake build/`, run `cmake-gui build/`, or directly edit `build/CMakeCache.txt` to adapt build options. ### Code completion and IDE support When using `python setup.py develop`, PyTorch will generate a `compile_commands.json` file that can be used by many editors to provide command completion and error highlighting for PyTorch's C++ code. You need to `pip install ninja` to generate accurate information for the code in `torch/csrc`. More information at: - https://sarcasm.github.io/notes/dev/compilation-database.html ### Make no-op build fast #### Use Ninja By default, cmake will use its Makefile generator to generate your build system. You can get faster builds if you install the ninja build system with `pip install ninja`. If PyTorch was already built, you will need to run `python setup.py clean` once after installing ninja for builds to succeed. #### Use CCache Even when dependencies are tracked with file modification, there are many situations where files get rebuilt when a previous compilation was exactly the same. Using ccache in a situation like this is a real time-saver. Before building pytorch, install ccache from your package manager of choice: ```bash conda install ccache -c conda-forge sudo apt install ccache sudo yum install ccache brew install ccache ``` You may also find the default cache size in ccache is too small to be useful. The cache sizes can be increased from the command line: ```bash # config: cache dir is ~/.ccache, conf file ~/.ccache/ccache.conf # max size of cache ccache -M 25Gi # -M 0 for unlimited # unlimited number of files ccache -F 0 ``` To check this is working, do two clean builds of pytorch in a row. The second build should be substantially and noticeably faster than the first build. If this doesn't seem to be the case, check the `CMAKE__COMPILER_LAUNCHER` rules in `build/CMakeCache.txt`, where `` is `C`, `CXX` and `CUDA`. Each of these 3 variables should contain ccache, e.g. ``` //CXX compiler launcher CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER:STRING=/usr/bin/ccache ``` If not, you can define these variables on the command line before invoking `setup.py`. ```bash export CMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache export CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache export CMAKE_CUDA_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache python setup.py develop ``` #### Use a faster linker If you are editing a single file and rebuilding in a tight loop, the time spent linking will dominate. The system linker available in most Linux distributions (GNU `ld`) is quite slow. Use a faster linker, like [lld](https://lld.llvm.org/). People on Mac, follow [this guide](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42730345/how-to-install-llvm-for-mac) instead. The easiest way to use `lld` this is download the [latest LLVM binaries](http://releases.llvm.org/download.html#8.0.0) and run: ```bash ln -s /path/to/downloaded/ld.lld /usr/local/bin/ld ``` #### Use pre-compiled headers Sometimes there's no way of getting around rebuilding lots of files, for example editing `native_functions.yaml` usually means 1000+ files being rebuilt. If you're using CMake newer than 3.16, you can enable pre-compiled headers by setting `USE_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS=1` either on first setup, or in the `CMakeCache.txt` file. ```sh USE_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS=1 python setup.py develop ``` This adds a build step where the compiler takes `` and essentially dumps it's internal AST to a file so the compiler can avoid repeating itself for every `.cpp` file. One caveat is that when enabled, this header gets included in every file by default. Which may change what code is legal, for example: - internal functions can never alias existing names in `` - names in `` will work even if you don't explicitly include it. #### Workaround for header dependency bug in nvcc If re-building without modifying any files results in several CUDA files being re-compiled, you may be running into an `nvcc` bug where header dependencies are not converted to absolute paths before reporting it to the build system. This makes `ninja` think one of the header files has been deleted, so it runs the build again. A compiler-wrapper to fix this is provided in `tools/nvcc_fix_deps.py`. You can use this as a compiler launcher, similar to `ccache` ```bash export CMAKE_CUDA_COMPILER_LAUNCHER="python;`pwd`/tools/nvcc_fix_deps.py;ccache" python setup.py develop ``` ### C++ frontend development tips We have very extensive tests in the [test/cpp/api](test/cpp/api) folder. The tests are a great way to see how certain components are intended to be used. When compiling PyTorch from source, the test runner binary will be written to `build/bin/test_api`. The tests use the [GoogleTest](https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/master/googletest) framework, which you can read up about to learn how to configure the test runner. When submitting a new feature, we care very much that you write appropriate tests. Please follow the lead of the other tests to see how to write a new test case. ### GDB integration If you are debugging pytorch inside GDB, you might be interested in [pytorch-gdb](tools/gdb/pytorch-gdb.py). This script introduces some pytorch-specific commands which you can use from the GDB prompt. In particular, `torch-tensor-repr` prints a human-readable repr of an at::Tensor object. Example of usage: ``` $ gdb python GNU gdb (GDB) 9.2 [...] (gdb) # insert a breakpoint when we call .neg() (gdb) break at::Tensor::neg Function "at::Tensor::neg" not defined. Make breakpoint pending on future shared library load? (y or [n]) y Breakpoint 1 (at::Tensor::neg) pending. (gdb) run [...] >>> import torch >>> t = torch.tensor([1, 2, 3, 4], dtype=torch.float64) >>> t tensor([1., 2., 3., 4.], dtype=torch.float64) >>> t.neg() Thread 1 "python" hit Breakpoint 1, at::Tensor::neg (this=0x7ffb118a9c88) at aten/src/ATen/core/TensorBody.h:3295 3295 inline at::Tensor Tensor::neg() const { (gdb) # the default repr of 'this' is not very useful (gdb) p this $1 = (const at::Tensor * const) 0x7ffb118a9c88 (gdb) p *this $2 = {impl_ = {target_ = 0x55629b5cd330}} (gdb) torch-tensor-repr *this Python-level repr of *this: tensor([1., 2., 3., 4.], dtype=torch.float64) ``` GDB tries to automatically load `pytorch-gdb` thanks to the [.gdbinit](.gdbinit) at the root of the pytorch repo. However, auto-loadings is disabled by default, because of security reasons: ```bash $ gdb warning: File "/path/to/pytorch/.gdbinit" auto-loading has been declined by your `auto-load safe-path' set to "$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load". To enable execution of this file add add-auto-load-safe-path /path/to/pytorch/.gdbinit line to your configuration file "/home/YOUR-USERNAME/.gdbinit". To completely disable this security protection add set auto-load safe-path / line to your configuration file "/home/YOUR-USERNAME/.gdbinit". For more information about this security protection see the "Auto-loading safe path" section in the GDB manual. E.g., run from the shell: info "(gdb)Auto-loading safe path" (gdb) ``` As gdb itself suggests, the best way to enable auto-loading of `pytorch-gdb` is to add the following line to your `~/.gdbinit` (i.e., the `.gdbinit` file which is in your home directory, **not** `/path/to/pytorch/.gdbinit`): ```bash add-auto-load-safe-path /path/to/pytorch/.gdbinit ``` ### C++ stacktraces Set `TORCH_SHOW_CPP_STACKTRACES=1` to get the C++ stacktrace when an error occurs in Python. ## CUDA development tips If you are working on the CUDA code, here are some useful CUDA debugging tips: 1. `CUDA_DEVICE_DEBUG=1` will enable CUDA device function debug symbols (`-g -G`). This will be particularly helpful in debugging device code. However, it will slow down the build process for about 50% (compared to only `DEBUG=1`), so use wisely. 2. `cuda-gdb` and `cuda-memcheck` are your best CUDA debugging friends. Unlike`gdb`, `cuda-gdb` can display actual values in a CUDA tensor (rather than all zeros). 3. CUDA supports a lot of C++11/14 features such as, `std::numeric_limits`, `std::nextafter`, `std::tuple` etc. in device code. Many of such features are possible because of the [--expt-relaxed-constexpr](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#constexpr-functions) nvcc flag. There is a known [issue](https://github.com/ROCm-Developer-Tools/HIP/issues/374) that ROCm errors out on device code, which uses such stl functions. 4. A good performance metric for a CUDA kernel is the [Effective Memory Bandwidth](https://devblogs.nvidia.com/how-implement-performance-metrics-cuda-cc/). It is useful for you to measure this metric whenever you are writing/optimizing a CUDA kernel. Following script shows how we can measure the effective bandwidth of CUDA `uniform_` kernel. ```python import torch from torch.utils.benchmark import Timer size = 128*512 nrep = 100 nbytes_read_write = 4 # this is number of bytes read + written by a kernel. Change this to fit your kernel. for i in range(10): a=torch.empty(size).cuda().uniform_() torch.cuda.synchronize() out = a.uniform_() torch.cuda.synchronize() t = Timer(stmt="a.uniform_()", globals=globals()) res = t.blocked_autorange() timec = res.median print("uniform, size, elements", size, "forward", timec, "bandwidth (GB/s)", size*(nbytes_read_write)*1e-9/timec) size *=2 ``` See more cuda development tips [here](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/CUDA-basics) ## Windows development tips For building from source on Windows, consult [our documentation](https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/notes/windows.html) on it. Occasionally, you will write a patch which works on Linux, but fails CI on Windows. There are a few aspects in which MSVC (the Windows compiler toolchain we use) is stricter than Linux, which are worth keeping in mind when fixing these problems. 1. Symbols are NOT exported by default on Windows; instead, you have to explicitly mark a symbol as exported/imported in a header file with `__declspec(dllexport)` / `__declspec(dllimport)`. We have codified this pattern into a set of macros which follow the convention `*_API`, e.g., `TORCH_API` inside Caffe2, Aten and Torch. (Every separate shared library needs a unique macro name, because symbol visibility is on a per shared library basis. See c10/macros/Macros.h for more details.) The upshot is if you see an "unresolved external" error in your Windows build, this is probably because you forgot to mark a function with `*_API`. However, there is one important counterexample to this principle: if you want a *templated* function to be instantiated at the call site, do NOT mark it with `*_API` (if you do mark it, you'll have to explicitly instantiate all of the specializations used by the call sites.) 2. If you link against a library, this does not make its dependencies transitively visible. You must explicitly specify a link dependency against every library whose symbols you use. (This is different from Linux where in most environments, transitive dependencies can be used to fulfill unresolved symbols.) 3. If you have a Windows box (we have a few on EC2 which you can request access to) and you want to run the build, the easiest way is to just run `.ci/pytorch/win-build.sh`. If you need to rebuild, run `REBUILD=1 .ci/pytorch/win-build.sh` (this will avoid blowing away your Conda environment.) Even if you don't know anything about MSVC, you can use cmake to build simple programs on Windows; this can be helpful if you want to learn more about some peculiar linking behavior by reproducing it on a small example. Here's a simple example cmake file that defines two dynamic libraries, one linking with the other: ```CMake project(myproject CXX) set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14) add_library(foo SHARED foo.cpp) add_library(bar SHARED bar.cpp) # NB: don't forget to __declspec(dllexport) at least one symbol from foo, # otherwise foo.lib will not be created. target_link_libraries(bar PUBLIC foo) ``` You can build it with: ```bash mkdir build cd build cmake .. cmake --build . ``` ### Known MSVC (and MSVC with NVCC) bugs The PyTorch codebase sometimes likes to use exciting C++ features, and these exciting features lead to exciting bugs in Windows compilers. To add insult to injury, the error messages will often not tell you which line of code actually induced the erroring template instantiation. We've found the most effective way to debug these problems is to carefully read over diffs, keeping in mind known bugs in MSVC/NVCC. Here are a few well known pitfalls and workarounds: * This is not actually a bug per se, but in general, code generated by MSVC is more sensitive to memory errors; you may have written some code that does a use-after-free or stack overflows; on Linux the code might work, but on Windows your program will crash. ASAN may not catch all of these problems: stay vigilant to the possibility that your crash is due to a real memory problem. * (NVCC) `c10::optional` does not work when used from device code. Don't use it from kernels. Upstream issue: https://github.com/akrzemi1/Optional/issues/58 and our local issue #10329. * `constexpr` generally works less well on MSVC. * The idiom `static_assert(f() == f())` to test if `f` is constexpr does not work; you'll get "error C2131: expression did not evaluate to a constant". Don't use these asserts on Windows. (Example: `c10/util/intrusive_ptr.h`) * (NVCC) Code you access inside a `static_assert` will eagerly be evaluated as if it were device code, and so you might get an error that the code is "not accessible". ```cpp class A { static A singleton_; static constexpr inline A* singleton() { return &singleton_; } }; static_assert(std::is_same(A*, decltype(A::singleton()))::value, "hmm"); ``` * The compiler will run out of heap space if you attempt to compile files that are too large. Splitting such files into separate files helps. (Example: `THTensorMath`, `THTensorMoreMath`, `THTensorEvenMoreMath`.) * MSVC's preprocessor (but not the standard compiler) has a bug where it incorrectly tokenizes raw string literals, ending when it sees a `"`. This causes preprocessor tokens inside the literal like an`#endif` to be incorrectly treated as preprocessor directives. See https://godbolt.org/z/eVTIJq as an example. * Either MSVC or the Windows headers have a PURE macro defined and will replace any occurrences of the PURE token in code with an empty string. This is why we have AliasAnalysisKind::PURE_FUNCTION and not AliasAnalysisKind::PURE. The same is likely true for other identifiers that we just didn't try to use yet. ### Building on legacy code and CUDA CUDA, MSVC, and PyTorch versions are interdependent; please install matching versions from this table: | CUDA version | Newest supported VS version | PyTorch version | | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | | 10.1 | Visual Studio 2019 (16.X) (`_MSC_VER` < 1930) | 1.3.0 ~ 1.7.0 | | 10.2 | Visual Studio 2019 (16.X) (`_MSC_VER` < 1930) | 1.5.0 ~ 1.7.0 | | 11.0 | Visual Studio 2019 (16.X) (`_MSC_VER` < 1930) | 1.7.0 | Note: There's a [compilation issue](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneDNN/issues/812) in several Visual Studio 2019 versions since 16.7.1, so please make sure your Visual Studio 2019 version is not in 16.7.1 ~ 16.7.5 ## Running clang-tidy [Clang-Tidy](https://clang.llvm.org/extra/clang-tidy/index.html) is a C++ linter and static analysis tool based on the clang compiler. We run clang-tidy in our CI to make sure that new C++ code is safe, sane and efficient. See the [`clang-tidy` job in our GitHub Workflow's lint.yml file](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/blob/main/.github/workflows/lint.yml) for the simple commands we use for this. To run clang-tidy locally, follow these steps: 1. Install clang-tidy. We provide custom built binaries which have additional checks enabled. You can install it by running: ```bash python3 -m tools.linter.clang_tidy.generate_build_files ``` We currently only support Linux and MacOS (x86). 2. Install clang-tidy driver script dependencies ```bash pip3 install -r tools/linter/clang_tidy/requirements.txt ``` 3. Run clang-tidy ```bash # Run clang-tidy on the entire codebase make clang-tidy # Run clang-tidy only on your changes make clang-tidy CHANGED_ONLY=--changed-only ``` This internally invokes our driver script and closely mimics how clang-tidy is run on CI. ## Pre-commit tidy/linting hook We use clang-tidy to perform additional formatting and semantic checking of code. We provide a pre-commit git hook for performing these checks, before a commit is created: ```bash ln -s ../../tools/git-pre-commit .git/hooks/pre-commit ``` If you have already committed files and CI reports `flake8` errors, you can run the check locally in your PR branch with: ```bash flake8 $(git diff --name-only $(git merge-base --fork-point main)) ``` You'll need to install an appropriately configured flake8; see [Lint as you type](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Lint-as-you-type) for documentation on how to do this. Fix the code so that no errors are reported when you re-run the above check again, and then commit the fix. ## Building PyTorch with ASAN [ASAN](https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizer) is very useful for debugging memory errors in C++. We run it in CI, but here's how to get the same thing to run on your local machine. First, install LLVM 8. The easiest way is to get [prebuilt binaries](http://releases.llvm.org/download.html#8.0.0) and extract them to folder (later called `$LLVM_ROOT`). Then set up the appropriate scripts. You can put this in your `.bashrc`: ```bash LLVM_ROOT= PYTORCH_ROOT= LIBASAN_RT="$LLVM_ROOT/lib/clang/8.0.0/lib/linux/libclang_rt.asan-x86_64.so" build_with_asan() { LD_PRELOAD=${LIBASAN_RT} \ CC="$LLVM_ROOT/bin/clang" \ CXX="$LLVM_ROOT/bin/clang++" \ LDSHARED="clang --shared" \ LDFLAGS="-stdlib=libstdc++" \ CFLAGS="-fsanitize=address -fno-sanitize-recover=all -shared-libasan -pthread" \ CXX_FLAGS="-pthread" \ USE_CUDA=0 USE_OPENMP=0 BUILD_CAFFE2_OPS=0 USE_DISTRIBUTED=0 DEBUG=1 \ python setup.py develop } run_with_asan() { LD_PRELOAD=${LIBASAN_RT} $@ } # you can look at build-asan.sh to find the latest options the CI uses export ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=0:symbolize=1:strict_init_order=true export UBSAN_OPTIONS=print_stacktrace=1:suppressions=$PYTORCH_ROOT/ubsan.supp export ASAN_SYMBOLIZER_PATH=$LLVM_ROOT/bin/llvm-symbolizer ``` Then you can use the scripts like: ``` suo-devfair ~/pytorch ❯ build_with_asan suo-devfair ~/pytorch ❯ run_with_asan python test/test_jit.py ``` ### Getting `ccache` to work The scripts above specify the `clang` and `clang++` binaries directly, which bypasses `ccache`. Here's how to get `ccache` to work: 1. Make sure the ccache symlinks for `clang` and `clang++` are set up (see CONTRIBUTING.md) 2. Make sure `$LLVM_ROOT/bin` is available on your `$PATH`. 3. Change the `CC` and `CXX` variables in `build_with_asan()` to point directly to `clang` and `clang++`. ### Why this stuff with `LD_PRELOAD` and `LIBASAN_RT`? The “standard” workflow for ASAN assumes you have a standalone binary: 1. Recompile your binary with `-fsanitize=address`. 2. Run the binary, and ASAN will report whatever errors it find. Unfortunately, PyTorch is a distributed as a shared library that is loaded by a third-party executable (Python). It’s too much of a hassle to recompile all of Python every time we want to use ASAN. Luckily, the ASAN folks have a workaround for cases like this: 1. Recompile your library with `-fsanitize=address -shared-libasan`. The extra `-shared-libasan` tells the compiler to ask for the shared ASAN runtime library. 2. Use `LD_PRELOAD` to tell the dynamic linker to load the ASAN runtime library before anything else. More information can be found [here](https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerAsDso). ### Why LD_PRELOAD in the build function? We need `LD_PRELOAD` because there is a cmake check that ensures that a simple program builds and runs. If we are building with ASAN as a shared library, we need to `LD_PRELOAD` the runtime library, otherwise there will dynamic linker errors and the check will fail. We don’t actually need either of these if we fix the cmake checks. ### Why no leak detection? Python leaks a lot of memory. Possibly we could configure a suppression file, but we haven’t gotten around to it. ## Caffe2 notes In 2018, we merged Caffe2 into the PyTorch source repository. While the steady state aspiration is that Caffe2 and PyTorch share code freely, in the meantime there will be some separation. There are a few "unusual" directories which, for historical reasons, are Caffe2/PyTorch specific. Here they are: - `CMakeLists.txt`, `Makefile`, `binaries`, `cmake`, `conda`, `modules`, `scripts` are Caffe2-specific. Don't put PyTorch code in them without extra coordination. - `mypy*`, `requirements.txt`, `setup.py`, `test`, `tools` are PyTorch-specific. Don't put Caffe2 code in them without extra coordination. ## CI failure tips Once you submit a PR or push a new commit to a branch that is in an active PR, CI jobs will be run automatically. Some of these may fail and you will need to find out why, by looking at the logs. Fairly often, a CI failure might be unrelated to your changes. You can confirm by going to our [HUD](https://hud.pytorch.org) and seeing if the CI job is failing upstream already. In this case, you can usually ignore the failure. See [the following subsection](#which-commit-is-used-in-ci) for more details. Some failures might be related to specific hardware or environment configurations. In this case, if you're a Meta employee, you can ssh into the job's session to perform manual debugging following the instructions in our [CI wiki](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Debugging-using-with-ssh-for-Github-Actions). ### Which commit is used in CI? For CI run on `main`, this repository is checked out for a given `main` commit, and CI is run on that commit (there isn't really any other choice). For PRs, however, it's a bit more complicated. Consider this commit graph, where `main` is at commit `A`, and the branch for PR #42 (just a placeholder) is at commit `B`: ``` o---o---B (refs/pull/42/head) / \ / C (refs/pull/42/merge) / / ---o---o---o---A (merge-destination) - usually main ``` There are two possible choices for which commit to use: 1. Checkout commit `B`, the head of the PR (manually committed by the PR author). 2. Checkout commit `C`, the hypothetical result of what would happen if the PR were merged into it's destination (usually `main`). For all practical purposes, most people can think of the commit being used as commit `B` (choice **1**). However, if workflow files (which govern CI behavior) were modified (either by your PR or since dev branch were created ) there's a nuance to know about: The workflow files themselves get taken from checkpoint `C`, the merger of your PR and the `main` branch. But only the workflow files get taken from that merged checkpoint. Everything else (tests, code, etc) all get taken directly from your PR's commit (commit `B`). Please note, this scenario would never affect PRs authored by `ghstack` as they would not automatically ingest the updates from default branch. ## Dev Infra Office Hours [Dev Infra Office Hours](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/wiki/Dev-Infra-Office-Hours) are hosted every Friday to answer any questions regarding developer experience, Green HUD, and CI.