Make threadsafe evaluation opt-in

HISTORY.md

@@ -4,6 +4,35 @@
 
 ### Breaking changes
 
+#### Threadsafe evaluation
+
+DynamicPPL models are by default no longer thread-safe.
+If you have threading in a model, you **must** now manually mark it as so, using:
+
+```julia
+@model f() = ...
+model = f()
+model = setthreadsafe(model, true)
+```
+
+It used to be that DynamicPPL would 'automatically' enable thread-safe evaluation if Julia was launched with more than one thread (i.e., by checking `Threads.nthreads() > 1`).
+
+The problem with this approach is that it sacrifices a huge amount of performance.
+Furthermore, it is not actually the correct approach: just because Julia has multiple threads does not mean that a particular model actually requires threadsafe evaluation.
+
+**A model requires threadsafe evaluation if, and only if, the VarInfo object used inside the model is manipulated in parallel.**
+This can occur if any of the following are inside `Threads.@threads` or other concurrency functions / macros:
+
+  - tilde-statements
+  - calls to `@addlogprob!`
+  - any direct manipulation of the special `__varinfo__` variable
+
+If you have none of these inside threaded blocks, then you do not need to mark your model as threadsafe.
+**Notably, the following do not require threadsafe evaluation:**
+
+  - Using threading for anything that does not involve VarInfo. For example, you can calculate a log-probability in parallel, and then add it using `@addlogprob!` outside of the threaded block. This does not require threadsafe evaluation.
+  - Sampling with `AbstractMCMC.MCMCThreads()`.
+
 #### Parent and leaf contexts
 
 The `DynamicPPL.NodeTrait` function has been removed.

docs/src/api.md

@@ -42,6 +42,13 @@ The context of a model can be set using [`contextualize`](@ref):
 contextualize
 ```
 
+Some models require threadsafe evaluation (see https://turinglang.org/docs/THIS_DOESNT_EXIST_YET for more information on when this is necessary).
+If this is the case, one must enable threadsafe evaluation for a model:
+
+```@docs
+setthreadsafe
+```
+
 ## Evaluation
 
 With [`rand`](@ref) one can draw samples from the prior distribution of a [`Model`](@ref).

src/DynamicPPL.jl

@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ export AbstractVarInfo,
     Model,
     getmissings,
     getargnames,
+    setthreadsafe,
     extract_priors,
     values_as_in_model,
     # LogDensityFunction

src/compiler.jl

@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ function model(mod, linenumbernode, expr, warn)
     modeldef = build_model_definition(expr)
 
     # Generate main body
-    modeldef[:body] = generate_mainbody(mod, modeldef[:body], warn)
+    modeldef[:body] = generate_mainbody(mod, modeldef[:body], warn, false)
 
     return build_output(modeldef, linenumbernode)
 end
@@ -346,36 +346,58 @@ Generate the body of the main evaluation function from expression `expr` and arg
 If `warn` is true, a warning is displayed if internal variables are used in the model
 definition.
 """
-generate_mainbody(mod, expr, warn) = generate_mainbody!(mod, Symbol[], expr, warn)
+generate_mainbody(mod, expr, warn, warn_threads) =
+    generate_mainbody!(mod, Symbol[], expr, warn, warn_threads)
 
-generate_mainbody!(mod, found, x, warn) = x
-function generate_mainbody!(mod, found, sym::Symbol, warn)
+generate_mainbody!(mod, found, x, warn, warn_threads) = x
+function generate_mainbody!(mod, found, sym::Symbol, warn, warn_threads)
     if warn && sym in INTERNALNAMES && sym ∉ found
         @warn "you are using the internal variable `$sym`"
         push!(found, sym)
     end
 
     return sym
 end
-function generate_mainbody!(mod, found, expr::Expr, warn)
+function generate_mainbody!(mod, found, expr::Expr, warn, warn_threads)
     # Do not touch interpolated expressions
     expr.head === :$ && return expr.args[1]
 
+    # Flag to determine whether we've issued a warning for threadsafe macros Note that this
+    # detection is not fully correct. We can only detect the presence of a macro that has
+    # the symbol `Threads.@threads`, however, we can't detect if that *is actually*
+    # Threads.@threads from Base.Threads.
+
     # Do we don't want escaped expressions because we unfortunately
     # escape the entire body afterwards.
-    Meta.isexpr(expr, :escape) && return generate_mainbody(mod, found, expr.args[1], warn)
+    Meta.isexpr(expr, :escape) &&
+        return generate_mainbody(mod, found, expr.args[1], warn, warn_threads)
 
     # If it's a macro, we expand it
     if Meta.isexpr(expr, :macrocall)
-        return generate_mainbody!(mod, found, macroexpand(mod, expr; recursive=true), warn)
+        if (
+            expr.args[1] == Symbol("@threads") ||
+            expr.args[1] == Expr(:., :Threads, QuoteNode(Symbol("@threads"))) &&
+            !warn_threads
+        )
+            warn_threads = true
+            @warn (
+                "It looks like you are using `Threads.@threads` in your model definition." *
+                "\n\nNote that since version 0.39 of DynamicPPL, threadsafe evaluation of models is disabled by default." *
+                " If you need it, you will need to explicitly enable it by creating the model, and then running `model = setthreadsafe(model, true)`." *
+                "\n\nAvoiding threadsafe evaluation can often lead to significant performance improvements. Please see https://turinglang.org/docs/THIS_PAGE_DOESNT_EXIST_YET for more details of when threadsafe evaluation is actually required."
+            )
+        end
+        return generate_mainbody!(
+            mod, found, macroexpand(mod, expr; recursive=true), warn, warn_threads
+        )
     end
 
     # Modify dotted tilde operators.
     args_dottilde = getargs_dottilde(expr)
     if args_dottilde !== nothing
         L, R = args_dottilde
         return generate_mainbody!(
-            mod, found, Base.remove_linenums!(generate_dot_tilde(L, R)), warn
+            mod, found, Base.remove_linenums!(generate_dot_tilde(L, R)), warn, warn_threads
         )
     end
 
@@ -385,8 +407,8 @@ function generate_mainbody!(mod, found, expr::Expr, warn)
         L, R = args_tilde
         return Base.remove_linenums!(
             generate_tilde(
-                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, L, warn),
-                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, R, warn),
+                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, L, warn, warn_threads),
+                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, R, warn, warn_threads),
             ),
         )
     end
@@ -397,13 +419,16 @@ function generate_mainbody!(mod, found, expr::Expr, warn)
         L, R = args_assign
         return Base.remove_linenums!(
             generate_assign(
-                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, L, warn),
-                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, R, warn),
+                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, L, warn, warn_threads),
+                generate_mainbody!(mod, found, R, warn, warn_threads),
             ),
         )
     end
 
-    return Expr(expr.head, map(x -> generate_mainbody!(mod, found, x, warn), expr.args)...)
+    return Expr(
+        expr.head,
+        map(x -> generate_mainbody!(mod, found, x, warn, warn_threads), expr.args)...,
+    )
 end
 
 function generate_assign(left, right)

src/debug_utils.jl

@@ -424,8 +424,11 @@ function check_model_and_trace(
     # Perform checks before evaluating the model.
     issuccess = check_model_pre_evaluation(model)
 
-    # Force single-threaded execution.
-    _, varinfo = DynamicPPL.evaluate_threadunsafe!!(model, varinfo)
+    # TODO(penelopeysm): Implement merge, etc. for DebugAccumulator, and then perform a
+    # check on the merged accumulator, rather than checking it in the accumulate_assume
+    # calls. That way we can also support multi-threaded evaluation and use `evaluate!!`
+    # here instead of `_evaluate!!`.
+    _, varinfo = DynamicPPL._evaluate!!(model, varinfo)
 
     # Perform checks after evaluating the model.
     debug_acc = DynamicPPL.getacc(varinfo, Val(_DEBUG_ACC_NAME))

src/fasteval.jl

@@ -221,23 +221,16 @@ function (f::FastLogDensityAt)(params::AbstractVector{<:Real})
     )
     model = DynamicPPL.setleafcontext(f.model, ctx)
     accs = fast_ldf_accs(f.getlogdensity)
-    # Calling `evaluate!!` would be fine, but would lead to an extra call to resetaccs!!,
-    # which is unnecessary. So we shortcircuit this by simply calling `_evaluate!!`
-    # directly. To preserve thread-safety we need to reproduce the ThreadSafeVarInfo logic
-    # here.
-    # TODO(penelopeysm): This should _not_ check Threads.nthreads(). I still don't know what
-    # it _should_ do, but this is wrong regardless.
-    # https://github.com/TuringLang/DynamicPPL.jl/issues/1086
-    vi = if Threads.nthreads() > 1
+    _, vi = if DynamicPPL._requires_threadsafe(model)
         accs = map(
             acc -> DynamicPPL.convert_eltype(float_type_with_fallback(eltype(params)), acc),
             accs,
         )
-        ThreadSafeVarInfo(OnlyAccsVarInfo(accs))
+        vi_wrapped = ThreadSafeVarInfo(OnlyAccsVarInfo(accs))
+        _, vi_wrapped = DynamicPPL._evaluate!!(model, vi_wrapped)
     else
-        OnlyAccsVarInfo(accs)
+        DynamicPPL._evaluate!!(model, OnlyAccsVarInfo(accs))
     end
-    _, vi = DynamicPPL._evaluate!!(model, vi)
     return f.getlogdensity(vi)
 end