Contributing to TensorFlow (python)

[Tyler Rubin]

Hey all, 

 I'm interested in fixing a bug that I found with nested While calls in the python implementation (possibly any nested ControlFlowOp), but I am confused as to how to get my dev environment set up. I uninstalled the pip binary because I wanted to run my debugging code against the TensorFlow source that I'm trying to modify. It seems that you can run unit tests through bazel, and it's highly suggested that this is the only way to do it from this message in the top level _init_.py: 

Error importing tensorflow.  Unless you are using bazel,

you should not try to import tensorflow from its source directory;

please exit the tensorflow source tree, and relaunch your python interpreter

from there.

But it seems like it would take a very long time if we need to recompile all the kernels every time we want to test a change in the python interface. Is there another way to test live changes? Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tyler

[Mark Daoust]

Issue #520 sounds like it will fix the "recompile all the kernels" part of your question:

https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/issues/520

Mark Daoust

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[Vijay Vasudevan]

Changing only python files *shouldn't* require recompiling all the kernels: only changing a kernel file or a lower-level infrastructure file should require that.

That being said:

1) Yes, bazel is probably the best way to test a specific target right now

2) We do want to improve the build targets to be a bit more fine-grained, at least for testing.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/tensorflow.org/d/msgid/discuss/CAFg8gYxBMKmCaoSkT60o81PDZ%3D%3Dpanj9n8bkWnGJc0Nc4UbFZg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Tyler Rubin]

Thank you guys. I'm still slightly confused. When you say bazel is probably the best way to go, does that mean that there is another way or there is not? I'd like to use debug mode of an IDE if at all possible. If there's a path towards making it work without bazel, perhaps I can help move the project in that direction?

Thanks,

Tyler

[Vijay Vasudevan]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 2:29 PM, Tyler Rubin <tru...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you guys. I'm still slightly confused. When you say bazel is probably the best way to go, does that mean that there is another way or there is not? I'd like to use debug mode of an IDE if at all possible.

For this, one option is to just build the test target using bazel and then run the resulting executable test in a debugger.

If there's a path towards making it work without bazel, perhaps I can help move the project in that direction?

https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/issues/380 might be relevant and is already being worked on, I believe.

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/tensorflow.org/d/msgid/discuss/e62ba8bd-8a1c-44d0-ac61-54e6d34498c4%40tensorflow.org.

[Tyler Rubin]

Thanks Vijay. Maybe I'm not fully understanding how this all works together, and if that's the case I apologize. Specifically for the modifications to the python interface, are you saying that for any change we make to the python code, to run the debugger we first have to generate the wheel through bazel and then pip install it so that the module with the change is available to the interpreter?

[Vijay Vasudevan]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 3:22 PM, Tyler Rubin <tru...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Vijay. Maybe I'm not fully understanding how this all works together, and if that's the case I apologize. Specifically for the modifications to the python interface, are you saying that for any change we make to the python code, to run the debugger we first have to generate the wheel through bazel

If you're not changing any C++ code, then in most cases you can just run the unittest directly whenever you change the python code.  E.g.,

1) Change python file (say, control_flow_ops.py)

2) bazel-bin/tensorflow/python/kernel_tests/control_flow_ops_test.py

(run inside a debugger if needed)

Repeat 1 and 2

 

and then pip install it so that the module with the change is available to the interpreter?

No need to pip install for development, only "deployment".

[Tyler Rubin]

Oh awesome. I guess my main question then is how do you perform 2) bazel-bin/tensorflow/python/kernel_tests/control_flow_ops_test.py inside the debugger?

Thanks,

Tyler