Contribution Guide#

This contribution guide explains how to contribute to the Unified Runtime project and what processes you must follow in order to have your changes accepted into the project.

Important

Any contributions that fall into the following criteria must follow the Adapter Change Process:

  • Changing the API/ABI of the specification and or loader.

  • Changing the implementation of an adapter.

  • Changing the implementation of shared/common code used by an adapter.

Before making a contribution to the specification you should determine if the change should be made directly to the core specification or introduced as an experimental feature. The criteria we use to make this distinction are as follows:

  • The feature exists to enable an experimental feature in a parallel language runtime being built on top of Unified Runtime.

  • The design phase of the feature is expected to span multiple oneAPI releases.

  • A proof of concept implementation exists for a single adapter but multiple adapters are intended to be supported. It is important to consider as early as possible whether the feature is appropriate for other adapters to evaluate its portability.

If the feature in question matches any of these criteria, please refer to the Experimental Features section, otherwise refer to the Core Features section. If you are unsure how to proceed please create an issue asking for clarification.

If you are unsure whether a feature can be supported by certain adapters please seek the advice of an appropriate stakeholder or ask the Unified Runtime team via the GitHub issue tracker.

Adapter Change Process#

  1. Create a pull request containing the adapter changes in the oneapi-src/unified-runtime project targeting the main branch.

    Note

    Historically, convention on the project has been to add one or more [COMPONENT] prefixes to the pull request title to signify which components are changed within. This is no longer necessary as pull requests are now automatically labeled by the Pull Request Labeler GitHub Action. This approach is less error prone and much easier to filter on the GitHub pull requests tab. Lastly, commit and pull request summaries should strive be short to align with Git convention.

  2. Create a draft pull request in the intel/llvm project to take advantage of the pre-merge testing. Add any required implementation changes in addition to changing:

  3. Add a comment in the oneapi-src/unified-runtime pull request linking to the intel/llvm pull request created in step 2.

  4. Code reviews for the adapter changes are carried out in the oneapi-src/unified-runtime pull request.

  5. Any new commits to the oneapi-src/unified-runtime pull request must be accompanied by a corresponding update in the intel/llvm pull request as indicated in step 2, so the testing is always up-to-date.

  6. Once the oneapi-src/unified-runtime pull request has been approved by at least one member of each relevant code-owner team:

    • Make the intel/llvm pull request ready to review (remove draft) in order to gain approvals from all code-owners to ensure step 8 can progress quickly when the time comes.

    • Add the ready to merge label to the oneapi-src/unified-runtime pull request.

  7. The Unified Runtime maintainers must ensure that step 5 has been carried out and that all pre-merge testing has passed before merging the oneapi-src/unified-runtime pull request.

    • The oldest pull requests with the ready to merge label will be prioritized.

    • Contact the Unified Runtime maintainers if a pull request should be given a higher priority.

  8. Once the oneapi-src/unified-runtime pull request has been merged:

    • Reverse the change to UNIFIED_RUNTIME_REPO made in step 2.

    • Update the UNIFIED_RUNTIME_TAG to point at the oneapi-src/unified-runtime commit/tag containing the merged adapter changes.

    • Update the pull request description, linking to any other intel/llvm pull requests who’s changes have been merged into oneapi-src/unified-runtime but have not yet been merge into intel/llvm.

    • A Unified Runtime maintainer may facilitate these steps either by making suggestions on the intel/llvm pull request or by making those changes directly.

Build Environment#

To be able to generate the source from the YAML files, the build environment must be configured correctly and all dependencies must be installed. The instructions for a basic setup are available in the README.

The following additional dependencies are required to support the generate target:

Doxygen can be installed via your system’s package manager, e.g. on Ubuntu sudo apt install doxygen, or by downloading it from the Doxygen website. It must be available on the current PATH when the script is run.

One way to install the requirements for the script is using a Python virtual environment. This can be set up by running the following commands from the project root:

$ python3 -m venv .local
$ source .local/bin/activate
$ pip install -r third_party/requirements.txt

The virtual environment can be subsequently reactivated before any builds without needing to reinstall the requirements:

$ source .local/bin/activate

Alternatively, a Docker container can be used instead of a virtual environment. Instructions on building and using a Docker image can be found in .github/docker

You must also enable the UR_FORMAT_CPP_STYLE CMake option to allow formatting of the generated code, or the generate target will not be available.

$ cmake -B build/ -DUR_FORMAT_CPP_STYLE=ON

You can then follow the instructions below to use the generate target to regenerate the source.

Generating Source#

The specification and many other components in the Unified Runtime repository are generated from a set of YAML files which are used as inputs to a Mako based templating system. The YAML file syntax is defined in YAML syntax. To generate the outputs of the Mako templates a build directory must be configured as detailed above. Upon successfully configuring a build directory, generate the outputs with the following command (or suitable build system equivalent):

$ cmake --build build --target generate

Note

The generated source and header files are placed into /source and /include directories respectively. You should make no attempt to modify them directly. When the generator is run all your changes will be overwritten.

Writing YAML#

Please read the Naming Convention section prior to making a contribution and refer to the YAML syntax for specifics of how to define the required constructs.

When writing *.yml files and ur or UR should exist in the output use $x or $X respectively. These will be replaced while Generating Source.

Additionally, the following conventions must be followed for function arguments:

  • Argument names are camelCase.

  • Arguments with pointer types are prefixed with p for each pointer in the type i.e. char *pMessage, char **ppMessage, etc.

  • Handle arguments are prefixed with h i.e. hQueue.

  • Pointer to handle arguments, such as out parameters, are prefixed with ph i.e. phQueue.

Limitations#

There are some limitations on the patterns our spec generator can handle. These limitations are due to convenience of implementation rather than design: if they are preventing you from implementing a feature please open an issue and we will be happy to try and accommodate your use case. Otherwise beware of the following:

  • A function parameter or struct member which is a struct type that has any of the following members in its type definition must not have the [range] tag:

    • An object handle with the [range] tag

    • A struct type with the [range] tag that has an object handle member

  • A struct member which is a pointer to a struct type must not have the [optional] tag if that struct (or any of its members, recursively) has an object handle member in its definition.

  • A struct member which is an object handle must not have the [out] tag.

Forks and Pull Requests#

To submit a pull request to Unified Runtime, you must first create your own personal fork of the project and submit your changes to a branch. By convention we name our branches <your_name>/<short_description>, where the description indicates the intent of your change. You can then raise a pull request targeting oneapi-src/unified-runtime:main. Please add the experimental label to you pull request.

When making changes to the specification you must commit all changes to files in the repository as a result of Generating Source.

Before your pull request is merged it must pass all jobs in the GitHub Actions workflow and must be reviewed by no less than two code owners.

Hint

When rebasing a branch on top of main results in merged conflicts it is recommended to resolve conflicts in the *.yml files then Generating Source. This will automatically resolve conflicts in the generated source files, leaving only conflicts in non-generated source files to be resolved, if any.

By default, any new fork has all GitHub Actions workflows disabled. If you would like to, e.g., test your branch using our CI workflows before creating a pull request, you have to enter the Actions tab on your fork and enable workflows for this repository. When they are not needed anymore, you can disable them again, but it has to be done one by one. The CI on the upstream repository gets busy from time to time. That’s why you may want to enable workflows on your fork to get the testing results quicker. The disadvantage of the CI on your fork is that it may report some failing jobs you may not expect, and it does not run some of the jobs (due to a lack of specific hardware from self-hosted runners).

Core Features#

A core feature must have a stable API/ABI and should strive to be supported across all adapters. However, core features may be optional and thus only supported in one or more adapters. A core feature should also strive to enable similar functionality in parallel language runtimes (such as SYCL, OpenMP, …) where possible although this is a secondary concern.

Hint

Optional features should be avoided as much as possible to maximize portability across adapters and reduce the overhead required to make use of features in parallel language runtimes.

Core features are defined in the *.yml files in the scripts/core directory. Most of the files are named after the API object who’s interface is defined within them, with the following exceptions:

  • scripts/core/common.yml defines symbols which are used by multiple interfaces through the specification, e.g. macros, object handles, result enumerations, and structure type enumerations.

  • scripts/core/enqueue.yml defines commands which can be enqueued on a queue object.

  • scripts/core/loader.yml defines global symbols pertaining to initialization and tear down of the loader.

  • scripts/core/registry.yml contains an enumeration of all entry-points, past and present, for use in the XPTI tracing framework. It is automatically updated so shouldn’t require manual editing.

  • scripts/core/exp-<feature>.yml see Experimental Features.

Core Optional Features#

Optional core features must be supported in at least one adapter. Support for an optional core feature must be programmatically exposed to the user via boolean query call to urDeviceGetInfo and a new enumerator of the form UR_DEVICE_INFO_<FEATURE_NAME>_SUPPORT in ur_device_info_t.

Conformance Testing#

For contributions to the core specification conformance tests should be included as part of your change. The conformance tests can be found under test/conformance/<component>, where component refers to the API object an entry-point belongs to i.e. platform, enqueue, device.

The conformance tests should ideally include end-to-end testing of all the changes to the specification if possible. At minimum, they must cover at least one test for each of the possible error codes returned, excluding any disaster cases like UR_RESULT_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY or similar.

Conformance tests must not make assumptions about the adapter under test. Tests fixtures or cases must query for support of optional features and skip testing if unsupported by the adapter.

All tests in the Unified Runtime project are configured to use CTest to run. All conformance tests have the conformance label attached to them which allows them to be run independently. To run all the conformance tests, execute the following command from the build directory.

ctest -L "conformance"

Experimental Features#

Warning

Experimental features:

  • May be replaced, updated, or removed at any time.

  • Do not require maintaining API/ABI stability of their own additions over time.

  • Do not require conformance testing of their own additions.

Experimental features must be defined in two new files, where <FEATURE>/<feature> are replaced with an appropriate name:

  • scripts/core/EXP-<FEATURE>.rst document specifying the experimental feature in natural language.

  • scripts/core/exp-<feature>.yml defines the interface as an input to Generating Source.

To simplify this process please use the provided python script which will create these template files for you. You can then freely modify these files to implement your experimental feature.

$ python scripts/add_experimental_feature.py <name-of-your-experimental-feature>

Experimental features must not make any changes to the core YaML files and must be described entirely in their own YaML file. Sometimes, however experimental feature require extending enumerations of the core specification. If this is necessary, create a new enum with the extend field set to true and list the required enumerations to support the experimental feature. These additional enumerations will updated the specification with the appropriate values.

Naming Convention#

The following naming conventions must be followed:

  • All functions must be prefixed with ur

  • All functions must use camel case urObjectAction convention

  • All macros must use all caps UR_NAME convention

  • All structures, enumerations and other types must follow ur_name_t snake case convention

  • All structure members and function parameters must use camel case convention

  • All enumerator values must use all caps UR_ENUM_ETOR_NAME convention

  • All handle types must end with handle_t

  • All descriptor structures must end with desc_t

  • All property structures must end with properties_t

  • All flag enumerations must end with flags_t

The following coding conventions must be followed:

  • All descriptor structures must be derived from ur_base_desc_t

  • All property structures must be derived from ur_base_properties_t

  • All function input parameters must precede output parameters

  • All functions must return ur_result_t

In addition to the requirements referred to in the Writing YAML section, and to easily differentiate experimental feature symbols, the following conventions must be adhered to when defining experimental features:

  • All functions must use camel case urObjectActionExp convention.

  • All macros must use all caps UR_NAME_EXP convention.

  • All structures, enumerations, and other types must follow ur_exp_name_t name case convention.