Explicitly use int64 in Numpy/cython code to avoid OS inconsistency

[DanielYang59]

Summary

• Explicitly use int64 in cython code to avoid OS inconsistency (default int type changed in Windows) as follow up PR of build against NPY2 #3894, to fix Incompatability with numpy <2 on Windows for Lattice.find_points_in_spheres #3990
• Run unit test on Windows with NumPy < 2
• Revert NumPy<2 pin after tests pass

Cython code need attention

• src/pymatgen/optimization/linear_assignment.pyx
• src/pymatgen/optimization/neighbors.pyx
• src/pymatgen/util/coord_cython.pyx

Pin some threads from NumPy for reference:

• API: Make 64bit default integer on 64bit windows numpy/numpy#24224
• NumPy roadmap- Change default int on windows to int64
• Default int type is platform dependent numpy/numpy#9464

[DanielYang59]

@njzjz Perhaps you could give me some advice or comment here because I'm not a cython expert? Thanks a ton in advance.

Looks like quite some code is broken when running on Windows system with NumPy < 2, because with 862c454 integer is explicitly declared as int64 independent of the platform, however on Windows with NumPy < 2 arrays might still be int32 (long) by default.

It looks like we should update all cython-related code to internally cast type as int64. But would this long -> int64 replacement cause unexpected downstream breakage if downstream cython code don't explicitly cast to int64? Is this necessary or recommended by NumPy?

[njzjz]

Fused types may help: http://docs.cython.org/en/stable/src/userguide/fusedtypes.html
https://stackoverflow.com/a/28112966/9567349

[njzjz]

Also, it may be useful to run tests against both numpy 1.x and 2.x.

[DanielYang59]

Also, it may be useful to run tests against both numpy 1.x and 2.x.

Agreed! NumPy is recommending the same:

We recommend that you have at least one CI job which builds/installs via a wheel, and then runs tests against the oldest numpy version that the package supports.

[DanielYang59]

@njzjz I decide perhaps still explicitly use int64 to ensure consistency (not sure if that's the best solution, free feel to correct me). Would appreciate it if you have any comment. Thanks a ton!

@janosh I'm not a cython expert (important 😅 ) so please review all changes very carefully :)

Added a NumPy 1 workflow for windows as recommended by NumPy doc, but still not sure if it's worth it because I'm not expecting no new issues to pop up once we fixes these.

We recommend that you have at least one CI job which builds/installs via a wheel, and then runs tests against the oldest numpy version that the package supports.

[janosh]

are you sure we need to change np.array(dtype=int->np.int64) across the whole code base? reading the numpy docs you linked, it sounds like the potential for platform inconsistency is specific to cython code? so might be enough to only int->np.int64 in .pyx files?

[DanielYang59]

it sounds like the potential for platform inconsistency is specific to cython code?

Sorry perhaps I should tweak the title, current one might be misleading. After NumPy 2.x, the default NumPy int type for 64-bit windows system changed from int32 to int64 (not just cython, sorry).

The default integer type on Windows is now int64 rather than int32, matching the behavior on other platforms

Meaning if we pass a numpy array as np.array(data, dtype=int) into a cython function, the latter now would explicitly expect int64, and the dtype could be int32 for the former in Numpy 1.x windows machines (therefore those CI failures). So I don't think just changing just the types in cython code suffice.

Meanwhile I think this is better than a fused type of int32 and int64, because if we explicitly use int64, we then could be confident our code would generate consistent results independent of OS? Because personally I think int64 might be the "mainstream" way to go (any NP2 system or Linux system)?

[janosh]

thanks a lot for looking into this @DanielYang59! hugely appreciated! 👍

[DanielYang59]

No problem. Also appreciate the input from @njzjz

Perhaps we should add a note in next release informing downstream packages of such potentially breaking change (chgnet for example)?

[janosh]

sure thing! would you like to draft a note?

[DanielYang59]

Sure, and feel free to polish it as you like.

[Breaking] Default NumPy/Cython integer type changed to int64 on Windows

Change: With NumPy 2.x, the default integer type changed to int64 on Windows 64-bit system. Consequently, pymatgen now explicitly uses np.int64 for all NumPy and Cython code instead of the platform-dependent int type.

Recommendation: Please explicitly declare dtype=np.int64 when initializing a NumPy array if possible. You might also need to test NumPy 1.x on Windows in CI pipelines.