JuliaDiff / JuliaDiff/ReverseDiff.jl

MethodError on `length(::DiffResults.ImmutableDiffResult{1, Float64, Tuple{Float64}})`

Open
#265 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
Julia
Stars
393
Forks
60
Avg merge
18h 24m
Merged PRs (30d)
8

Description

Hello, here to report another possible bug found upstream in Turing. In the following example, f differentiates just fine but g doesn't.

import ReverseDiff

f(x) = exp.(x[])
f([1.0])
ReverseDiff.gradient(f, [1.0])

g(x) = exp.(reshape(vec(x), ()))
g([1.0])
ReverseDiff.gradient(g, [1.0])

Edit: h(x) = exp.(fill(x[], ())) works fine too, but j(x) = exp.(reshape(x, ())) doesn't.

Stack trace

julia> ReverseDiff.gradient(g, [1.0])
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching length(::DiffResults.ImmutableDiffResult{1, Float64, Tuple{Float64}})
The function `length` exists, but no method is defined for this combination of argument types.

Closest candidates are:
  length(::Cmd)
   @ Base process.jl:716
  length(::Base.MethodSpecializations)
   @ Base reflection.jl:1317
  length(::Core.SimpleVector)
   @ Base essentials.jl:933
  ...

Stacktrace:
  [1] _similar_shape(itr::DiffResults.ImmutableDiffResult{1, Float64, Tuple{Float64}}, ::Base.HasLength)
    @ Base ./array.jl:652
  [2] _collect(cont::UnitRange{…}, itr::DiffResults.ImmutableDiffResult{…}, ::Base.HasEltype, isz::Base.HasLength)
    @ Base ./array.jl:711
  [3] collect(itr::DiffResults.ImmutableDiffResult{1, Float64, Tuple{Float64}})
    @ Base ./array.jl:705
  [4] broadcastable(x::DiffResults.ImmutableDiffResult{1, Float64, Tuple{Float64}})
    @ Base.Broadcast ./broadcast.jl:707
  [5] broadcasted
    @ ./broadcast.jl:1318 [inlined]
  [6] broadcast(f::ReverseDiff.ForwardOptimize{…}, x::ReverseDiff.TrackedArray{…})
    @ ReverseDiff ~/.julia/packages/ReverseDiff/p1MzG/src/derivatives/elementwise.jl:237
  [7] broadcast
    @ ~/.julia/packages/ReverseDiff/p1MzG/src/derivatives/elementwise.jl:198 [inlined]
  [8] _materialize
    @ ~/.julia/packages/ReverseDiff/p1MzG/src/derivatives/broadcast.jl:265 [inlined]
  [9] materialize
    @ ~/.julia/packages/ReverseDiff/p1MzG/src/derivatives/broadcast.jl:273 [inlined]
 [10] g(x::ReverseDiff.TrackedArray{Float64, Float64, 1, Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}})
    @ Main ./REPL[6]:1
 [11] ReverseDiff.GradientTape(f::typeof(g), input::Vector{…}, cfg::ReverseDiff.GradientConfig{…})
    @ ReverseDiff ~/.julia/packages/ReverseDiff/p1MzG/src/api/tape.jl:199
 [12] gradient(f::Function, input::Vector{Float64}, cfg::ReverseDiff.GradientConfig{ReverseDiff.TrackedArray{…}})
    @ ReverseDiff ~/.julia/packages/ReverseDiff/p1MzG/src/api/gradients.jl:22
 [13] top-level scope
    @ REPL[8]:1
Some type information was truncated. Use `show(err)` to see complete types.

Version info

(ppl) pkg> st
Status `~/ppl/Project.toml`
  [37e2e3b7] ReverseDiff v1.15.3

julia> versioninfo()
Julia Version 1.11.1
Commit 8f5b7ca12ad (2024-10-16 10:53 UTC)
Build Info:
  Official https://julialang.org/ release
Platform Info:
  OS: macOS (arm64-apple-darwin22.4.0)
  CPU: 10 × Apple M1 Pro
  WORD_SIZE: 64
  LLVM: libLLVM-16.0.6 (ORCJIT, apple-m1)
Threads: 1 default, 0 interactive, 1 GC (on 8 virtual cores)

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by running the reported Julia reproducer and trace the failure through src/derivatives/elementwise.jl and src/derivatives/broadcast.jl, with the tape entry points in src/api/tape.jl and src/api/gradients.jl as context. Done means the reshape-based g or j example no longer raises the ImmutableDiffResult length error, with a regression test covering the behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
julia
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.