hipDNN environment variables

hipDNN environment variables#

2026-03-31

3 min read time

Applies to Linux and Windows

Learn about the environment variables used by hipDNN for logging, plugins, tests, and more.

Logging configuration#

hipDNN provides two environment variables to control logging behavior:

  • HIPDNN_LOG_LEVEL

  • HIPDNN_LOG_FILE

HIPDNN_LOG_LEVEL#

Sets the minimum severity for which logs will be emitted. Levels are inclusive: choosing a level enables messages at that level and all higher severities.

  • off: Disables all logging (default)

  • info: General informational messages

  • warn: Potential issues that do not interrupt execution

  • error: Recoverable errors that may affect results or performance

  • fatal: Unrecoverable errors; the operation will not continue

Here’s an example:

export HIPDNN_LOG_LEVEL=info

HIPDNN_LOG_FILE#

Specifies the file path where logs will be appended. If this variable isn’t set, logs are written to stderr.

Here’s an example:

export HIPDNN_LOG_FILE=/path/to/hipdnn.log

Tip

When using the MIOpen legacy plugin, you can use MIOpen-specific environment variables to control the underlying library’s logging behavior.

Plugin loading#

The following environment variable can be used to control which folders hipDNN will scan for plugins to load.

HIPDNN_PLUGIN_DIR#

By default, hipDNN loads plugins from ./hipdnn_plugins/engines/. This path is relative to the hipDNN backend shared library location in the ROCm install folder, typically /opt/rocm/lib/ on Linux.

Default structure example (Linux):

/opt/rocm/lib/
└── hipdnn_plugins/
    └── engines/
        ├── miopen_plugin.so
        └── other_plugin.so

When HIPDNN_PLUGIN_DIR is set, hipDNN only loads plugins from the specified directory and supplementary custom paths, ignoring the default location. This allows complete control over which plugins are loaded.

# Load plugins from a custom directory
export HIPDNN_PLUGIN_DIR=/path/to/test/plugins

Path resolution#

The HIPDNN_PLUGIN_DIR paths can be:

  • Relative paths: Resolved from the backend shared library location (typically /opt/rocm/lib on Linux, or C:\TheRock\bin on Windows if ROCm is installed to C:\TheROck).

    • For example, if HIPDNN_PLUGIN_DIR is set to ./test_plugins, then hipDNN tries to load all plugins from /opt/rocm/lib/./test_plugins.

  • Absolute paths: Used as specified.

For both relative paths and absolute paths:

  • If the path specifies a folder, hipDNN tries to load all .so files (Linux) or .DLL files (Windows) from that folder as plugins.

  • If the path specifies a filename ending in .so (Linux) or .DLL (Windows), then only that plugin will be loaded.

  • If the path specifies a filename without an extension, hipDNN prefixes the filename with lib and adds the .so suffix (Linux), or adds the .DLL suffix (Windows) and only loads that file.

See Plugin loading for API functions that provide additional control over which folders plugins are loaded from.