Setup

Local

Setting up a machine you can sit in front of or SSH into is easy.

1. Check out the repo

TODO

2. Set up the Python environment

We use conda for managing Python and CUDA versions, and pip-tools for managing Python package dependencies.

We add a Makefile for making setup dead-simple.

First: Install the Python + CUDA environment using Conda

Conda is an open-source package management system and environment management system that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

To install conda, follow instructions at https://conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/install/linux.html

Note that you will likely need to close and re-open your terminal. Afterward, you should have ability to run the conda command in your terminal.

Run make conda-update to create an environment called fsdl-text-recognizer-2021, as defined in environment.yml. This environment will provide us with the right Python version as well as the CUDA and CUDNN libraries.

If you edit environment.yml, just run make conda-update again to get the latest changes.

Next, activate the conda environment.

conda activate anbnet

IMPORTANT: every time you work in this directory, make sure to start your session with conda activate anbnet.

Next: install Python packages

Next, install all necessary Python packages by running make pip-tools

Using pip-tools lets us do three nice things:

1. Separate out dev from production dependencies (requirements-dev.in vs requirements.in).
2. Have a lockfile of exact versions for all dependencies (the auto-generated requirements-dev.txt and requirements.txt).
3. Allow us to easily deploy to targets that may not support the conda environment.

If you add, remove, or need to update versions of some requirements, edit the .in files, and simply run make pip-tools again.

Set PYTHONPATH

Last, run export PYTHONPATH=. before executing any commands later on, or you will get errors like ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'molecule_optimizer'.

In order to not have to set PYTHONPATH in every terminal you open, just add that line as the last line of the ~/.bashrc file using a text editor of your choice (e.g. nano ~/.bashrc)

Summary

• environment.yml specifies python and optionally cuda/cudnn
• make conda-update creates/updates the conda env
• conda activate anbnet activates the conda env
• requirements/prod.in and requirements/dev.in specify python package requirements
• make pip-tools resolves and install all Python packages
• add export PYTHONPATH=.:$PYTHONPATH to your ~/.bashrc and source ~/.bashrc