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BUILDING.md

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Building Infer.NET from its source code

To build from source, you must first clone the repository. Next decide whether you want to use a code editor like Visual Studio (recommended) or the command line. When building, you must select a configuration. All of the Infer.NET libraries target .NET Standard 2.0. Projects that produce executables (including test projects) mostly target .NET Framework 4.6.2, .NET 6, or both depending on build configuration:

Configurations Targeted Frameworks
Debug, Release both .NET Framework 4.6.2 and .NET 6
DebugFull, ReleaseFull .NET Framework 4.6.2 only
DebugCore, ReleaseCore .NET 6 only

Building with Visual Studio

  1. If you don't have Visual Studio, you can install the free Visual Studio Community Edition.
  2. Start Visual Studio.
  3. Select File -> Open -> Project/Solution and open the Infer.sln solution file located in your cloned repository.
  4. Select a build configuration using Build -> Configuration Manager.... After switching between configurations that change the targeted frameworks, Visual Studio currently requires you to close and re-open the solution file using File -> Close Solution and File -> Open.
  5. Compile using Build -> Build Solution.
  6. At this point, you can play with the tutorials and examples, or run all tests to verify the installation. Run the tutorials by setting the startup project to Tutorials. If your configuration is DebugFull or ReleaseFull, you will get the Examples Browser. Otherwise, edit src/Tutorials/RunMe.cs to see different tutorials. Run an example by setting the startup project to that example.
  7. To run all tests, open the test explorer using Test -> Windows -> Test Explorer.
  8. In the test explorer search bar, type -Trait:"BadTest" -Trait:"OpenBug" -Trait:"CompilerOptionsTest" -Trait:"Performance" -Trait:"Platform" to exclude long-running tests and tests that are not supposed to succeed.
  9. Click Run All.

Building with Visual Studio Code

  1. Launch Visual Studio Code.
  2. Select the Extensions button on the left, then install C# and the NuGet Package Manager extensions.
  3. Select File -> Open Folder.. and select the folder containing Infer.sln.
  4. Press F5 or select Run -> Start Debugging. When prompted, select .NET Core and then select the example that you want to run.
  5. For more details, see the README for the C# extension.

Building from the command line

The core components of Infer.NET run on .NET Core. Some optional code, such as the Examples Browser, use Windows Forms and therefore require .NET framework or Mono. Some samples, such as the Monty Hall problem, use WPF and therefore require Windows.

Prerequisites

Build

To build .NET Standard libraries and .NET Core executables, run in the root of the repository either

dotnet build -c DebugCore Infer.sln

to build debug assemblies, or

dotnet build -c ReleaseCore Infer.sln

to build release assemblies.

When not using Windows, expect build failure messages about examples that use WPF GUI. Libraries and executables that don't reference WPF should build, though.

Run unit tests

Unit tests are written using the XUnit framework. The easiest way to run all tests is to execute the script netcoretest.sh or monotest.sh. To run unit tests manually from the command line:

dotnet test Infer.sln -c <configuration> <filter>

See the scripts for example filters.

There are three test assemblies in the solution:

  • Microsoft.ML.Probabilistic.Tests.dll in the folder test/Tests.
  • TestPublic.dll in the folder test/TestPublic.
  • Microsoft.ML.Probabilistic.Learners.Tests.dll in the folder test/Learners/LearnersTests.

Depending on the build configuration and targeted framework, the assemblies will be located in the bin/Debug<Core|Full>/<net6.0|net472> or bin/Release<Core|Full>/<net6.0|net472> subdirectories of the test project.

Runner executes tests in parallel by default. However, some test category must be run sequentially. Such categories are:

  • Performance
  • DistributedTest
  • CsoftModel
  • ModifiesGlobals

CompilerOptionsTest is a category for long running tests, so, for quick testing you must filter these out by Category!=CompilerOptionsTest. BadTest is a category of tests that must fail. OpenBug is a category of tests that can fail.

Fast matrix operations with Intel MKL

Matrix operations in Infer.NET can be significantly accelerated by building with Intel MKL support. This requires building Infer.NET with a special option. In Runtime project settings > Build:

  1. Add ";LAPACK" to the Conditional compilation symbols.
  2. Check Allow unsafe code.

You can also use other BLAS/LAPACK libraries compatible with MKL. If your library is not called "mkl_rt.dll", change the dllName string in Lapack.cs.

When using this special build of Infer.NET, you must tell your code where to find the MKL dynamic libraries.

  1. Download Intel MKL which includes redistributables. Typically, this is installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelSWTools\compilers_and_libraries\windows\redist\intel64_win. We'll reference this folder as MKL_DIR.
  2. (Optional) Add MKL_DIR to the environment variable PATH. If you do this, the remaining steps are unnecessary, but your code will only run on machines where this has been done.
  3. Add the MKL dynamic libraries as items to your project that uses Infer.NET.
    1. Project > Add Existing Item
    2. Navigate to your MKL binaries folder MKL_DIR.
    3. Change the file type dropdown to "All Files".
    4. Select the libraries listed in the MKL linkage guide: mkl_rt.dll, mkl_intel_thread.dll, mkl_core.dll, libiomp5md.dll, etc.
    5. Click "Add" or "Add as Link"
  4. For each of the added items, change the "Copy to output directory" property to "Copy if newer". When you build your project, the MKL libraries will be included alongside the Infer.NET libraries.

Embedding Infer.NET source code in your own project

If you plan to reference the Infer.NET source code from your own project, we recommend using a Git submodule. A Git submodule refers to a specific commit of Infer.NET and ensures that anyone who clones your project will get the version of Infer.NET that your code works with. To set up this submodule, you only need to type:

git submodule add https://github.com/dotnet/infer