The cuDNN FrontEnd(FE) API is a C++ header-only library that wraps the cuDNN C backend API. Both the FE and backend APIs are entry points to the same set of functionality that is commonly referred to as the "graph API".
While there are two entry points to the graph API (i.e. backend and frontend), it is expected that most users will use the FE API. Reasons being:
- FE API is less verbose without loss of control. All functionality accessible through the backend API is also accessible through the FE API.
- FE API adds functionality on top of the backend API, like errata filters and autotuning.
Also, for those using backend API, FE API source and samples can serve as reference implementation.
In FE v1.0 API, users can describe multiple operations that form subgraph through a persistent cudnn_frontend::graph::Graph object. Unlike the FE v0.x API, users dont need to worry about specifying shapes and sizes of the intermediate virtual tensors. FE v1.0 API extends the groundwork of earlier versions and introduces a new set of APIs to further simplify the workflow. For detailed information of FE v1.0 API, see README.FE.v1.0.md.
Additionally, FE v1.0 API provides python bindings to all API through pybind11. It is recommended that new users of cuDNN start with the frontend v1.0 API. See samples/cpp and samples/python for more details on its usage.
In order to include the entire library, include the cudnn_frontend header file include/cudnn_frontend.h into your compilation unit.
With the release of v1.0, we are bumping up the minimum supported cudnn version to 8.5.0
cuda can be downloaded from the nvidia dev-zone
cudnn can be installed from - [nvidia dev-zone] (https://developer.nvidia.com/cudnn) - [pypi wheels] (https://pypi.org/project/nvidia-cudnn-cu12/)
Minimum python version needed 3.6
The python binding compilation requires development package which can be installed by running apt-get install python-dev.
To run the python samples, additionally, you will need the following python packages:
- pytest
- torch
- jupyter
Install FE python API by running:
pip install git+https://github.com/NVIDIA/cudnn-frontend.git
Above command picks cuda and cudnn from default system paths.
To provide a custom CUDA installation path, use environment variable: CUDAToolkit_ROOT.
To provide a custom CUDNN installation path, use environment variable: CUDNN_PATH.
Download the pip wheel corresponding to your python installation.
pip install nvidia_cudnn_frontend-1.2.0-*.whl
To test whether installation is successful, run:
pytest tests/python_fe
NOTE: Only v1.0 API is exposed via python bindings.
C++ API is header only library.
The root CMakeLists.txt can be used as reference to include the cudnn_frontend in your project's build system.
The following compilation steps are only required for building the samples and/or python bindings.
Provide CUDA installation path according to: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FindCUDAToolkit.html
Provide CUDNN installation path using CUDNN_PATH env variable or cmake parameter.
CUDNN_PATH has the cudnn installation:
- Headers are in CUDNN_PATH/include.
- Libraries are in CUDNN_PATH/lib or CUDNN_PATH/lib64 or CUDNN_PATH/lib/x64.
For a in-source build,
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCUDNN_PATH=/path/to/cudnn -DCUDAToolkit_ROOT=/path/to/cuda ../
cmake --build . -j16
bin/samples
To skip building samples, use -DCUDNN_FRONTEND_BUILD_SAMPLES=OFF.
To skip building python bindings, use -DCUDNN_FRONTEND_BUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=OFF.
In case, you have a stale cmake cache and want to update the cudnn/cuda paths, please delete the cmake cache (or build directory and redo the above steps).
For initial debugging, we recommend turning on the cudnn FE logging and checking for warnings and errors. cuDNN Frontend API logging records execution flow through cuDNN frontend API. This functionality is disabled by default, and can be enabled through methods described in this section.
| Environment variables | CUDNN_FRONTEND_LOG_INFO=0 | CUDNN_FRONTEND_LOG_INFO=1 |
|---|---|---|
| CUDNN_FRONTEND_LOG_FILE not set | No Logging | No Logging |
| CUDNN_FRONTEND_LOG_FILE set to stdout or stderr | No Logging | Logging to cout or cerr |
| CUDNN_FRONTEND_LOG_FILE set to filename.txt | No Logging | Logging to the filename |
Calling cudnn_frontend::isLoggingEnabled() = true|false has same effect of setting the environment variable.
Calling cudnn_frontend::getStream() = stream_name can be used to assign the output stream directly.
For further debugging, please turn on the cudnn backend logs described here https://docs.nvidia.com/deeplearning/cudnn/developer-guide/index.html#api-logging
- See README.FE.1.0.md for v1.0 API documentation.
- See README.FE.0.x.md for v0.x API documentation.
Please refer to our contribution guide
Support, resources, and information about cuDNN can be found online at https://developer.nvidia.com/cudnn.
Also, bugs and rfes can be reported in the issues section.