Merge pull request #3934 from huggingface/examples_args_from_files

[qol] example scripts: parse args from .args file or JSON

examples/run_glue.py

@@ -19,18 +19,15 @@
 import dataclasses
 import logging
 import os
+import sys
 from dataclasses import dataclass, field
 from typing import Dict, Optional
 
 import numpy as np
 
+from transformers import AutoConfig, AutoModelForSequenceClassification, AutoTokenizer, EvalPrediction, GlueDataset
+from transformers import GlueDataTrainingArguments as DataTrainingArguments
 from transformers import (
-    AutoConfig,
-    AutoModelForSequenceClassification,
-    AutoTokenizer,
-    EvalPrediction,
-    GlueDataset,
-    GlueDataTrainingArguments,
     HfArgumentParser,
     Trainer,
     TrainingArguments,
@@ -69,7 +66,13 @@ def main():
     # or by passing the --help flag to this script.
     # We now keep distinct sets of args, for a cleaner separation of concerns.
 
-    parser = HfArgumentParser((ModelArguments, GlueDataTrainingArguments, TrainingArguments))
+    parser = HfArgumentParser((ModelArguments, DataTrainingArguments, TrainingArguments))
+
+    if len(sys.argv) == 2 and sys.argv[1].endswith(".json"):
+        # If we pass only one argument to the script and it's the path to a json file,
+        # let's parse it to get our arguments.
+        model_args, data_args, training_args = parser.parse_json_file(json_file=os.path.abspath(sys.argv[1]))
+    else:
         model_args, data_args, training_args = parser.parse_args_into_dataclasses()
 
     if (

src/transformers/hf_argparser.py

 import dataclasses
+import json
+import sys
 from argparse import ArgumentParser
 from enum import Enum
+from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any, Iterable, NewType, Tuple, Union
 
 
@@ -8,6 +11,10 @@ DataClass = NewType("DataClass", Any)
 DataClassType = NewType("DataClassType", Any)
 
 
+def trim_suffix(s: str, suffix: str):
+    return s if not s.endswith(suffix) or len(suffix) == 0 else s[: -len(suffix)]
+
+
 class HfArgumentParser(ArgumentParser):
     """
     This subclass of `argparse.ArgumentParser` uses type hints on dataclasses
@@ -70,7 +77,9 @@ class HfArgumentParser(ArgumentParser):
                     kwargs["required"] = True
             self.add_argument(field_name, **kwargs)
 
-    def parse_args_into_dataclasses(self, args=None, return_remaining_strings=False) -> Tuple[DataClass, ...]:
+    def parse_args_into_dataclasses(
+        self, args=None, return_remaining_strings=False, look_for_args_file=True
+    ) -> Tuple[DataClass, ...]:
         """
         Parse command-line args into instances of the specified dataclass types.
 
@@ -84,6 +93,10 @@ class HfArgumentParser(ArgumentParser):
                 (same as argparse.ArgumentParser)
             return_remaining_strings:
                 If true, also return a list of remaining argument strings.
+            look_for_args_file:
+                If true, will look for a ".args" file with the same base name
+                as the entry point script for this process, and will append its
+                potential content to the command line args.
 
         Returns:
             Tuple consisting of:
@@ -95,6 +108,14 @@ class HfArgumentParser(ArgumentParser):
                 - The potential list of remaining argument strings.
                   (same as argparse.ArgumentParser.parse_known_args)
         """
+        if look_for_args_file and len(sys.argv):
+            basename = trim_suffix(sys.argv[0], ".py")
+            args_file = Path(f"{basename}.args")
+            if args_file.exists():
+                fargs = args_file.read_text().split()
+                args = fargs + args if args is not None else fargs + sys.argv[1:]
+                # in case of duplicate arguments the first one has precedence
+                # so we append rather than prepend.
         namespace, remaining_args = self.parse_known_args(args=args)
         outputs = []
         for dtype in self.dataclass_types:
@@ -111,3 +132,17 @@ class HfArgumentParser(ArgumentParser):
             return (*outputs, remaining_args)
         else:
             return (*outputs,)
+
+    def parse_json_file(self, json_file: str) -> Tuple[DataClass, ...]:
+        """
+        Alternative helper method that does not use `argparse` at all,
+        instead loading a json file and populating the dataclass types.
+        """
+        data = json.loads(Path(json_file).read_text())
+        outputs = []
+        for dtype in self.dataclass_types:
+            keys = {f.name for f in dataclasses.fields(dtype)}
+            inputs = {k: v for k, v in data.items() if k in keys}
+            obj = dtype(**inputs)
+            outputs.append(obj)
+        return (*outputs,)