Python: BigFloat+Multiprocessing - python

I am trying to parallelise a series of computations that use bigfloat. However, there is the error
Error sending result: '[BigFloat.exact('1.0000000', precision=20)]'. Reason: 'TypeError('self._value cannot be converted to a Python object for pickling')'
I MWE to reproduce the error is
from bigfloat import *
from multiprocessing import Pool
def f(x,a,b,N):
with precision(20):
X=BigFloat(x)
for i in range(N):
X = a*X*X-b
return X
if __name__ == '__main__':
pool = Pool(processes=2)
out1,out2 = pool.starmap(f,[(1,2,1,3),(2,2,2,2)])
(the function itself is not important at all). If I do not use bigfloat, then everything is fine. So, it is definitely some sort of interaction between multiprocessing and bigfloat.
So, I imagine that multiprocessing is having troubles saving the BigFloat object. I do not seem to be able to "extract" only the value thrown by BigFloat. How can I resolve this issue?

apparently bigfloat doesn't support pickling, I get the same error when doing pickle.dumps(BigFloat(1))
https://github.com/mdickinson/bigfloat/issues/106 notes this as needing to be done
as a work around, why not just convert to strings when transferring between processes? i.e. change f to return str(X) and then have other routines parse the strings into BigFloats as needed
otherwise, you could write some code to support this and submit it to the project

Related

Why does a call to torch.tensor inside of apply_async fail to complete (seems to block execution)?

I'm trying to understand why the following simple example doesn't successfully complete execution and seems to get stuck on the first line of really_simple_func (on Ubuntu machines, but not Windows). The code is:
import torch as t
import numpy as np
import multiprocessing as mp # I've tried both multiprocessing
# import torch.multiprocessing as mp # and torch.multiprocessing
def really_simple_func():
temp_val_2 = t.tensor(np.zeros(425447)[0:400000]) # this is the line that blocks.
return 4.3
if __name__ == "__main__":
print("Run brief starting")
some_zeros = np.zeros(425447)
temp_val = t.tensor(some_zeros[0:400000]) # DELETE THIS LINE TO MAKE IT WORK
pool = mp.Pool(processes=1)
job = pool.apply_async(really_simple_func)
print("just before job.get()")
result = job.get()
print("Run brief completed. Reward = {}".format(result))
I have torch 1.11.0 installed, numpy 1.22.3 and have tried both CPU and GPU versions of Torch. When I run this code on two different Ubuntu machines, I get the following output:
Run brief starting
just before job.get()
However, the code never successfully completes (doesn't print the "Run brief completed" line). (It does complete on a third Windows box).
On the Ubuntu machines, if I delete the line with the comment "#DELETE THIS LINE TO MAKE IT WORK" the execution DOES complete, printing the final line as expected. Similarly, if I leave the line defining temp_val in but delete the line with the comment "This is the line that blocks" it will also complete. Moreover, if I reduce the size of the temp_val tensor (say from 400000 to 4000) it will also complete successfully. Finally, it is worth noting that while I can reproduce this behaviour on two different Ubuntu machines, this code does actually complete on my Windows machine - though, as far as I can tell, the versions of key packages, such as torch, are the same.
I don't understand this behaviour. I suspect it is something to do with the way torch allocates memory or stores information. I've tried calling del temp_val to free up memory, but that doesn't seem to fix things. It seems to me that the async call to t.tensor within really_simple_func is stopped from completing if there has already been a call to t.tensor in the main code block, creating a sufficiently large tensor.
I don't understand why this is happening, or even if that is the correct explanation. In any case, what would be best practice if I do need to do some tensor processing within apply_async as well as in the main thread? More generally, what is Torch waiting on when I make a call to t.tensor?
(Obviously, this is just the simplest version of the real code I'm trying to get to work that reproduced this issue. I realise that calling mp.Pool with only one process doesn't really make sense...nor, indeed, does using apply_async to call a function that returns a constant!)
Unfortunately, I cannot provide any answers to your questions.
I can, however, share experiences with seemingly the same issue. I use a Linux machine with torch 1.8.1 and numpy 1.19.2.
When I run the following code on my machine:
with Pool(max_pool) as p:
pool_outputs = list(
tqdm(
p.imap(lambda f: get_model_results_per_query_file(get_preds, tokenizer, f), query_files),
total=len(query_files)
)
)
For which the function get_model_results_per_query_file contains operations similar to the following:
feats = features.unsqueeze(0).repeat(batch_size, 1, 1).to(device)
(features is a torch tensor)
The first round of jobs automatically fail, and new ones are immediately started (that do not fail for some reason). The whole process never completes though, since the main process still seems to be waiting for the first failed jobs.
If I remove the lines in my code involving the repeat function, no jobs fail.
I managed to solve my issue and preserve the same results by adapting a similar solution to yours:
feats = torch.as_tensor(np.tile(features, (batch_size, 1, 1))).to(device)
I believe as_tensor works in a similar fashion to from_numpy in this case.
I only managed to find this solution thanks to your post and your proposed workaround, so thank you!
After some further exploration, here is a brief answer to my own question.
While I still don't fully understand the blocking behaviour (and would welcome any further explanation), I have just seen that the way I'm generating torch tensors from a numpy array is not correct.
In particular, instead of using torch.tensor(temp_val) where temp_val is a numpy array, I should be using torch.from_numpy(temp_val). Doing this fixes the problem.
Alternatively, I can convert temp_val into a list and then create the tensor via torch.tensor(temp_val_as_list) - which also avoids the issue.

BufferError: could not get scalar buffer information

import multiprocessing as mp
def parallel_apply(data, fun, args):
pool = mp.Pool(mp.cpu_count() - 1)
result = [pool.apply(fun, (data.loc[x, :], *args)) for x in data.index]
result = [p.get() for p in result]
end_result = pd.concat(result)
return end_result
from this part of code i get following error: "BufferError: could not get scalar buffer information". I've tried several things but non of them worked. any sugesstion? thanks for help
It would work better if your code were more complete/runnable, but from the looks of it, data might be a pandas DataFrame?
At any rate, this is likely caused by the recent release of numpy 1.15.0, which broke pickling of numpy.datetime64 scalars.
multiprocessing uses pickle to serialize data between different processes.
For more details, see:
https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/11656
https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/11694
An easy fix would be to downgrade to numpy 1.14.0 (or wait for 1.15.1, which should have a fix for the problem).

python multiprocessing - OverflowError('cannot serialize a bytes object larger than 4GiB')

We are running a script using the multiprocessing library (python 3.6), where a big pd.DataFrame is passed as an argument to a function :
from multiprocessing import Pool
import time
def my_function(big_df):
# do something time consuming
time.sleep(50)
if __name__ == '__main__':
with Pool(10) as p:
res = {}
output = {}
for id, big_df in some_dict_of_big_dfs:
res[id] = p.apply_async(my_function,(big_df ,))
output = {id : res[id].get() for id in id_list}
The problem is that we are getting an error from the pickle library.
Reason: 'OverflowError('cannot serialize a bytes objects larger than
4GiB',)'
We are aware than pickle v4 can serialize larger objects question related, link, but we don't know how to modify the protocol that multiprocessing is using.
does anybody know what to do?
Thanks !!
Apparently is there an open issue about this topic , and there is a few related initiatives described on this particular answer. I Found a way to change the default pickle protocol that is used in the multiprocessing library based on this answer. As was pointed out in the comments this solution Only works with Linux and OS multiprocessing lib
Solution:
You first create a new separated module
pickle4reducer.py
from multiprocessing.reduction import ForkingPickler, AbstractReducer
class ForkingPickler4(ForkingPickler):
def __init__(self, *args):
if len(args) > 1:
args[1] = 2
else:
args.append(2)
super().__init__(*args)
#classmethod
def dumps(cls, obj, protocol=4):
return ForkingPickler.dumps(obj, protocol)
def dump(obj, file, protocol=4):
ForkingPickler4(file, protocol).dump(obj)
class Pickle4Reducer(AbstractReducer):
ForkingPickler = ForkingPickler4
register = ForkingPickler4.register
dump = dump
And then, in your main script you need to add the following:
import pickle4reducer
import multiprocessing as mp
ctx = mp.get_context()
ctx.reducer = pickle4reducer.Pickle4Reducer()
with mp.Pool(4) as p:
# do something
That will probably solve the problem of the overflow.
But, warning, you might consider reading this before doing anything or you might reach the same error as me:
'i' format requires -2147483648 <= number <= 2147483647
(the reason of this error is well explained in the link above). Long story short, multiprocessing send data through all its process using the pickle protocol, if you are already reaching the 4gb limit, that probably means that you might consider redefining your functions more as "void" methods rather than input/output methods. All this inbound/outbound data increase the RAM usage, is probably inefficient by construction (my case) and it might be better to point all process to the same object rather than create a new copy for each call.
hope this helps.
Supplementing answer from Pablo
The following problem can be resolved be Python3.8, if you are okay to use this version of python:
'i' format requires -2147483648 <= number <= 2147483647

Python multiprocessing with numpy array and SAT solver

I've looked around the forum and can't seem to find anything that helps. I'm trying to parallelize some processes but cannot seem to get it to work.
from multiprocessing import *
from numpy import *
x=array([1,2,3,4,5])
def SATSolver(args):
#many_calculations
return result
def main(arg):
new_args=append(x,arg)
return SATSolver(new_args)
y=array([8,9,10,11])
if __name__ == '__main__':
pool=Pool()
results=pool.map(main,y)
print(results)
The SATSolver function is where the bulk of the work happens. Basically, I have an array x and a second array y. I want to add append each value in y to x individually, and then run this new set through my SATSolver function. I would like to use the multiprocessing module so this can run in parallel.
Whenever I try and run this, I don't get an error, but a new interactive window pops up and says "Could not load the file from filepath\-c. Do you want to create a new file?"
Everything works perfectly when it's run without multiprocessing.
Any ideas on how to make this work?
Thanks!

Multiprocessing IOError: bad message length

I get an IOError: bad message length when passing large arguments to the map function. How can I avoid this?
The error occurs when I set N=1500 or bigger.
The code is:
import numpy as np
import multiprocessing
def func(args):
i=args[0]
images=args[1]
print i
return 0
N=1500 #N=1000 works fine
images=[]
for i in np.arange(N):
images.append(np.random.random_integers(1,100,size=(500,500)))
iter_args=[]
for i in range(0,1):
iter_args.append([i,images])
pool=multiprocessing.Pool()
print pool
pool.map(func,iter_args)
In the docs of multiprocessing there is the function recv_bytes that raises an IOError. Could it be because of this? (https://python.readthedocs.org/en/v2.7.2/library/multiprocessing.html)
EDIT
If I use images as a numpy array instead of a list, I get a different error: SystemError: NULL result without error in PyObject_Call.
A bit different code:
import numpy as np
import multiprocessing
def func(args):
i=args[0]
images=args[1]
print i
return 0
N=1500 #N=1000 works fine
images=[]
for i in np.arange(N):
images.append(np.random.random_integers(1,100,size=(500,500)))
images=np.array(images) #new
iter_args=[]
for i in range(0,1):
iter_args.append([i,images])
pool=multiprocessing.Pool()
print pool
pool.map(func,iter_args)
EDIT2 The actual function that I use is:
def func(args):
i=args[0]
images=args[1]
image=np.mean(images,axis=0)
np.savetxt("image%d.txt"%(i),image)
return 0
Additionally, the iter_args do not contain the same set of images:
iter_args=[]
for i in range(0,1):
rand_ind=np.random.random_integers(0,N-1,N)
iter_args.append([i,images[rand_ind]])
You're creating a pool and sending all the images at once to func(). If you can get away with working on a single image at once, try something like this, which runs to completion with N=10000 in 35s with Python 2.7.10 for me:
import numpy as np
import multiprocessing
def func(args):
i = args[0]
img = args[1]
print "{}: {} {}".format(i, img.shape, img.sum())
return 0
N=10000
images = ((i, np.random.random_integers(1,100,size=(500,500))) for i in xrange(N))
pool=multiprocessing.Pool(4)
pool.imap(func, images)
pool.close()
pool.join()
The key here is to use iterators so you don't have to hold all the data in memory at once. For instance I converted images from an array holding all the data to a generator expression to create the image only when needed. You could modify this to load your images from disk or whatever. I also used pool.imap instead of pool.map.
If you can, try to load the image data in the worker function. Right now you have to serialize all the data and ship it across to another process. If your image data is larger, this might be a bottleneck.
[update now that we know func has to handle all images at once]
You could do an iterative mean on your images. Here's a solution without using multiprocessing. To use multiprocessing, you could divide your images into chunks, and farm those chunks out to the pool.
import numpy as np
N=10000
shape = (500,500)
def func(images):
average = np.full(shape, 0)
for i, img in images:
average += img / N
return average
images = ((i, np.full(shape,i)) for i in range(N))
print func(images)
Python is likely to load your data in your RAM memory and you need this memory to be available. Have you checked your computer memory usage ?
Also as Patrick mentioned, you're loading 3GB of data, make sure you use the 64 bits version of Python as you are reaching the 32 bits memory contraint. This could cause your process to crash : 32 vs 64 bits Python
Another improvement would be to use python 3.4 instead of 2.7. Python 3 implementation seems to be optimized for very large ranges, see Python3 vs Python2 list/generator range performance
When running your program it actually gives me an clear error:
OSError: [Errno 12] Cannot allocate memory
Like mentioned by other users, the solution to your problem is simple add memory(a lot) or change the way your program is handling the images.
The reason it's using so much memory is because you allocate your memory for your images on a module level. So when multiprocess forks your process it's also copying all the images (which isn't free according to Shared-memory objects in python multiprocessing), this is not necessary because you are also giving the images as an argument to the function which the multiprocess module also copies using ipc and pickle, this would still likely result in a lack of memory. Try one of the proposed solutions given by the other users.
This is what solved the problem: declaring the images global.
import numpy as np
import multiprocessing
N=1500 #N=1000 works fine
images=[]
for i in np.arange(N):
images.append(np.random.random_integers(1,100,size=(500,500)))
def func(args):
i=args[0]
images=images
print i
return 0
iter_args=[]
for i in range(0,1):
iter_args.append([i])
pool=multiprocessing.Pool()
print pool
pool.map(func,iter_args)
The reason why you get IOError: bad message length when passing around large objects is due to a hard coded limit in older CPython versions (3.2 and earlier) of 0x7fffffff Bytes or around 2.1GB: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/v2.7.5/Modules/_multiprocessing/multiprocessing.h#L182
This CPython changeset (which is in CPython 3.3 and later) removed the hard coded limit: https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/87cf220972c9cb400ddcd577962883dcc5dca51a#diff-4711c9abeca41b149f648d4b3c15b6a7d2baa06aa066f46359e4498eb8e39f60L182

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