How to build and use Google TensorFlow C++ api

To get started, you should download the source code from Github, by following the instructions here (you'll need Bazel and a recent version of GCC).

The C++ API (and the backend of the system) is in tensorflow/core. Right now, only the C++ Session interface, and the C API are being supported. You can use either of these to execute TensorFlow graphs that have been built using the Python API and serialized to a GraphDef protocol buffer. There is also an experimental feature for building graphs in C++, but this is currently not quite as full-featured as the Python API (e.g. no support for auto-differentiation at present). You can see an example program that builds a small graph in C++ here.

The second part of the C++ API is the API for adding a new OpKernel, which is the class containing implementations of numerical kernels for CPU and GPU. There are numerous examples of how to build these in tensorflow/core/kernels, as well as a tutorial for adding a new op in C++.


To add to @mrry's post, I put together a tutorial that explains how to load a TensorFlow graph with the C++ API. It's very minimal and should help you understand how all of the pieces fit together. Here's the meat of it:

Requirements:

  • Bazel installed
  • Clone TensorFlow repo

Folder structure:

  • tensorflow/tensorflow/|project name|/
  • tensorflow/tensorflow/|project name|/|project name|.cc (e.g. https://gist.github.com/jimfleming/4202e529042c401b17b7)
  • tensorflow/tensorflow/|project name|/BUILD

BUILD:

cc_binary(
    name = "<project name>",
    srcs = ["<project name>.cc"],
    deps = [
        "//tensorflow/core:tensorflow",
    ]
)

Two caveats for which there are probably workarounds:

  • Right now, building things needs to happen within the TensorFlow repo.
  • The compiled binary is huge (103MB).

https://medium.com/@jimfleming/loading-a-tensorflow-graph-with-the-c-api-4caaff88463f

Tags:

C++

Tensorflow

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