In this section, we'll learn how to
- Set up an environment to work on ExecuTorch
- Generate a sample ExecuTorch program
- Build and run a program with the ExecuTorch runtime
We've tested these instructions on the following systems, although they should also work in similar environments.
Linux (x86_64)
- CentOS 8+
- Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS+
- RHEL 8+
macOS (x86_64/M1/M2)
- Big Sur (11.0)+
Windows (x86_64)
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with any of the Linux options
conda
or another virtual environment manager- We recommend
conda
as it provides cross-language support and integrates smoothly withpip
(Python's built-in package manager) - Otherwise, Python's built-in virtual environment manager
python venv
is a good alternative.
- We recommend
g++
version 7 or higher,clang++
version 5 or higher, or another C++17-compatible toolchain.
Note that the cross-compilable core runtime code supports a wider range of toolchains, down to C++17. See the Runtime Overview for portability details.
To utilize ExecuTorch to its fullest extent, please follow the setup instructions provided below to install from source.
Alternatively, if you would like to experiment with ExecuTorch quickly and easily, we recommend using the following colab notebook for prototyping purposes. You can install directly via pip
for basic functionality.
pip install executorch
Install conda on your machine. Then, create a virtual environment to manage our dependencies.
# Create and activate a conda environment named "executorch"
conda create -yn executorch python=3.10.0
conda activate executorch
# Clone the ExecuTorch repo from GitHub
# 'main' branch is the primary development branch where you see the latest changes.
# 'viable/strict' contains all of the commits on main that pass all of the necessary CI checks.
git clone --branch viable/strict https://github.com/pytorch/executorch.git
cd executorch
# Update and pull submodules
git submodule sync
git submodule update --init
# Install ExecuTorch pip package and its dependencies, as well as
# development tools like CMake.
# If developing on a Mac, make sure to install the Xcode Command Line Tools first.
./install_requirements.sh
Use the --pybind
flag to install with pybindings and dependencies for other backends.
./install_requirements.sh --pybind <coreml | mps | xnnpack>
After setting up your environment, you are ready to convert your PyTorch programs to ExecuTorch.
NOTE: Cleaning the build system
When fetching a new version of the upstream repo (via
git fetch
orgit pull
) it is a good idea to clean the old build artifacts. The build system does not currently adapt well to changes in build dependencies.You should also update and pull the submodules again, in case their versions have changed.
# From the root of the executorch repo: ./install_requirements.sh --clean git submodule sync git submodule update --init
After setting up your environment, you are ready to convert your PyTorch programs to ExecuTorch.
ExecuTorch provides APIs to compile a PyTorch nn.Module
to a .pte
binary consumed by the ExecuTorch runtime.
torch.export
exir.to_edge
exir.to_executorch
- Save the result as a
.pte
binary to be consumed by the ExecuTorch runtime.
Let's try this using with a simple PyTorch model that adds its inputs.
Create export_add.py
in a new directory outside of the ExecuTorch repo.
Note: It's important that this file does does not live in the directory that's a parent of the executorch
directory. We need python to import from site-packages, not from the repo itself.
mkdir -p ../example_files
cd ../example_files
touch export_add.py
Add the following code to export_add.py
:
import torch
from torch.export import export
from executorch.exir import to_edge
# Start with a PyTorch model that adds two input tensors (matrices)
class Add(torch.nn.Module):
def __init__(self):
super(Add, self).__init__()
def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor, y: torch.Tensor):
return x + y
# 1. torch.export: Defines the program with the ATen operator set.
aten_dialect = export(Add(), (torch.ones(1), torch.ones(1)))
# 2. to_edge: Make optimizations for Edge devices
edge_program = to_edge(aten_dialect)
# 3. to_executorch: Convert the graph to an ExecuTorch program
executorch_program = edge_program.to_executorch()
# 4. Save the compiled .pte program
with open("add.pte", "wb") as file:
file.write(executorch_program.buffer)
Then, execute it from your terminal.
python3 export_add.py
If it worked you'll see add.pte
in that directory
See the ExecuTorch export tutorial to learn more about the export process.
After creating a program go back to the executorch directory to execute it using the ExecuTorch runtime.
cd ../executorch
For now, let's use executor_runner
, an example that runs the forward
method on your program using the ExecuTorch runtime.
The ExecuTorch repo uses CMake to build its C++ code. Here, we'll configure it to build the executor_runner
tool to run it on our desktop OS.
# Clean and configure the CMake build system. Compiled programs will
# appear in the executorch/cmake-out directory we create here.
./install_requirements.sh --clean
(mkdir cmake-out && cd cmake-out && cmake ..)
# Build the executor_runner target
cmake --build cmake-out --target executor_runner -j9
NOTE: Cleaning the build system
When fetching a new version of the upstream repo (via
git fetch
orgit pull
) it is a good idea to clean the old build artifacts. The build system does not currently adapt well to changes in build dependencies.You should also update and pull the submodules again, in case their versions have changed.
# From the root of the executorch repo: ./install_requirements.sh --clean git submodule sync git submodule update --init
Now that we've exported a program and built the runtime, let's execute it!
./cmake-out/executor_runner --model_path ../example_files/add.pte
Our output is a torch.Tensor
with a size of 1. The executor_runner
sets all input values to a torch.ones
tensor, so when x=[1]
and y=[1]
, we get [1]+[1]=[2]
:::{dropdown} Sample Output
Output 0: tensor(sizes=[1], [2.])
:::
To learn how to build a similar program, visit the Runtime APIs Tutorial.
Congratulations! You have successfully exported, built, and run your first ExecuTorch program. Now that you have a basic understanding of ExecuTorch, explore its advanced features and capabilities below.
- Build an Android or iOS demo app
- Learn more about the export process
- Dive deeper into the Export Intermediate Representation (EXIR) for complex export workflows
- Refer to advanced examples in executorch/examples