TVMC - a command line driver for TVM (Part 1)

[leandron]

TVMC - a command line driver for TVM

• Introduce a command line driver to compile, run and tune models, using TVM graph runtime
• tvmc tests and integrate tvmc with regular linting, testing, CI and build scripts
• RFC: https://discuss.tvm.ai/t/rfc-a-tvm-command-line-interface/5165 and more discussion at https://discuss.tvm.ai/t/usability-idea-create-a-command-line-compiler-that-would-perform-common-build-tasks-out-of-the-box/5129

[leandron]

If possible, I'll be presenting a live demo today on the "Online Compiler Chat".

[tqchen]

cc @merrymercy @jroesch @ajtulloch @comaniac

[comaniac]

Thanks for the PR! Since CLI itself serves as an infra, it would be better to break this PR to a series of PRs like the following:

• PR1: The basic CLI infra mainly including 1) CLI setup, 2) the registration mechanism, and 3) the document.
• PR2: CLI -- compile.
• PR3: CLI -- run.
• PR4: CLI -- tune.

In this way, people can focus on the overall CLI infra in the first PR. Once everyone is happy with it, the rest PRs would have a much clearer scope. For example, "CLI -- compile" would attract people who are familiar with compilation flow. In this way, we can expect the following advantages:

1. We can focus on what functions/options should be included in a scope.
2. We can focus on the implementation of those functions/options in each scope. For example, I've seen many redundant/similar functions implemented in tvmc and I believe some of them should reuse the existing ones in TVM.
3. The CLI PRs can be sent and reviewed in parallel, and they won't block each other.

[leandron]

Thanks for the PR! Since CLI itself serves as an infra, it would be better to break this PR to a series of PRs like the following:

Sure @comaniac, will do.

[LiyouZhou]

The command nametvmc sounds strange, it is not immediately obvious what the c stands for. Can the shell command be called just tvm compile tvm tune etc. same as aws cli or github cli.

[leandron]

The command nametvmc sounds strange, it is not immediately obvious what the c stands for. Can the shell command be called just tvm compile tvm tune etc. same as aws cli or github cli.

This is open for discussion - for the moment I'm keeping the original name of the work tvmc, but I'm happy to consider other options (including tvm).

[leandron]

@comaniac here is a new version of this patch with only the minimal code to enable the command line. Follow up patches, that I will send after this, will deal with compile, run and tune functionalities.

So, here is a checklist:

• tvmc enablement (this)
• compile
• run
• tune
• Tutorial

[comaniac]

Thanks for the refactoring! This is now much clearer.

On the other hand, since you also removed all subparsers from this PR, it's hard to imagine the subparser registration mechanism. I'd suggest adding one subparser that does nothing as a placeholder to illustrate the file organization, registration mechanism, and required fields. Otherwise, people might have the similar question as the one I left below.

[comaniac]

LGTM.

cc @tqchen @jroesch

[tqchen]

cc @jroesch @yzhliu @icemelon9 @junrushao1994

[tqchen]

Thanks @leandron @comaniac this PR is now merged