Pytorch Hub is a pre-trained model repository designed to facilitate research reproducibility.
Pytorch Hub supports publishing pre-trained models(model definitions and pre-trained weights)
to a github repository by adding a simple hubconf.py
file;
hubconf.py
can have multiple entrypoints. Each entrypoint is defined as a python function
(example: a pre-trained model you want to publish).
def entrypoint_name(*args, **kwargs): # args & kwargs are optional, for models which take positional/keyword arguments. ...
Here is a code snippet specifies an entrypoint for resnet18
model if we expand
the implementation in pytorch/vision/hubconf.py
.
In most case importing the right function in hubconf.py
is sufficient. Here we
just want to use the expanded version as an example to show how it works.
You can see the full script in
pytorch/vision repo
dependencies = ['torch'] from torchvision.models.resnet import resnet18 as _resnet18 # resnet18 is the name of entrypoint def resnet18(pretrained=False, **kwargs): """ # This docstring shows up in hub.help() Resnet18 model pretrained (bool): kwargs, load pretrained weights into the model """ # Call the model, load pretrained weights model = _resnet18(pretrained=pretrained, **kwargs) return model
dependencies
variable is a list of package names required to load the model. Note this might be slightly different from dependencies required for training a model.args
andkwargs
are passed along to the real callable function.- Docstring of the function works as a help message. It explains what does the model do and what are the allowed positional/keyword arguments. It's highly recommended to add a few examples here.
- Entrypoint function can either return a model(nn.module), or auxiliary tools to make the user workflow smoother, e.g. tokenizers.
- Callables prefixed with underscore are considered as helper functions which won't show up in
torch.hub.list()
. - Pretrained weights can either be stored locally in the github repo, or loadable by
torch.hub.load_state_dict_from_url()
. If less than 2GB, it's recommended to attach it to a project release and use the url from the release. In the example abovetorchvision.models.resnet.resnet18
handlespretrained
, alternatively you can put the following logic in the entrypoint definition.
if pretrained: # For checkpoint saved in local github repo, e.g. <RELATIVE_PATH_TO_CHECKPOINT>=weights/save.pth dirname = os.path.dirname(__file__) checkpoint = os.path.join(dirname, <RELATIVE_PATH_TO_CHECKPOINT>) state_dict = torch.load(checkpoint) model.load_state_dict(state_dict) # For checkpoint saved elsewhere checkpoint = 'https://download.pytorch.org/models/resnet18-5c106cde.pth' model.load_state_dict(torch.hub.load_state_dict_from_url(checkpoint, progress=False))
- The published models should be at least in a branch/tag. It can't be a random commit.
Pytorch Hub provides convenient APIs to explore all available models in hub through torch.hub.list()
,
show docstring and examples through torch.hub.help()
and load the pre-trained models using torch.hub.load()
.. automodule:: torch.hub
.. autofunction:: list
.. autofunction:: help
.. autofunction:: load
.. autofunction:: download_url_to_file
.. autofunction:: load_state_dict_from_url
Note that *args, **kwargs
in torch.load()
are used to instantiate a model.
After you loaded a model, how can you find out what you can do with the model?
A suggested workflow is
dir(model)
to see all avaialble methods of the model.help(model.foo)
to check what argumentsmodel.foo
takes to run
To help users explore without refering to documentation back and forth, we strongly recommend repo owners make function help messages clear and succinct. It's also helpful to include a minimal working example.
The locations are used in the order of
- Calling
hub.set_dir(<PATH_TO_HUB_DIR>)
$TORCH_HOME/hub
, if environment variableTORCH_HOME
is set.$XDG_CACHE_HOME/torch/hub
, if environment variableXDG_CACHE_HOME
is set.~/.cache/torch/hub
.. autofunction:: set_dir
By default, we don't clean up files after loading it. Hub uses the cache by default if it already exists in hub_dir
.
Users can force a reload by calling hub.load(..., force_reload=True)
. This will delete
the existing github folder and downloaded weights, reinitialize a fresh download. This is useful
when updates are published to the same branch, users can keep up with the latest release.
Torch hub works by importing the package as if it was installed. There're some side effects
introduced by importing in Python. For example, you can see new items in Python caches
sys.modules
and sys.path_importer_cache
which is normal Python behavior.
A known limitation that worth mentioning here is user CANNOT load two different branches of the same repo in the same python process. It's just like installing two packages with the same name in Python, which is not good. Cache might join the party and give you surprises if you actually try that. Of course it's totally fine to load them in separate processes.