Callbacks

Basic callbacks for Learner

Events

Callbacks can occur at any of these times:: after_create before_fit before_epoch before_train before_batch after_pred after_loss before_backward after_cancel_backward after_backward before_step after_cancel_step after_step after_cancel_batch after_batch after_cancel_train after_train before_validate after_cancel_validate after_validate after_cancel_epoch after_epoch after_cancel_fit after_fit.

event


def event(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

All possible events as attributes to get tab-completion and typo-proofing

To ensure that you are referring to an event (that is, the name of one of the times when callbacks are called) that exists, and to get tab completion of event names, use event:

test_eq(event.before_step, 'before_step')

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Callback


def Callback(
    after_create:NoneType=None, before_fit:NoneType=None, before_epoch:NoneType=None, before_train:NoneType=None,
    before_batch:NoneType=None, after_pred:NoneType=None, after_loss:NoneType=None, before_backward:NoneType=None,
    after_cancel_backward:NoneType=None, after_backward:NoneType=None, before_step:NoneType=None,
    after_cancel_step:NoneType=None, after_step:NoneType=None, after_cancel_batch:NoneType=None,
    after_batch:NoneType=None, after_cancel_train:NoneType=None, after_train:NoneType=None,
    before_validate:NoneType=None, after_cancel_validate:NoneType=None, after_validate:NoneType=None,
    after_cancel_epoch:NoneType=None, after_epoch:NoneType=None, after_cancel_fit:NoneType=None,
    after_fit:NoneType=None
):

Basic class handling tweaks of the training loop by changing a Learner in various events

The training loop is defined in Learner a bit below and consists in a minimal set of instructions: looping through the data we:

compute the output of the model from the input
calculate a loss between this output and the desired target
compute the gradients of this loss with respect to all the model parameters
update the parameters accordingly
zero all the gradients

Any tweak of this training loop is defined in a Callback to avoid over-complicating the code of the training loop, and to make it easy to mix and match different techniques (since they’ll be defined in different callbacks). A callback can implement actions on the following events:

after_create: called after the Learner is created
before_fit: called before starting training or inference, ideal for initial setup.
before_epoch: called at the beginning of each epoch, useful for any behavior you need to reset at each epoch.
before_train: called at the beginning of the training part of an epoch.
before_batch: called at the beginning of each batch, just after drawing said batch. It can be used to do any setup necessary for the batch (like hyper-parameter scheduling) or to change the input/target before it goes in the model (change of the input with techniques like mixup for instance).
after_pred: called after computing the output of the model on the batch. It can be used to change that output before it’s fed to the loss.
after_loss: called after the loss has been computed, but before the backward pass. It can be used to add any penalty to the loss (AR or TAR in RNN training for instance).
before_backward: called after the loss has been computed, but only in training mode (i.e. when the backward pass will be used)
after_backward: called after the backward pass, but before the update of the parameters. Generally before_step should be used instead.
before_step: called after the backward pass, but before the update of the parameters. It can be used to do any change to the gradients before said update (gradient clipping for instance).
after_step: called after the step and before the gradients are zeroed.
after_batch: called at the end of a batch, for any clean-up before the next one.
after_train: called at the end of the training phase of an epoch.
before_validate: called at the beginning of the validation phase of an epoch, useful for any setup needed specifically for validation.
after_validate: called at the end of the validation part of an epoch.
after_epoch: called at the end of an epoch, for any clean-up before the next one.
after_fit: called at the end of training, for final clean-up.

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Callback.call


def __call__(
    event_name
):

Call self.{event_name} if it’s defined

One way to define callbacks is through subclassing:

class _T(Callback):
    def call_me(self): return "maybe"
test_eq(_T()("call_me"), "maybe")

Another way is by passing the callback function to the constructor:

def cb(self): return "maybe"
_t = Callback(before_fit=cb)
test_eq(_t(event.before_fit), "maybe")

Callbacks provide a shortcut to avoid having to write self.learn.bla for any bla attribute we seek; instead, just write self.bla. This only works for getting attributes, not for setting them.

mk_class('TstLearner', 'a')

class TstCallback(Callback):
    def batch_begin(self): print(self.a)

learn,cb = TstLearner(1),TstCallback()
cb.learn = learn
test_stdout(lambda: cb('batch_begin'), "1")

If you want to change the value of an attribute, you have to use self.learn.bla, no self.bla. In the example below, self.a += 1 creates an a attribute of 2 in the callback instead of setting the a of the learner to 2. It also issues a warning that something is probably wrong:

learn.a

class TstCallback(Callback):
    def batch_begin(self): self.a += 1

learn,cb = TstLearner(1),TstCallback()
cb.learn = learn
cb('batch_begin')
test_eq(cb.a, 2)
test_eq(cb.learn.a, 1)

/tmp/ipykernel_5201/1369389649.py:29: UserWarning: You are shadowing an attribute (a) that exists in the learner. Use `self.learn.a` to avoid this
  warn(f"You are shadowing an attribute ({name}) that exists in the learner. Use `self.learn.{name}` to avoid this")

A proper version needs to write self.learn.a = self.a + 1:

class TstCallback(Callback):
    def batch_begin(self): self.learn.a = self.a + 1

learn,cb = TstLearner(1),TstCallback()
cb.learn = learn
cb('batch_begin')
test_eq(cb.learn.a, 2)

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Callback.name


def name(
    
):

Name of the Callback, camel-cased and with ‘Callback’ removed

test_eq(TstCallback().name, 'tst')
class ComplicatedNameCallback(Callback): pass
test_eq(ComplicatedNameCallback().name, 'complicated_name')

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TrainEvalCallback


def TrainEvalCallback(
    after_create:NoneType=None, before_fit:NoneType=None, before_epoch:NoneType=None, before_train:NoneType=None,
    before_batch:NoneType=None, after_pred:NoneType=None, after_loss:NoneType=None, before_backward:NoneType=None,
    after_cancel_backward:NoneType=None, after_backward:NoneType=None, before_step:NoneType=None,
    after_cancel_step:NoneType=None, after_step:NoneType=None, after_cancel_batch:NoneType=None,
    after_batch:NoneType=None, after_cancel_train:NoneType=None, after_train:NoneType=None,
    before_validate:NoneType=None, after_cancel_validate:NoneType=None, after_validate:NoneType=None,
    after_cancel_epoch:NoneType=None, after_epoch:NoneType=None, after_cancel_fit:NoneType=None,
    after_fit:NoneType=None
):

Callback that tracks the number of iterations done and properly sets training/eval mode

This Callback is automatically added in every Learner at initialization.

Attributes available to callbacks

When writing a callback, the following attributes of Learner are available:

model: the model used for training/validation
dls: the underlying DataLoaders
loss_func: the loss function used
opt: the optimizer used to update the model parameters
opt_func: the function used to create the optimizer
cbs: the list containing all Callbacks
dl: current DataLoader used for iteration
x/xb: last input drawn from self.dl (potentially modified by callbacks). xb is always a tuple (potentially with one element) and x is detuplified. You can only assign to xb.
y/yb: last target drawn from self.dl (potentially modified by callbacks). yb is always a tuple (potentially with one element) and y is detuplified. You can only assign to yb.
pred: last predictions from self.model (potentially modified by callbacks)
loss_grad: last computed loss (potentially modified by callbacks)
loss: clone of loss_grad used for logging
n_epoch: the number of epochs in this training
n_iter: the number of iterations in the current self.dl
epoch: the current epoch index (from 0 to n_epoch-1)
iter: the current iteration index in self.dl (from 0 to n_iter-1)

The following attributes are added by TrainEvalCallback and should be available unless you went out of your way to remove that callback:

train_iter: the number of training iterations done since the beginning of this training
pct_train: from 0. to 1., the percentage of training iterations completed
training: flag to indicate if we’re in training mode or not

The following attribute is added by Recorder and should be available unless you went out of your way to remove that callback:

smooth_loss: an exponentially-averaged version of the training loss

Callbacks control flow

It happens that we may want to skip some of the steps of the training loop: in gradient accumulation, we don’t always want to do the step/zeroing of the grads for instance. During an LR finder test, we don’t want to do the validation phase of an epoch. Or if we’re training with a strategy of early stopping, we want to be able to completely interrupt the training loop.

This is made possible by raising specific exceptions the training loop will look for (and properly catch).

CancelStepException


def CancelStepException(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

Skip stepping the optimizer

CancelBatchException


def CancelBatchException(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

Skip the rest of this batch and go to after_batch

CancelBackwardException


def CancelBackwardException(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

Skip the backward pass and go to after_backward

CancelTrainException


def CancelTrainException(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

Skip the rest of the training part of the epoch and go to after_train

CancelValidException


def CancelValidException(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

Skip the rest of the validation part of the epoch and go to after_validate

CancelEpochException


def CancelEpochException(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

Skip the rest of this epoch and go to after_epoch

CancelFitException


def CancelFitException(
    args:VAR_POSITIONAL, kwargs:VAR_KEYWORD
):

Interrupts training and go to after_fit

You can detect one of those exceptions occurred and add code that executes right after with the following events:

after_cancel_batch: reached immediately after a CancelBatchException before proceeding to after_batch
after_cancel_train: reached immediately after a CancelTrainException before proceeding to after_epoch
after_cancel_valid: reached immediately after a CancelValidException before proceeding to after_epoch
after_cancel_epoch: reached immediately after a CancelEpochException before proceeding to after_epoch
after_cancel_fit: reached immediately after a CancelFitException before proceeding to after_fit

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GatherPredsCallback


def GatherPredsCallback(
    with_input:bool=False, # Whether to return inputs
    with_loss:bool=False, # Whether to return losses
    save_preds:Path=None, # Path to save predictions
    save_targs:Path=None, # Path to save targets
    with_preds:bool=True, # Whether to return predictions
    with_targs:bool=True, # Whether to return targets
    concat_dim:int=0, # Dimension to concatenate returned tensors
    pickle_protocol:int=2, # Pickle protocol used to save predictions and targets
):

Callback that returns all predictions and targets, optionally with_input or with_loss

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FetchPredsCallback


def FetchPredsCallback(
    ds_idx:int=1, # Index of dataset, 0 for train, 1 for valid, used if `dl` is not present
    dl:DataLoader=None, # [`DataLoader`](https://docs.fast.ai/data.load.html#dataloader) used for fetching [`Learner`](https://docs.fast.ai/learner.html#learner) predictions
    with_input:bool=False, # Whether to return inputs in [`GatherPredsCallback`](https://docs.fast.ai/callback.core.html#gatherpredscallback)
    with_decoded:bool=False, # Whether to return decoded predictions
    cbs:Callback | MutableSequence=None, # [`Callback`](https://docs.fast.ai/callback.core.html#callback) to temporarily remove from [`Learner`](https://docs.fast.ai/learner.html#learner)
    reorder:bool=True, # Whether to sort prediction results
):

A callback to fetch predictions during the training loop

Events

event

Callback

Callback.__call__

Callback.name

TrainEvalCallback

Attributes available to callbacks

Callbacks control flow

CancelStepException

CancelBatchException

CancelBackwardException

CancelTrainException

CancelValidException

CancelEpochException

CancelFitException

GatherPredsCallback

FetchPredsCallback

Callback.call