R/tensorboard.R

In tensorflow: R Interface to 'TensorFlow'

#' TensorBoard Visualization Tool
#'
#' TensorBoard is a tool inspecting and understanding your TensorFlow runs and
#' graphs.
#'
#' @param log_dir Directories to scan for training logs. If this is a named
#'   character vector then the specified names will be used as aliases within
#'   TensorBoard.
#' @param action Specify whether to start or stop TensorBoard (TensorBoard will
#'   be stopped automatically when the R session from which it is launched is
#'   terminated).
#' @param host Host for serving TensorBoard
#' @param port Port for serving TensorBoard. If "auto" is specified (the
#'   default) then an unused port will be chosen automatically.
#' @param launch_browser Open a web browser for TensorBoard after launching.
#'   Defaults to `TRUE` in interactive sessions. When running under RStudio uses
#'   an RStudio window by default (pass a function e.g. [utils::browseURL()] to
#'   open in an external browser). Use the `tensorflow.tensorboard.browser`
#'   option to establish a global default behavior.
#' @param reload_interval How often the backend should load more data.
#' @param purge_orphaned_data Whether to purge data that may have been orphaned
#'   due to TensorBoard restarts. Disabling purge_orphaned_data can be used to
#'   debug data disappearance.
#'
#' @return URL for browsing TensorBoard (invisibly).
#'
#' @details When TensorBoard is passed a logdir at startup, it recursively walks
#'   the directory tree rooted at logdir looking for subdirectories that contain
#'   tfevents data. Every time it encounters such a subdirectory, it loads it as
#'   a new run, and the frontend will organize the data accordingly.
#'
#'   The TensorBoard process will be automatically destroyed when the R session
#'   in which it is launched exits. You can pass `action = "stop"` to manually
#'   terminate TensorBoard.
#'
#' @export
tensorboard <- function(log_dir, action = c("start", "stop"),
                        host = "127.0.0.1", port = "auto",
                        launch_browser = getOption("tensorflow.tensorboard.browser",
                                                   interactive()),
                        reload_interval = 5,
                        purge_orphaned_data = TRUE
                        ) {

  # ensure that tensorflow initializes (so we get tensorboard on our path)
  ensure_loaded()

  # verify we can find tensorboard
  if (!nzchar(Sys.which("tensorboard")))
    stop("Unable to find tensorboard on PATH")

  # if log_dir is missing try to find a "latest run"
  if (missing(log_dir)) {
    latest <- tfruns::latest_run()
    if (!is.null(latest))
      log_dir <- latest$run_dir
    else
      stop("A log_dir must be specified for tensorboard")
  }

  # convert input to run_dir
  log_dir <- tfruns::as_run_dir(log_dir)

  # expand log dir path
  log_dir <- path.expand(log_dir)

  # create log_dir(s) if necessary
  log_dir <- as.character(lapply(log_dir, function(dir) {
    if (!utils::file_test("-d", dir))
      dir.create(dir, recursive = TRUE)
    dir
  }))

  # if we already have a tensorboard for this session then kill it and re-use it's port
  if (!is.null(.globals$tensorboard)) {
    p <- .globals$tensorboard$process
    if (p$is_alive()) {
      p$kill()
      p$wait(1000L)
    }
    if (identical(port, "auto"))
      port <- .globals$tensorboard$port
    .globals$tensorboard <- NULL
  }

  # exit if this was action = "stop"
  action <- match.arg(action)
  if (identical(action, "stop")) {
    cat("TensorBoard stopped.\n")
    return(invisible(NULL))
  }


  # for port = "auto", attempt to find a port up to 20 times
  if (identical(port, "auto")) {

    for (i in 1:20) {

      # determine the port (exclude those considered unsafe by Chrome)
      while(TRUE) {
        port <- 3000 + sample(5000, 1)
        if (!port %in% c(3659, 4045, 6000, 6665:6669))
          break
      }

      # attempt to launch
      p <- launch_tensorboard(log_dir, host, port, FALSE, reload_interval, purge_orphaned_data)
      if (p$is_alive())
        break
    }

  } else {
    p <- launch_tensorboard(log_dir, host, port, TRUE, reload_interval, purge_orphaned_data)
  }

  if (p$is_alive()) {

    # close connections
    close(p$get_output_connection())
    close(p$get_error_connection())

    # save as global tensorboard
    .globals$tensorboard <- list(process = p, port = port)

    # browse the url if requested
    url <- paste0("http://", host, ":", port)
    cat("Started TensorBoard at", url, "\n")
    if (isTRUE(launch_browser)) {
      getOption("browser")(url)
    } else if (is.function(launch_browser)) {
      launch_browser(url)
    }

    # return the url invisibly
    invisible(url)

  } else {
    stop("Unable to launch tensorboard")
  }
}


tensorboard_version <- function() {
  if (is.null(ver <- .globals$tensorboard_version)) {
    ver <- package_version(system("tensorboard --version_tb", intern = TRUE))
    .globals$tensorboard_version <- ver
  }
  ver
}


launch_tensorboard <- function(log_dir, host, port, explicit_port, reload_interval, purge_orphaned_data) {

  if (tensorboard_version() < "2.0") {
    # check for names and provide defaults
    names <- names(log_dir)
    if (is.null(names))
      names <- basename(log_dir)

    # concatenate names if we have them
    if (!is.null(names))
      log_dir <- paste0(names, ":", log_dir)

    # build log_dir
    log_dir <- paste(log_dir, collapse = ",")
  }

  # start the process
  p <- processx::process$new("tensorboard",
                             c("--logdir", log_dir,
                               "--host", host,
                               "--port", as.character(port),
                               "--reload_interval", as.integer(reload_interval),
                               "--purge_orphaned_data", purge_orphaned_data),
                             stdout = "|", stderr = "|")

  # poll for availability of the http server (continue as long as the
  # process is still alive). note that we used to poll for stdout however
  # tensorflow v1.3 stopped writing a newline after printing the host:port
  # and caused us to haning in p$read_output_lines()
  started <- FALSE
  Sys.sleep(0.25)
  conn <- url(paste0("http://", host, ":", as.character(port)))
  on.exit(close(conn), add = TRUE)
  while(!started && p$is_alive()) {
    Sys.sleep(0.25)
    tryCatch({
      suppressWarnings(readLines(conn, n = -1))
      started = TRUE
    },
    error = function(e) {}
    )
  }

  # poll for error messages
  res <- p$poll_io(100L)

  # see if we have stderr
  if (identical(res[["error"]], "ready")) {

    # capture error output
    err <- p$read_error_lines()

    # write it unless it's a port in use error when we are auto-binding
    if (explicit_port || !any(grepl(paste0("^.*", port, ".*already in use.*$"), err)))
      write(err, stderr())
  }

  # return the process
  p
}