Getting Started Guide for Linux

Getting Started Guide for Linux#

Introduction#

This document contains instructions for installing, using, and contributing to rocBLAS. The quickest way to install is from prebuilt packages. Alternatively, there are instructions to build from source. The document also contains an API Reference Guide, Programmer’s Guide, and Contributor’s Guides.

Documentation Roadmap#

The following is a list of rocBLAS documents in the suggested reading order:

Getting Started Guide (this document): Describes how to install and configure the rocBLAS library; designed to get users up and running quickly with the library.

API Reference Guide : Provides detailed information about rocBLAS functions, data types and other programming constructs.

Programmer’s Guide: Describes the code organization, Desing implementation detail, Optimizations used in the library and those that should be considered for new development and Testing & Benchmarking detail.

Contributor’s Guide : Describes coding guidelines for contributors.

Prerequisites#

A ROCm enabled platform, more information here. rocBLAS is supported on the same Linux versions that are supported by ROCm.

Installing pre-built packages#

rocBLAS can be installed on Ubuntu or Debian using

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rocblas

rocBLAS can be installed on CentOS using

sudo yum update
sudo yum install rocblas

rocBLAS can be installed on SLES using

sudo dnf upgrade
sudo dnf install rocblas

Once installed, rocBLAS can be used just like any other library with a C API. The rocblas.h header file will need to be included in the user code in order to make calls into rocBLAS, and the rocBLAS shared library will become link-time and run-time dependent for the user applciation.

Once installed, rocblas.h and rocblas_module.f90 can be found in the /opt/rocm/include directory. Only these two installed files should be used when needed in user code. Other rocBLAS files can be found in /opt/rocm/include/internal, however these files should not be directly included.

Building and Installing rocBLAS#

For most users building from source is not necessary, as rocBLAS can be used after installing the pre-built packages as described above. If desired, the following instructions can be used to build rocBLAS from source.

Requirements#

As a general rule, 64GB of system memory is required for a full rocBLAS build. This value can be lower if rocBLAS is built with a different Tensile logic target (see the –logic command for ./install.sh). This value may also increase in the future as more functions are added to rocBLAS and dependencies such as Tensile grow.

Download rocBLAS#

The rocBLAS source code is available at the rocBLAS github page. Check the ROCm Version on your system. For Ubuntu use

apt show rocm-libs -a

For Centos use

yum info rocm-libs

The ROCm version has major, minor, and patch fields, possibly followed by a build specific identifier. For example the ROCm version could be 4.0.0.40000-23, this corresponds to major = 4, minor = 0, patch = 0, build identifier 40000-23. There are GitHub branches at the rocBLAS site with names rocm-major.minor.x where major and minor are the same as in the ROCm version. For ROCm version 4.0.0.40000-23 you need to use the following to download rocBLAS:

git clone -b release/rocm-rel-x.y https://github.com/ROCmSoftwarePlatform/rocBLAS.git
cd rocBLAS

Replace x.y in the above command with the version of ROCm installed on your machine. For example: if you have ROCm 5.0 installed, then replace release/rocm-rel-x.y with release/rocm-rel-5.0

Below are steps to build using install.sh script, the user can build either

dependencies + library
dependencies + library + client

You only need (dependencies + library) if you call rocBLAS from your code. The client contains the test and benchmark code.

Library Dependencies#

Dependencies are listed in the script install.sh. The -d flag to install.sh installs dependencies.

CMake has a minimum version requirement listed in the file install.sh. See –cmake_install flag in install.sh to upgrade automatically.

Build library dependencies + library#

Common uses of install.sh to build (library dependencies + library) are in the table below.

Command	Description
`./install.sh -h`	Help information.
`./install.sh -d`	Build library dependencies and library in your local directory. The -d flag only needs to be used once. For subsequent invocations of install.sh it is not necessary to rebuild the dependencies.
`./install.sh`	Build library in your local directory. It is assumed dependencies have been built.
`./install.sh -i`	Build library, then build and install rocBLAS package in /opt/rocm/rocblas. You will be prompted for sudo access. This will install for all users. If you want to keep rocBLAS in your local directory, you do not need the -i flag.

Build library dependencies + client dependencies + library + client#

The client contains executables in the table below.

executable name	description
rocblas-test	runs Google Tests to test the library
rocblas-bench	executable to benchmark or test individual functions
example-sscal	example C code calling rocblas_sscal function

Common uses of install.sh to build (dependencies + library + client) are in the table below.

Command	Description
`./install.sh -h`	Help information.
`./install.sh -dc`	Build library dependencies, client dependencies, library, and client in your local directory. The -d flag only needs to be used once. For subsequent invocations of install.sh it is not necessary to rebuild the dependencies.
`./install.sh -c`	Build library and client in your local directory. It is assumed the dependencies have been built.
`./install.sh -idc`	Build library dependencies, client dependencies, library, client, then build and install the rocBLAS package. You will be prompted for sudo access. It is expected that if you want to install for all users you use the -i flag. If you want to keep rocBLAS in your local directory, you do not need the -i flag.
`./install.sh -ic`	Build and install rocBLAS package, and build the client. You will be prompted for sudo access. This will install for all users. If you want to keep rocBLAS in your local directory, you do not need the -i flag.

Build clients without library#

The rocBLAS clients can be built on their own using install.sh with a preexisting rocBLAS library.

Note that the version of the rocBLAS clients being built should match the version of the installed rocBLAS. The version of the installed rocBLAS can be found in the installed rocBLAS directory, in the file include/internal/rocblas-version.h. The version of rocBLAS being built can be found by running grep"VERSION_STRING" CMakeLists.txt in the rocBLAS directory being built.

Command	Description
`./install.sh --clients-only`	Build rocBLAS clients and use an installed rocBLAS library at ROCM_PATH (/opt/rocm if not specified).
`./install.sh --clients-only` `--library-path /path/to/rocBLAS`	Build rocBLAS clients and use a rocBLAS library at the specified location.

Use of Tensile#

The rocBLAS library uses Tensile, which supplies the high-performance implementation of xGEMM. Tensile is downloaded by cmake during library configuration and automatically configured as part of the build, so no further action is required by the user to set it up.