Extending Theano with a C Op¶
This tutorial covers how to extend Theano with an op that offers a C implementation. It does not cover ops that run on a GPU but it does introduce many elements and concepts which are relevant for GPU ops. This tutorial is aimed at individuals who already know how to extend Theano (see tutorial Extending Theano) by adding a new op with a Python implementation and will only cover the additional knowledge required to also produce ops with C implementations.
Providing a Theano op with a C implementation requires to interact with Python’s C-API and Numpy’s C-API. Thus, the first step of this tutorial is to introduce both and highlight their features which are most relevant to the task of implementing a C op. This tutorial then introduces the most important methods that the op needs to implement in order to provide a usable C implementation. Finally, it shows how to combine these elements to write a simple C op for performing the simple task of multiplying every element in a vector by a scalar.
Python C-API¶
Python provides a C-API to allows the manipulation of python objects from C
code. In this API, all variables that represent Python objects are of type
PyObject *
. All objects have a pointer to their type object and a reference
count field (that is shared with the python side). Most python methods have
an equivalent C function that can be called on the PyObject *
pointer.
As such, manipulating a PyObject instance is often straight-forward but it is important to properly manage its reference count. Failing to do so can lead to undesired behavior in the C code.
Reference counting¶
Reference counting is a mechanism for keeping track, for an object, of the number of references to it held by other entities. This mechanism is often used for purposes of garbage collecting because it allows to easily see if an object is still being used by other entities. When the reference count for an object drops to 0, it means it is not used by anyone any longer and can be safely deleted.
PyObjects implement reference counting and the Python C-API defines a number of macros to help manage those reference counts. The definition of these macros can be found here : Python C-API Reference Counting. Listed below are the two macros most often used in Theano C ops.
-
void Py_XINCREF(PyObject *o)
Increments the reference count of object
o
. Without effect if the object is NULL.
-
void Py_XDECREF(PyObject *o)
Decrements the reference count of object
o
. If the reference count reaches 0, it will trigger a call of the object’s deallocation function. Without effect if the object is NULL.
The general principle, in the reference counting paradigm, is that the owner of a reference to an object is responsible for disposing properly of it. This can be done by decrementing the reference count once the reference is no longer used or by transfering ownership; passing on the reference to a new owner which becomes responsible for it.
Some functions return “borrowed references”; this means that they return a reference to an object without transfering ownership of the reference to the caller of the function. This means that if you call a function which returns a borrowed reference, you do not have the burden of properly disposing of that reference. You should not call Py_XDECREF() on a borrowed reference.
Correctly managing the reference counts is important as failing to do so can lead to issues ranging from memory leaks to segmentation faults.
NumPy C-API¶
The NumPy library provides a C-API to allow users to create, access and manipulate NumPy arrays from within their own C routines. NumPy’s ndarrays are used extensively inside Theano and so extending Theano with a C op will require interaction with the NumPy C-API.
This sections covers the API’s elements that are often required to write code for a Theano C op. The full documentation for the API can be found here : NumPy C-API.
NumPy data types¶
To allow portability between platforms, the NumPy C-API defines its own data
types which should be used whenever you are manipulating a NumPy array’s
internal data. The data types most commonly used to implement C ops are the
following : npy_int{8,16,32,64}
, npy_uint{8,16,32,64}
and
npy_float{32,64}
.
You should use these data types when manipulating a NumPy array’s internal
data instead of C primitives because the size of the memory representation
for C primitives can vary between platforms. For instance, a C long
can be
represented in memory with 4 bytes but it can also be represented with 8.
On the other hand, the in-memory size of NumPy data types remains constant
across platforms. Using them will make your code simpler and more portable.
The full list of defined data types can be found here : NumPy C-API data types.
NumPy ndarrays¶
In the NumPy C-API, NumPy arrays are represented as instances of the PyArrayObject class which is a descendant of the PyObject class. This means that, as for any other Python object that you manipulate from C code, you need to appropriatedly manage the reference counts of PyArrayObject instances.
Unlike in a standard multidimensionnal C array, a NumPy array’s internal data representation does not have to occupy a continuous region in memory. In fact, it can be C-contiguous, F-contiguous or non-contiguous. C-contiguous means that the data is not only contiguous in memory but also that it is organized such that the index of the latest dimension changes the fastest. If the following array
x = [[1, 2, 3],
[4, 5, 6]]
is C-contiguous, it means that, in memory, the six values contained in the
array x
are stored in the order [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
(the first value is
x[0,0]
, the second value is x[0,1]
, the third value is x[0,2]
, the,
fourth value is x[1,0]
, etc). F-contiguous (or Fortran Contiguous) also
means that the data is contiguous but that it is organized such that the index
of the latest dimension changes the slowest. If the array x
is
F-contiguous, it means that, in memory, the values appear in the order
[1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6]
(the first value is x[0,0]
, the second value is
x[1,0]
, the third value is x[0,1]
, etc).
Finally, the internal data can be non-contiguous. In this case, it occupies
a non-contiguous region in memory but it is still stored in an organized
fashion : the distance between the element x[i,j]
and the element
x[i+1,j]
of the array is constant over all valid values of i
and
j
, just as the distance between the element x[i,j]
and the element
x[i,j+1]
of the array is constant over all valid values of i
and j
.
This distance between consecutive elements of an array over a given dimension,
is called the stride of that dimension.
Accessing NumPy ndarrays’ data and properties¶
The following macros serve to access various attributes of NumPy ndarrays.
-
void* PyArray_DATA(PyArrayObject* arr)
Returns a pointer to the first element of the array’s data. The returned pointer must be cast to a pointer of the proper Numpy C-API data type before use.
-
int PyArray_NDIM(PyArrayObject* arr)
Returns the number of dimensions in the the array pointed by
arr
-
npy_intp* PyArray_DIMS(PyArrayObject* arr)
Returns a pointer on the first element of
arr
‘s internal array describing its dimensions. This internal array contains as many elements as the arrayarr
has dimensions.The macro
PyArray_SHAPE()
is a synonym ofPyArray_DIMS()
: it has the same effect and is used in an identical way.
-
npy_intp* PyArray_STRIDES(PyArrayObject* arr)
Returns a pointer on the first element of
arr
‘s internal array describing the stride for each of its dimension. This array has as many elements as the number of dimensions inarr
. In this array, the strides are expressed in number of bytes.
-
PyArray_Descr* PyArray_DESCR(PyArrayObject* arr)
Returns a reference to the object representing the dtype of the array.
The macro
PyArray_DTYPE()
is a synonym of thePyArray_DESCR()
: it has the same effect and is used in an identical way.Note: This is a borrowed reference so you do not need to decrement its reference count once you are done with it.
-
int PyArray_TYPE(PyArrayObject* arr)
Returns the typenumber for the elements of the array. Like the dtype, the typenumber is a descriptor for the type of the data in the array. However, the two are not synonyms and, as such, cannot be used in place of the other.
-
bool PyArray_CHKFLAGS(PyArrayObject* arr, flags)
Returns true if the array has the specified flags. The variable flag should either be a NumPy array flag or an integer obtained by applying bitwise or to an ensemble of flags.
The flags that can be used in with this macro are : NPY_ARRAY_C_CONTIGUOUS, NPY_ARRAY_F_CONTIGUOUS, NPY_ARRAY_OWNDATA, NPY_ARRAY_ALIGNED, NPY_ARRAY_WRITEABLE, NPY_ARRAY_UPDATEIFCOPY.
Creating NumPy ndarrays¶
The following functions allow the creation and copy of NumPy arrays :
-
PyObject* PyArray_EMPTY(int nd, npy_intp* dims, typenum dtype,
-
int fortran)
Constructs a new ndarray with the number of dimensions specified by
nd
, shape specified bydims
and data type specified bydtype
. Iffortran
is equal to 0, the data is organized in a C-contiguous layout, otherwise it is organized in a F-contiguous layout. The array elements are not initialized in any way.The function
PyArray_Empty()
performs the same function as the macroPyArray_EMPTY()
but the data type is given as a pointer to aPyArray_Descr
object instead of atypenum
.
-
PyObject* PyArray_ZEROS(int nd, npy_intp* dims, typenum dtype,
-
int fortran)
Constructs a new ndarray with the number of dimensions specified by
nd
, shape specified bydims
and data type specified bydtype
. Iffortran
is equal to 0, the data is organized in a C-contiguous layout, otherwise it is organized in a F-contiguous layout. Every element in the array is initialized to 0.The function
PyArray_Zeros()
performs the same function as the macroPyArray_ZEROS()
but the data type is given as a pointer to aPyArray_Descr
object instead of atypenum
.
Methods the C Op needs to define¶
There is a key difference between an op defining a Python implementation for
its computation and defining a C implementation. In the case of a Python
implementation, the op defines a function perform()
which executes the
required Python code to realize the op. In the case of a C implementation,
however, the op does not define a function that will execute the C code; it
instead defines functions that will return the C code to the caller.
This is because calling C code from Python code comes with a significant overhead. If every op was responsible for executing its own C code, every time a Theano function was called, this overhead would occur as many times as the number of ops with C implementations in the function’s computational graph.
To maximize performance, Theano instead requires the C ops to simply return the code needed for their execution and takes upon itself the task of organizing, linking and compiling the code from the various ops. Through this, Theano is able to minimize the number of times C code is called from Python code.
The following is a very simple example to illustrate how it’s possible to obtain performance gains with this process. Suppose you need to execute, from Python code, 10 different ops, each one having a C implementation. If each op was responsible for executing its own C code, the overhead of calling C code from Python code would occur 10 times. Consider now the case where the ops instead return the C code for their execution. You could get the C code from each op and then define your own C module that would call the C code from each op in succession. In this case, the overhead would only occur once; when calling your custom module itself.
Moreover, the fact that Theano itself takes care of compiling the C code, instead of the individual ops, allows Theano to easily cache the compiled C code. This allows for faster compilation times.
See Implementing the arithmetic Ops in C for the full documentation of the various methods of the class Op that are related to the C implementation. Of particular interest are:
- The methods
Op.c_libraries()
andOp.c_lib_dirs()
to allow your op to use external libraries. - The method
Op.c_code_cleanup()
to specify how the op should clean up what it has allocated during its execution. - The methods
Op.c_init_code()
andOp.c_init_code_apply()
to specify code that should be executed once when the module is initialized, before anything else is executed. - The methods
Op.c_compile_args()
andOp.c_no_compile_args()
to specify requirements regarding how the op’s C code should be compiled.
This section describes the methods Op.c_code()
,
Op.c_support_code()
, Op.c_support_code_apply()
and
Op.c_code_cache_version()
because they are the ones that are most
commonly used.
-
c_code
(node, name, input_names, output_names, sub)¶ This method returns a string containing the C code to perform the computation required by this op.
The
node
argument is an Apply node representing an application of the current Op on a list of inputs, producing a list of outputs.input_names
is a sequence of strings which contains as many strings as the op has inputs. Each string contains the name of the C variable to which the corresponding input has been assigned. For example, the name of the C variable representing the first input of the op is given byinput_names[0]
. You should therefore use this name in your C code to interact with that variable.output_names
is used identically toinput_names
, but for the op’s outputs.Finally,
sub
is a dictionary of extras parameters to the c_code method. Among other things, it containssub['fail']
which is a string of C code that you should include in your C code (after ensuring that a Python exception is set) if it needs to raise an exception. Ex:c_code = """ PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError, "X does not have the right value"); %(fail)s; """ % {'fail' : sub['fail']}
to raise a ValueError Python exception with the specified message. The function
PyErr_Format()
supports string formatting so it is possible to tailor the error message to the specifics of the error that occured. IfPyErr_Format()
is called with more than two arguments, the subsequent arguments are used to format the error message with the same behavior as the function PyString_FromFormat(). The%
characters in the format characters need to be escaped since the C code itself is defined in a string which undergoes string formatting.c_code = """ PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError, "X==%%i but it should be greater than 0", X); %(fail)s; """ % {'fail' : sub['fail']}
Note: Your C code should not return the output of the computation but rather put the results in the C variables whose names are contained in the output_names
.
-
c_support_code
()¶ Returns a string containing some support C code for this op. This code will be included at the global scope level and can be used to define functions and structs that will be used by every apply of this op.
-
c_support_code_apply
(node, name)¶ Returns a string containing some support C code for this op. This code will be included at the global scope level and can be used to define functions and structs that will be used by this op. The difference between this method and
c_support_code()
is that the C code specified inc_support_code_apply()
should be specific to each apply of the Op, whilec_support_code()
is for support code that is not specific to each apply.Both
c_support_code()
andc_support_code_apply ()
are necessary because a Theano op can be used more than once in a given Theano function. For example, an op that adds two matrices could be used at some point in the Theano function to add matrices of integers and, at another point, to add matrices of doubles. Because the dtype of the inputs and outputs can change between different applies of the op, any support code that relies on a certain dtype is specific to a given apply of the op and should therefore be defined inc_support_code_apply()
.
-
c_code_cache_version
()¶ Returns a tuple of integers representing the version of the C code in this op. Ex : (1, 4, 0) for version 1.4.0
This tuple is used by Theano to cache the compiled C code for this op. As such, the return value MUST BE CHANGED every time the C code is altered or else Theano will disregard the change in the code and simply load a previous version of the op from the cache. If you want to avoid caching of the C code of this op, return an empty tuple or do not implement this method.
Note: Theano can handle tuples of any hashable objects as return values for this function but, for greater readability and easier management, this function should return a tuple of integers as previously described.
Simple C Op example¶
In this section, we put together the concepts that were covered in this
tutorial to generate an op which multiplies every element in a vector
by a scalar and returns the resulting vector. This is intended to be a simple
example so the methods c_support_code()
and c_support_code_apply()
are
not used because they are not required.
In the C code below notice how the reference count on the output variable is managed. Also take note of how the new variables required for the op’s computation are declared in a new scope to avoid cross-initialization errors.
Also, in the C code, it is very important to properly validate the inputs and outputs storage. Theano guarantees that the inputs exist and have the right number of dimensions but it does not guarantee their exact shape. For instance, if an op computes the sum of two vectors, it needs to validate that its two inputs have the same shape. In our case, we do not need to validate the exact shapes of the inputs because we don’t have a need that they match in any way.
For the outputs, things are a little bit more subtle. Theano does not guarantee that they have been allocated but it does guarantee that, if they have been allocated, they have the right number of dimension. Again, Theano offers no guarantee on the exact shapes. This means that, in our example, we need to validate that the output storage has been allocated and has the same shape as our vector input. If it is not the case, we allocate a new output storage with the right shape and number of dimensions.
import numpy
import theano
from theano import gof
import theano.tensor as T
class VectorTimesScalar(gof.Op):
__props__ = ()
def make_node(self, x, y):
# Validate the inputs' type
if x.type.ndim != 1:
raise TypeError('x must be a 1-d vector')
if y.type.ndim != 0:
raise TypeError('y must be a scalar')
# Create an output variable of the same type as x
output_var = x.type()
return gof.Apply(self, [x, y], [output_var])
def c_code_cache_version(self):
return (1, 0)
def c_code(self, node, name, inp, out, sub):
x, y = inp
z, = out
# Extract the dtypes of the inputs and outputs storage to
# be able to declare pointers for those dtypes in the C
# code.
dtype_x = node.inputs[0].dtype
dtype_y = node.inputs[1].dtype
dtype_z = node.outputs[0].dtype
itemsize_x = numpy.dtype(dtype_x).itemsize
itemsize_z = numpy.dtype(dtype_z).itemsize
fail = sub['fail']
c_code = """
// Validate that the output storage exists and has the same
// dimension as x.
if (NULL == %(z)s ||
PyArray_DIMS(%(x)s)[0] != PyArray_DIMS(%(z)s)[0])
{
/* Reference received to invalid output variable.
Decrease received reference's ref count and allocate new
output variable */
Py_XDECREF(%(z)s);
%(z)s = (PyArrayObject*)PyArray_EMPTY(1,
PyArray_DIMS(%(x)s),
PyArray_TYPE(%(x)s),
0);
if (!%(z)s) {
%(fail)s;
}
}
// Perform the vector multiplication by a scalar
{
/* The declaration of the following variables is done in a new
scope to prevent cross initialization errors */
npy_%(dtype_x)s* x_data_ptr =
(npy_%(dtype_x)s*)PyArray_DATA(%(x)s);
npy_%(dtype_z)s* z_data_ptr =
(npy_%(dtype_z)s*)PyArray_DATA(%(z)s);
npy_%(dtype_y)s y_value =
((npy_%(dtype_y)s*)PyArray_DATA(%(y)s))[0];
int x_stride = PyArray_STRIDES(%(x)s)[0] / %(itemsize_x)s;
int z_stride = PyArray_STRIDES(%(z)s)[0] / %(itemsize_z)s;
int x_dim = PyArray_DIMS(%(x)s)[0];
for(int i=0; i < x_dim; i++)
{
z_data_ptr[i * z_stride] = (x_data_ptr[i * x_stride] *
y_value);
}
}
"""
return c_code % locals()
More complex C Op example¶
This section introduces a new example, slightly more complex than the previous
one, with an op to perform an element-wise multiplication between the elements
of two vectors. This new example differs from the previous one in its use
of the methods c_support_code()
and c_support_code_apply()
(it does
not need to use them but it does so to explain their use) and its capacity
to support inputs of different dtypes.
Recall the method c_support_code()
is meant to produce code that will
be used for every apply of the op. This means that the C code in this
method must be valid in every setting your op supports. If the op is meant
to supports inputs of various dtypes, the C code in this method should be
generic enough to work with every supported dtype. If the op operates on
inputs that can be vectors or matrices, the C code in this method should
be able to accomodate both kinds of inputs.
In our example, the method c_support_code()
is used to declare a C
function to validate that two vectors have the same shape. Because our
op only supports vectors as inputs, this function is allowed to rely
on its inputs being vectors. However, our op should support multiple
dtypes so this function cannot rely on a specific dtype in its inputs.
The method c_support_code_apply()
, on the other hand, is allowed
to depend on the inputs to the op because it is apply-specific. Therefore, we
use it to define a function to perform the multiplication between two vectors.
Variables or functions defined in the method c_support_code_apply()
will
be included at the global scale for every apply of the Op. Because of this,
the names of those variables and functions should include the name of the op,
like in the example. Otherwise, using the op twice in the same graph will give
rise to conflicts as some elements will be declared more than once.
The last interesting difference occurs in the c_code()
method. Because the
dtype of the output is variable and not guaranteed to be the same as any of
the inputs (because of the upcast in the method make_node()
), the typenum
of the output has to be obtained in the Python code and then included in the
C code.
class VectorTimesVector(gof.Op):
__props__ = ()
def make_node(self, x, y):
# Validate the inputs' type
if x.type.ndim != 1:
raise TypeError('x must be a 1-d vector')
if y.type.ndim != 1:
raise TypeError('y must be a 1-d vector')
# Create an output variable of the same type as x
output_var = theano.tensor.TensorType(
dtype=theano.scalar.upcast(x.dtype, y.dtype),
broadcastable=[False])()
return gof.Apply(self, [x, y], [output_var])
def c_code_cache_version(self):
return (1, 0, 2)
def c_support_code(self):
c_support_code = """
bool vector_same_shape(PyArrayObject* arr1,
PyArrayObject* arr2)
{
return (PyArray_DIMS(arr1)[0] == PyArray_DIMS(arr2)[0]);
}
"""
return c_support_code
def c_support_code_apply(self, node, name):
dtype_x = node.inputs[0].dtype
dtype_y = node.inputs[1].dtype
dtype_z = node.outputs[0].dtype
c_support_code = """
void vector_elemwise_mult_%(name)s(npy_%(dtype_x)s* x_ptr,
int x_str, npy_%(dtype_y)s* y_ptr, int y_str,
npy_%(dtype_z)s* z_ptr, int z_str, int nbElements)
{
for (int i=0; i < nbElements; i++){
z_ptr[i * z_str] = x_ptr[i * x_str] * y_ptr[i * y_str];
}
}
"""
return c_support_code % locals()
def c_code(self, node, name, inp, out, sub):
x, y = inp
z, = out
dtype_x = node.inputs[0].dtype
dtype_y = node.inputs[1].dtype
dtype_z = node.outputs[0].dtype
itemsize_x = numpy.dtype(dtype_x).itemsize
itemsize_y = numpy.dtype(dtype_y).itemsize
itemsize_z = numpy.dtype(dtype_z).itemsize
typenum_z = numpy.dtype(dtype_z).num
fail = sub['fail']
c_code = """
// Validate that the inputs have the same shape
if ( !vector_same_shape(%(x)s, %(y)s))
{
PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError, "Shape mismatch : "
"x.shape[0] and y.shape[0] should match but "
"x.shape[0] == %%i and y.shape[0] == %%i",
PyArray_DIMS(%(x)s)[0], PyArray_DIMS(%(y)s)[0]);
%(fail)s;
}
// Validate that the output storage exists and has the same
// dimension as x.
if (NULL == %(z)s || !(vector_same_shape(%(x)s, %(z)s)))
{
/* Reference received to invalid output variable.
Decrease received reference's ref count and allocate new
output variable */
Py_XDECREF(%(z)s);
%(z)s = (PyArrayObject*)PyArray_EMPTY(1,
PyArray_DIMS(%(x)s),
%(typenum_z)s,
0);
if (!%(z)s) {
%(fail)s;
}
}
// Perform the vector elemwise multiplication
vector_elemwise_mult_%(name)s(
(npy_%(dtype_x)s*)PyArray_DATA(%(x)s),
PyArray_STRIDES(%(x)s)[0] / %(itemsize_x)s,
(npy_%(dtype_y)s*)PyArray_DATA(%(y)s),
PyArray_STRIDES(%(y)s)[0] / %(itemsize_y)s,
(npy_%(dtype_z)s*)PyArray_DATA(%(z)s),
PyArray_STRIDES(%(z)s)[0] / %(itemsize_z)s,
PyArray_DIMS(%(x)s)[0]);
"""
return c_code % locals()
Alternate way of defining C Ops¶
The two previous examples have covered the standard way of implementing C Ops
in Theano by inheriting from the class Op
. This process is mostly
simple but it still involves defining many methods as well as mixing, in the
same file, both Python and C code which tends to make the result less
readable.
To help with this, Theano defines a class, COp
, from which new C ops
can inherit. The class COp
aims to simplify the process of implementing
C ops by doing the following :
- It allows you to define the C implementation of your op in a distinct C code file. This makes it easier to keep your Python and C code readable and well indented.
- It can automatically handle all the methods that return C code,
in addition to
Op.c_code_cache_version()
based on the provided external C implementation.
To illustrate how much simpler the class COp
makes the process of defining
a new op with a C implementation, let’s revisit the second example of this
tutorial, the VectorTimesVector
op. In that example, we implemented an op
to perform the task of element-wise vector-vector multiplication. The two
following blocks of code illustrate what the op would look like if it was
implemented using the COp
class.
The new op is defined inside a Python file with the following code :
import theano
from theano import gof
class VectorTimesVector(gof.COp):
__props__ = ()
func_file = "./vectorTimesVector.c"
func_name = "APPLY_SPECIFIC(vector_times_vector)"
def __init__(self):
super(VectorTimesVector, self).__init__(self.func_file,
self.func_name)
def make_node(self, x, y):
# Validate the inputs' type
if x.type.ndim != 1:
raise TypeError('x must be a 1-d vector')
if y.type.ndim != 1:
raise TypeError('y must be a 1-d vector')
# Create an output variable of the same type as x
output_var = theano.tensor.TensorType(
dtype=theano.scalar.upcast(x.dtype, y.dtype),
broadcastable=[False])()
return gof.Apply(self, [x, y], [output_var])
And the following is the C implementation of the op, defined in an external C file named vectorTimesVector.c :
#section support_code
// Support code function
bool vector_same_shape(PyArrayObject* arr1, PyArrayObject* arr2)
{
return (PyArray_DIMS(arr1)[0] == PyArray_DIMS(arr2)[0]);
}
#section support_code_apply
// Apply-specific support function
void APPLY_SPECIFIC(vector_elemwise_mult)(
DTYPE_INPUT_0* x_ptr, int x_str,
DTYPE_INPUT_1* y_ptr, int y_str,
DTYPE_OUTPUT_0* z_ptr, int z_str, int nbElements)
{
for (int i=0; i < nbElements; i++){
z_ptr[i * z_str] = x_ptr[i * x_str] * y_ptr[i * y_str];
}
}
// Apply-specific main function
int APPLY_SPECIFIC(vector_times_vector)(PyArrayObject* input0,
PyArrayObject* input1,
PyArrayObject** output0)
{
// Validate that the inputs have the same shape
if ( !vector_same_shape(input0, input1))
{
PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError, "Shape mismatch : "
"input0.shape[0] and input1.shape[0] should "
"match but x.shape[0] == %i and "
"y.shape[0] == %i",
PyArray_DIMS(input0)[0], PyArray_DIMS(input1)[0]);
return 1;
}
// Validate that the output storage exists and has the same
// dimension as x.
if (NULL == *output0 || !(vector_same_shape(input0, *output0)))
{
/* Reference received to invalid output variable.
Decrease received reference's ref count and allocate new
output variable */
Py_XDECREF(*output0);
*output0 = (PyArrayObject*)PyArray_EMPTY(1,
PyArray_DIMS(input0),
TYPENUM_OUTPUT_0,
0);
if (!*output0) {
PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError,
"Could not allocate output storage");
return 1;
}
}
// Perform the actual vector-vector multiplication
APPLY_SPECIFIC(vector_elemwise_mult)(
(DTYPE_INPUT_0*)PyArray_DATA(input0),
PyArray_STRIDES(input0)[0] / ITEMSIZE_INPUT_0,
(DTYPE_INPUT_1*)PyArray_DATA(input1),
PyArray_STRIDES(input1)[0] / ITEMSIZE_INPUT_1,
(DTYPE_OUTPUT_0*)PyArray_DATA(*output0),
PyArray_STRIDES(*output0)[0] / ITEMSIZE_OUTPUT_0,
PyArray_DIMS(input0)[0]);
return 0;
}
As you can see from this example, the Python and C implementations are nicely decoupled which makes them much more readable than when they were intertwined in the same file and the C code contained string formatting markers.
Now that we have motivated the COp class, we can have a more precise look at what it does for us. For this, we go through the various elements that make up this new version of the VectorTimesVector op :
- Parent class : instead of inheriting from the class
Op
, VectorTimesVector inherits from the classCOp
. - Constructor : in our new op, the
__init__()
method has an important use; to inform the constructor of theCOp
class of the location, on the filesystem of the C implementation of this op. To do this, it gives a list of file paths containing the C code for this op. To auto-generate the c_code method with a function call you can specify the function name as the second parameter. The paths should be given as a relative path from the folder where the descendant of theCOp
class is defined. make_node()
: themake_node()
method is absolutely identical to the one in our old example. Using theCOp
class doesn’t change anything here.- External C code : the external C code implements the various functions associated with the op. Writing this C code involves a few subtleties which deserve their own respective sections.
Main function¶
If you pass a function name to the __init__()
method of the
COp
class, it must respect the following constraints:
- It must return an int. The value of that int indicates whether the op could perform its task or not. A value of 0 indicates success while any non-zero value will interrupt the execution of the Theano function. When returning non-zero the function must set a python exception indicating the details of the problem.
- It must receive one argument for each input to the op followed by one pointer to an argument for each output of the op. The types for the argument is dependant on the Types (that is theano Types) of your inputs and outputs.
For example, the main C function of an op that takes two TensorTypes
(which has PyArrayObject *
as its C type) as inputs and returns
both their sum and the difference between them would have four
parameters (two for the op’s inputs and two for its outputs) and it’s
signature would look something like this :
int sumAndDiffOfScalars(PyArrayObject* in0, PyArrayObject* in1,
PyArrayObject** out0, PyArrayObject** out1)
Macros¶
For certain section tags, your C code can benefit from a number of
pre-defined macros. These section tags have no macros: init_code
,
support_code
. All other tags will have the support macros
discussed below.
APPLY_SPECIFIC(str)
which will automatically append a name unique to the Apply node that applies the Op at the end of the providedstr
. The use of this macro is discussed futher below.
For every input which has a dtype
attribute (this means
Tensors, and equivalent types on GPU), the following macros will be
defined unless your Op class has an Op.check_input
attribute
defined to False. In these descrptions ‘i’ refers to the position
(indexed from 0) in the input array.
DTYPE_INPUT_{i}
: NumPy dtype of the data in the array. This is the variable type corresponding to the NumPy dtype, not the string representation of the NumPy dtype. For instance, if the op’s first input is a float32 ndarray, then the macroDTYPE_INPUT_0
corresponds tonpy_float32
and can directly be used to declare a new variable of the same dtype as the data in the array :DTYPE_INPUT_0 myVar = someValue;
TYPENUM_INPUT_{i}
: Typenum of the data in the arrayITEMSIZE_INPUT_{i}
: Size, in bytes, of the elements in the array.
In the same way, the macros DTYPE_OUTPUT_{i}
,
ITEMSIZE_OUTPUT_{i}
and TYPENUM_OUTPUT_{i}
are defined for
every output ‘i’ of the op.
In addition to these macros, the init_code_struct
, code
, and
code_cleanup
section tags also have the following macros:
FAIL
: Code to insert at error points. A python exception should be set prior to this code. An invocation look like this:if (error) { // Set python exception FAIL }
You can add a semicolon after the macro if it makes your editor happy.
PARAMS
: Name of the params variable for this node. (only for Ops which have params, which is discussed elsewhere)
Finally the tag code
and code_cleanup
have macros to
pass the inputs and output names. These are name INPUT_{i}
and
OUTPUT_{i}
where i is the 0-based index position in the input
and output arrays respectively.
Support code¶
Certain section are limited in what you can place in them due to
semantic and syntactic restrictions of the C++ language. Most of
these restrictions apply to the tags that end in _struct
.
When we defined the VectorTimesVector op without using the COp
class, we had to make a distinction between two types of support_code
: the support code that was apply-specific and the support code that
wasn’t. The apply-specific code was defined in the
c_support_code_apply()
method and the elements defined in that
code (global variables and functions) had to include the name of the
Apply node in their own names to avoid conflicts between the different
versions of the apply-specific code. The code that wasn’t
apply-specific was simply defined in the c_support_code()
method.
To make indentifiers that include the Apply node name use the
APPLY_SPECIFIC(str)
macro. In the above example, this macro is
used when defining the functions vector_elemwise_mult()
and
vector_times_vector()
as well as when calling function
vector_elemwise_mult()
from inside vector_times_vector()
.
When using the COp
class, we still have to make the distinction
between C code for each of the methods of a C class. These sections of
code are separated by #section <tag>
markers. The tag determines
the name of the method this C code applies to with the rule that
<tag>
applies to c_<tag>. Unknown tags are an error and will be
reported. Duplicate tags will be merged together in the order the
appear in the C files.
The rules for knowing if where a piece of code should be put can be
sometimes tricky. The key thing to remember is that things that can
be shared between instances of the op should be apply-agnostic and go
into a section which does not end in _apply
or _struct
. The
distinction of _apply
and _struct
mostly hinghes on how you
want to manange the lifetime of the object. Note that to use an
apply-specific object, you have to be in a apply-specific section, so
some portions of the code that might seem apply-agnostic may still be
apply-specific because of the data they use (this does not include
arguments).
In the above example, the function vector_same_shape()
is
apply-agnostic because it uses none of the macros defined by the class
COp
and it doesn’t rely on any apply-specific code. The function
vector_elemwise_mult()
is apply-specific because it uses the
macros defined by COp
. Finally, the function
vector_times_vector()
is apply-specific because it uses those same
macros and also because it calls vector_elemwise_mult()
which is
an apply-specific function.
Final Note¶
This tutorial focuses on providing C implementations to ops that manipulate Theano tensors. For more information about other Theano types, you can refer to the section Alternate Theano Types.