readme_en.md

# Server-side C++ inference


In this tutorial, we will introduce the detailed steps of deploying PaddleOCR ultra-lightweight Chinese detection and recognition models on the server side.


## 1. Prepare the environment

### Environment

- Linux, docker is recommended.


### 1.1 Compile opencv

* First of all, you need to download the source code compiled package in the Linux environment from the opencv official website. Taking opencv3.4.7 as an example, the download command is as follows.

```
wget https://github.com/opencv/opencv/archive/3.4.7.tar.gz
tar -xf 3.4.7.tar.gz
```

Finally, you can see the folder of `opencv-3.4.7/` in the current directory.

* Compile opencv, the opencv source path (`root_path`) and installation path (`install_path`) should be set by yourself. Enter the opencv source code path and compile it in the following way.


```shell
root_path=your_opencv_root_path
install_path=${root_path}/opencv3

rm -rf build
mkdir build
cd build

cmake .. \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${install_path} \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF \
    -DWITH_IPP=OFF \
    -DBUILD_IPP_IW=OFF \
    -DWITH_LAPACK=OFF \
    -DWITH_EIGEN=OFF \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=lib64 \
    -DWITH_ZLIB=ON \
    -DBUILD_ZLIB=ON \
    -DWITH_JPEG=ON \
    -DBUILD_JPEG=ON \
    -DWITH_PNG=ON \
    -DBUILD_PNG=ON \
    -DWITH_TIFF=ON \
    -DBUILD_TIFF=ON

make -j
make install
```

Among them, `root_path` is the downloaded opencv source code path, and `install_path` is the installation path of opencv. After `make install` is completed, the opencv header file and library file will be generated in this folder for later OCR source code compilation.



The final file structure under the opencv installation path is as follows.

```
opencv3/
|-- bin
|-- include
|-- lib
|-- lib64
|-- share
```

### 1.2 Compile or download or  the Paddle inference library

* There are 2 ways to obtain the Paddle inference library, described in detail below.


#### 1.2.1 Compile from the source code
* If you want to get the latest Paddle inference library features, you can download the latest code from Paddle github repository and compile the inference library from the source code.
* You can refer to [Paddle inference library] (https://www.paddlepaddle.org.cn/documentation/docs/en/advanced_guide/inference_deployment/inference/build_and_install_lib_en.html) to get the Paddle source code from github, and then compile To generate the latest inference library. The method of using git to access the code is as follows.


```shell
git clone https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle.git
```

* After entering the Paddle directory, the compilation method is as follows.

```shell
rm -rf build
mkdir build
cd build

cmake  .. \
    -DWITH_CONTRIB=OFF \
    -DWITH_MKL=ON \
    -DWITH_MKLDNN=ON  \
    -DWITH_TESTING=OFF \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DWITH_INFERENCE_API_TEST=OFF \
    -DON_INFER=ON \
    -DWITH_PYTHON=ON
make -j
make inference_lib_dist
```

For more compilation parameter options, please refer to the official website of the Paddle C++ inference library:[https://www.paddlepaddle.org.cn/documentation/docs/en/advanced_guide/inference_deployment/inference/build_and_install_lib_en.html](https://www.paddlepaddle.org.cn/documentation/docs/en/advanced_guide/inference_deployment/inference/build_and_install_lib_en.html).


* After the compilation process, you can see the following files in the folder of `build/fluid_inference_install_dir/`.

```
build/fluid_inference_install_dir/
|-- CMakeCache.txt
|-- paddle
|-- third_party
|-- version.txt
```

Among them, `paddle` is the Paddle library required for C++ prediction later, and `version.txt` contains the version information of the current inference library.



#### 1.2.2 Direct download and installation

* Different cuda versions of the Linux inference library (based on GCC 4.8.2) are provided on the
[Paddle inference library official website](https://www.paddlepaddle.org.cn/documentation/docs/en/advanced_guide/inference_deployment/inference/build_and_install_lib_en.html). You can view and select the appropriate version of the inference library on the official website.


* After downloading, use the following method to uncompress.

```
tar -xf fluid_inference.tgz
```

Finally you can see the following files in the folder of `fluid_inference/`.


## 2. Compile and run the demo

### 2.1 Export the inference model

* You can refer to [Model inference](../../doc/doc_ch/inference.md)，export the inference model. After the model is exported, assuming it is placed in the `inference` directory, the directory structure is as follows.

```
inference/
|-- det_db
|   |--model
|   |--params
|-- rec_rcnn
|   |--model
|   |--params
```


### 2.2 Compile PaddleOCR C++ inference demo


* The compilation commands are as follows. The addresses of Paddle C++ inference library, opencv and other Dependencies need to be replaced with the actual addresses on your own machines.

```shell
sh tools/build.sh
```

具体地，`tools/build.sh`中内容如下。

```shell
OPENCV_DIR=your_opencv_dir
LIB_DIR=your_paddle_inference_dir
CUDA_LIB_DIR=your_cuda_lib_dir
CUDNN_LIB_DIR=your_cudnn_lib_dir

BUILD_DIR=build
rm -rf ${BUILD_DIR}
mkdir ${BUILD_DIR}
cd ${BUILD_DIR}
cmake .. \
    -DPADDLE_LIB=${LIB_DIR} \
    -DWITH_MKL=ON \
    -DDEMO_NAME=ocr_system \
    -DWITH_GPU=OFF \
    -DWITH_STATIC_LIB=OFF \
    -DUSE_TENSORRT=OFF \
    -DOPENCV_DIR=${OPENCV_DIR} \
    -DCUDNN_LIB=${CUDNN_LIB_DIR} \
    -DCUDA_LIB=${CUDA_LIB_DIR} \

make -j
```

`OPENCV_DIR` is the opencv installation path; `LIB_DIR` is the download (`fluid_inference` folder) or the generated Paddle inference library path (`build/fluid_inference_install_dir` folder); `CUDA_LIB_DIR` is the cuda library file path, in docker; it is `/usr/local/cuda/lib64`; `CUDNN_LIB_DIR` is the cudnn library file path, in docker it is `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/`.


* After the compilation is completed, an executable file named `ocr_system` will be generated in the `build` folder.


### Run the demo
* Execute the following command to complete the OCR recognition and detection of an image.

```shell
sh tools/run.sh
```

The detection results will be shown on the screen, which is as follows.

<div align="center">
    <img src="../imgs/cpp_infer_pred_12.png" width="600">
</div>


### 2.3 Note

* `MKLDNN` is disabled by default for C++ inference (`use_mkldnn` in `tools/config.txt` is set to 0), if you need to use MKLDNN for inference acceleration, you need to modify `use_mkldnn` to 1, and use the latest version of the Paddle source code to compile the inference library. When using MKLDNN for CPU prediction, if multiple images are predicted at the same time, there will be a memory leak problem (the problem is not present if MKLDNN is disabled). The problem is currently being fixed, and the temporary solution is: when predicting multiple pictures, Re-initialize the recognition (`CRNNRecognizer`) and detection class (`DBDetector`) every 30 pictures or so.