patrick-kidger / patrick-kidger/diffrax

`jax.clear_caches` after backpropagating through `diffeqsolve` causes segmentation fault

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Description

Hi Patrick. As discussed in #142, memory usage may grow as we integrate more functions because of caching on jax's part.

For this reason, I am trying to find a way to reliably clear cache every once in a while using jax.clear_caches. However, this seems to invariably lead to a segmentation fault if done after differentiating through diffeqsolve.

Possibly related to google/jax#14212 and google/jax#15973.

Any idea of what's going on here?

Minimal working example:

import equinox as eqx
import jax
import jax.numpy as jnp
from diffrax import ODETerm, Dopri5, diffeqsolve
from jaxtyping import Array, Float


class Function(eqx.Module):
    a: Float[Array, ""] = eqx.field(converter=jnp.asarray)

    def __call__(self, x: Float[Array, "*batch"]) -> Float[Array, "*batch"]:
        return - self.a * x


def solve(f: Function) -> Float[Array, ""]:
    return diffeqsolve(
        terms=ODETerm(lambda t, x, args: f(x)),
        solver=Dopri5(),
        t0=0.0,
        t1=1.0,
        dt0=0.1,
        y0=1.0,
    ).ys[0]


grad_f = jax.grad(solve)

f = Function(1.0)
grad_f(f)
jax.clear_caches()  # segmentation fault

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

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 minimal Python example through solve, jax.grad, and jax.clear_caches to reproduce the segmentation fault. Investigate the interaction between diffrax's diffeqsolve differentiation path and JAX cache clearing, using the linked JAX issues as context. Done means cache clearing no longer crashes after backpropagating through diffeqsolve.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
machine-learning
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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