README.md

# Introduction

This repository holds NVIDIA-maintained utilities to streamline 
mixed precision and distributed training in Pytorch. 
Some of the code here will be included in upstream Pytorch eventually.
The intention of Apex is to make up-to-date utilities available to 
users as quickly as possible.

## Full API Documentation: [https://nvidia.github.io/apex](https://nvidia.github.io/apex)

# Contents

## 1. Mixed Precision

### Amp:  Automatic Mixed Precision

`apex.amp` is a tool to enable mixed precision training by changing only 3 lines of your script.
Users can easily experiment with different pure and mixed precision training modes by supplying
different flags to `amp.initialize`.

[Webinar introducing Amp](https://info.nvidia.com/webinar-mixed-precision-with-pytorch-reg-page.html)
(The flag `cast_batchnorm` has been renamed to `keep_batchnorm_fp32`).

[API Documentation](https://nvidia.github.io/apex/amp.html)

[Comprehensive Imagenet example](https://github.com/NVIDIA/apex/tree/master/examples/imagenet)

[DCGAN example coming soon...](https://github.com/NVIDIA/apex/tree/master/examples/dcgan)

[Moving to the new Amp API](https://nvidia.github.io/apex/amp.html#transition-guide-for-old-api-users) (for users of the deprecated "Amp" and "FP16_Optimizer" APIs)

## 2. Distributed Training

`apex.parallel.DistributedDataParallel` is a module wrapper, similar to 
`torch.nn.parallel.DistributedDataParallel`.  It enables convenient multiprocess distributed training,
optimized for NVIDIA's NCCL communication library.

[API Documentation](https://nvidia.github.io/apex/parallel.html)

[Python Source](https://github.com/NVIDIA/apex/tree/master/apex/parallel)

[Example/Walkthrough](https://github.com/NVIDIA/apex/tree/master/examples/distributed)

The [Imagenet example](https://github.com/NVIDIA/apex/tree/master/examples/imagenet)
shows use of `apex.parallel.DistributedDataParallel` along with `apex.amp`.

### Synchronized Batch Normalization

`apex.parallel.SyncBatchNorm` extends `torch.nn.modules.batchnorm._BatchNorm` to
support synchronized BN.
It allreduces stats across processes during multiprocess (DistributedDataParallel) training.
Synchronous BN has been used in cases where only a small
local minibatch can fit on each GPU.
Allreduced stats increase the effective batch size for the BN layer to the
global batch size across all processes (which, technically, is the correct
formulation).
Synchronous BN has been observed to improve converged accuracy in some of our research models.

# Requirements

Python 3

CUDA 9 or newer

PyTorch 0.4 or newer.  The CUDA and C++ extensions require pytorch 1.0 or newer.

We recommend the latest stable release, obtainable from
[https://pytorch.org/](https://pytorch.org/).  We also test against the latest master branch, obtainable from [https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch](https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch).

It's often convenient to use Apex in Docker containers.  Compatible options include:
* [NVIDIA Pytorch containers from NGC](https://ngc.nvidia.com/catalog/containers/nvidia%2Fpytorch), which come with Apex preinstalled.  To use the latest Amp API, you may need to `pip uninstall apex` then reinstall Apex using the **Quick Start** commands below.
* [official Pytorch -devel Dockerfiles](https://hub.docker.com/r/pytorch/pytorch/tags), e.g. `docker pull pytorch/pytorch:nightly-devel-cuda10.0-cudnn7`, in which you can install Apex using the **Quick Start** commands.

# Quick Start

### Linux

For performance and full functionality, we recommend installing Apex with
CUDA and C++ extensions via
```
$ git clone apex
$ cd apex
$ pip install -v --no-cache-dir --global-option="--cpp_ext" --global-option="--cuda_ext" .
```

Apex also supports a Python-only build (required with Pytorch 0.4) via
```
$ pip install -v --no-cache-dir .
```
A Python-only build omits:
- Fused kernels required to use `apex.optimizers.FusedAdam`.
- Fused kernels required to use `apex.normalization.FusedLayerNorm`.
- Fused kernels that improve the performance and numerical stability of `apex.parallel.SyncBatchNorm`.
- Fused kernels that improve the performance of `apex.parallel.DistributedDataParallel` and `apex.amp`.
`DistributedDataParallel`, `amp`, and `SyncBatchNorm` will still be usable, but they may be slower.

### Windows support
Windows support is experimental, and Linux is recommended.  `python setup.py install --cpp_ext --cuda_ext` may work if you were able to build Pytorch from source
on your system.  `python setup.py install` (without CUDA/C++ extensions) is more likely to work.  If you installed Pytorch in a Conda environment,
make sure to install Apex in that same environment.