Merge pull request #3410 from jacquesqiao/numeric-gradient-design

add auto gradient check design doc

doc/design/auto_gradient_check.md

@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+## Auto Gradient Checker Design
+
+## Backgraound：
+- Operator forward computing is easy to check if the result is right because it has a clear definition. **But** backpropagation is a notoriously difficult algorithm to debug and get right:
+  - 1. you should get the right backpropagation formula according to the forward computation.
+  - 2. you should implement it right in CPP.
+  - 3. it's difficult to prepare test data.
+
+- Auto gradient check gets a numeric gradient by forward Operator and use it as a reference of the backward Operator's result. It has several advantages:
+  - 1. numeric gradient checker only need forward operator.
+  - 2. user only need to prepare the input data for forward Operator.
+
+## Mathematical Theory
+The following two document from stanford has a detailed explanation of how to get numeric gradient and why it's useful.
+
+- [Gradient checking and advanced optimization(en)](http://deeplearning.stanford.edu/wiki/index.php/Gradient_checking_and_advanced_optimization)
+- [Gradient checking and advanced optimization(cn)](http://ufldl.stanford.edu/wiki/index.php/%E6%A2%AF%E5%BA%A6%E6%A3%80%E9%AA%8C%E4%B8%8E%E9%AB%98%E7%BA%A7%E4%BC%98%E5%8C%96)
+
+
+## Numeric Gradient Implementation
+### Python Interface
+```python
+def get_numeric_gradient(op,
+                         input_values,
+                         output_name,
+                         input_to_check,
+                         delta=0.005,
+                         local_scope=None):
+    """
+    Get Numeric Gradient for an operator's input.
+
+    :param op: C++ operator instance, could be an network
+    :param input_values: The input variables. Should be an dictionary, key is
+    variable name. Value is numpy array.
+    :param output_name: The final output variable name.
+    :param input_to_check: The input variable need to get gradient.
+    :param delta: The perturbation value for numeric gradient method. The
+    smaller delta is, the more accurate result will get. But if that delta is
+     too small, it could occur numerical stability problem.
+    :param local_scope: The local scope used for get_numeric_gradient.
+    :return: The gradient array in numpy format.
+    """
+```
+
+### Explaination:
+
+- Why need `output_name`
+  - One Operator may have multiple Output, you can get independent gradient from each Output. So user should set one output to calculate.
+
+- Why need `input_to_check`
+  - One operator may have multiple inputs. Gradient Op can calculate the gradient of these Inputs at the same time. But Numeric Gradient needs to calculate them one by one. So `get_numeric_gradient` is designed to calculate the gradient for one input. If you need to compute multiple inputs, you can call `get_numeric_gradient` multiple times.
+
+
+### Core Algorithm Implementation
+
+
+```python
+    # we only compute gradient of one element each time.
+    # we use a for loop to compute the gradient of every element.
+    for i in xrange(tensor_size):
+        # get one input element throw it's index i.
+        origin = tensor_to_check.get_float_element(i)
+
+        # add delta to it, run op and then get the sum of the result tensor.
+        x_pos = origin + delta
+        tensor_to_check.set_float_element(i, x_pos)
+        y_pos = get_output()
+
+        # plus delta to this element, run op and get the sum of the result tensor.
+        x_neg = origin - delta
+        tensor_to_check.set_float_element(i, x_neg)
+        y_neg = get_output()
+
+        # restore old value
+        tensor_to_check.set_float_element(i, origin)
+
+        # compute the gradient of this element and store it into a numpy array.
+        gradient_flat[i] = (y_pos - y_neg) / delta / 2
+
+    # reshape the gradient result to the shape of the source tensor.
+    return gradient_flat.reshape(tensor_to_check.get_dims())
+```
+
+## Auto Graident Checker Framework
+
+Each Operator Kernel has three kinds of Gradient:
+
+- 1. Numeric Gradient
+- 2. CPU Operator Gradient
+- 3. GPU Operator Gradient(if supported)
+
+Numeric Gradient Only relies on forward Operator. So we use Numeric Gradient as the reference value.
+
+- 1. calculate the numeric gradient.
+- 2. calculate CPU kernel Gradient with the backward Operator and compare it with the numeric gradient.
+- 3. calculate GPU kernel Gradient with the backward Operator and compare it with the numeric gradient.(if support GPU)
+
+#### Python Interface
+
+```python
+    def check_grad(self,
+                   forward_op,
+                   input_vars,
+                   inputs_to_check,
+                   output_name,
+                   no_grad_set=None,
+                   only_cpu=False,
+                   max_relative_error=0.005):
+        """
+        :param forward_op: used to create backward_op
+        :param input_vars: numpy value of input variable. The following
+            computation will use these variables.
+        :param inputs_to_check: inputs var names that should check gradient.
+        :param output_name: output name that used to
+        :param max_relative_error: The relative tolerance parameter.
+        :param no_grad_set: used when create backward ops
+        :param only_cpu: only compute and check gradient on cpu kernel.
+        :return:
+        """
+```
+
+### How to check if two numpy array is close enough?
+if `abs_numeric_grad` is nearly zero, then use abs error for numeric_grad, not relative
+
+```python
+numeric_grad = ...
+operator_grad = numpy.array(scope.find_var(grad_var_name(name)).get_tensor())
+
+abs_numeric_grad = numpy.abs(numeric_grad)
+# if abs_numeric_grad is nearly zero, then use abs error for numeric_grad, not relative
+# error.
+abs_numeric_grad[abs_numeric_grad < 1e-3] = 1
+
+diff_mat = numpy.abs(abs_numeric_grad - operator_grad) / abs_numeric_grad
+max_diff = numpy.max(diff_mat)
+```
+
+
+#### Notes：
+1，The Input data for auto gradient checker should be reasonable to avoid numeric problem.
+
+
+#### Refs:
+
+- [Gradient checking and advanced optimization(en)](http://deeplearning.stanford.edu/wiki/index.php/Gradient_checking_and_advanced_optimization)
+- [Gradient checking and advanced optimization(cn)](http://ufldl.stanford.edu/wiki/index.php/%E6%A2%AF%E5%BA%A6%E6%A3%80%E9%AA%8C%E4%B8%8E%E9%AB%98%E7%BA%A7%E4%BC%98%E5%8C%96)

python/paddle/v2/framework/tests/gradient_checker.py

@@ -73,21 +73,35 @@ def get_output():
     def product(dim):
         return reduce(lambda a, b: a * b, dim, 1)
 
+    # get the input tensor that we want to get it's numeric gradient.
     tensor_to_check = local_scope.find_var(input_to_check).get_tensor()
     tensor_size = product(tensor_to_check.get_dims())
+    # prepare a numpy array to store the gradient.
     gradient_flat = numpy.zeros(shape=(tensor_size, ), dtype='float32')
+
+    # we only compute gradient of one element each time.
+    # we use a for loop to compute the gradient of every element.
     for i in xrange(tensor_size):
+        # get one input element throw it's index i.
         origin = tensor_to_check.get_float_element(i)
+
+        # add delta to it, run op and then get the sum of the result tensor.
         x_pos = origin + delta
         tensor_to_check.set_float_element(i, x_pos)
         y_pos = get_output()
 
+        # plus delta to this element, run op and get the sum of the result tensor.
         x_neg = origin - delta
         tensor_to_check.set_float_element(i, x_neg)
         y_neg = get_output()
 
-        tensor_to_check.set_float_element(i, origin)  # restore old value
+        # restore old value
+        tensor_to_check.set_float_element(i, origin)
+
+        # compute the gradient of this element and store it into a numpy array.
         gradient_flat[i] = (y_pos - y_neg) / delta / 2
+
+    # reshape the gradient result to the shape of the source tensor.
     return gradient_flat.reshape(tensor_to_check.get_dims())