Documentation for installing the Go bindings for TensorFlow.
Maintainer: @wamuir
TensorFlow provides a Go API particularly useful for loading models created with Python and running them within a Go application.
Important: TensorFlow for Go is no longer supported by the TensorFlow team. The TensorFlow Go API is also not covered by the TensorFlow API stability guarantees.
The Go bindings for TensorFlow work on the following systems, and likely others:
- Linux, 64-bit, x86
- macOS, Version 10.12.6 (Sierra) or higher
Install the TensorFlow Go API from a community build (compatible with go get
)
or from source.
Note: the Go bindings depend on libtensorflow, which should be downloaded (or compiled) and installed first.
A community build, Graft, contains nightly and release builds of the Go
language bindings to the TensorFlow C API, including Go-compiled TensorFlow
protocol buffers and generated Go wrappers for TensorFlow operations. This
community build can be fetched using go get
.
After installing libtensorflow, use Graft exactly as you would use the Go bindings found in the main TensorFlow repo, and with one of the following import statements:
TensorFlow C API | Graft |
---|---|
TensorFlow Release 2.17.0 | go get github.com/wamuir/graft/[email protected] |
TensorFlow Release 2.16.2 | go get github.com/wamuir/graft/[email protected] |
TensorFlow Nightly | go get github.com/wamuir/graft/tensorflow@nightly |
Click to expand
Note: these build instructions are specific to TensorFlow 2.17.0
Install the TensorFlow C library. This library is required for use of the TensorFlow Go package at runtime. For example, on Linux (64-bit, x86):
$ curl -L https://storage.googleapis.com/tensorflow/versions/2.17.0/libtensorflow-cpu-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz --directory /usr/local
$ ln -s external/local_tsl/tsl /usr/local/include/tsl
$ ldconfig
Install the protocol buffers library and compiler. The compiler and well-known proto type files from the library are required during installation of the Go bindings.
-
Linux, using
apt
orapt-get
, for example:$ apt install libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler
-
MacOS, using Homebrew:
$ brew install protobuf
The use of go get
is not currently supported for installation of the TensorFlow Go API.
Instead, follow these instructions.
-
First, note the location of your Go workspace. The remaining installation steps must be performed inside your Go workspace.
$ go env GOPATH
-
Clone the TensorFlow source repository, substituting the location of your Go workspace for
/go
in the command below.$ git clone --branch v2.17.0 https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow.git /go/src/github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
-
Change the working directory to the base of the cloned TensorFlow repository, substituting the the location of your Go workspace for
/go
in the command below.$ cd /go/src/github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
-
Initialize a new go.mod file.
$ go mod init github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
-
Patch TensorFlow core protos to declare Go package.
$ sed -i '4 i option go_package = "github.com\/tensorflow\/tensorflow\/tensorflow\/go\/core\/framework\/dataset_go_proto";' tensorflow/core/framework/dataset.proto $ sed -i '9 c option go_package = "github.com\/tensorflow\/tensorflow\/tensorflow\/go\/core\/framework\/graph_debug_info_go_proto";' tensorflow/core/framework/graph_debug_info.proto $ sed -i '4 i option go_package = "github.com\/tensorflow\/tensorflow\/tensorflow\/go\/core\/framework\/optimized_function_graph_go_proto";' tensorflow/core/framework/optimized_function_graph.proto
-
Patch Tensor Standard Library (TSL) protos to declare Go package.
$ sed -i '5 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/bfc_memory_map.proto $ sed -i '5 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/coordination_config.proto $ sed -i '7 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/coordination_service.proto $ sed -i '6 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/distributed_runtime_payloads.proto $ sed -i '8 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/dnn.proto $ sed -i '12 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/error_codes.proto $ sed -i '8 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/histogram.proto $ sed -i '5 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/rpc_options.proto $ sed -i '10 c option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/status.proto $ sed -i '13 i option go_package = "github.com\/google\/tsl\/tsl\/go_proto";' third_party/xla/third_party/tsl/tsl/protobuf/test_log.proto
-
Patch tensorflow/go/genop to generate TF and TSL protobufs.
$ sed -i '71d;72d' tensorflow/go/genop/generate.sh $ sed -i '71 i \ ${TF_DIR}\/third_party\/xla\/xla\/autotuning.proto \\' tensorflow/go/genop/generate.sh $ sed -i '72 i \ ${TF_DIR}\/third_party\/xla\/third_party\/tsl\/tsl\/protobuf\/*.proto; do \\' tensorflow/go/genop/generate.sh $ sed -i '74 i \ -I ${TF_DIR}/third_party/xla/third_party/tsl \\' tensorflow/go/genop/generate.sh $ sed -i '75 i \ -I ${TF_DIR}/third_party/xla \\' tensorflow/go/genop/generate.sh
-
Generate wrappers and protocol buffers.
$ (cd tensorflow/go/op && go generate)
-
Use Go Mod's
replace
directive to locate TSL protos.$ go mod edit -require github.com/google/[email protected]+incompatible $ go mod edit -replace github.com/google/tsl=/go/src/github.com/google/tsl
-
Initialize a new go.mod for TSL and add dependencies.
$ (cd /go/src/github.com/google/tsl && go mod init github.com/google/tsl && go mod tidy)
-
Add missing modules.
$ go mod tidy
-
Test the installation.
$ go test ./...
The replace
directive instructs Go to use the local installation and must be
added to go.mod
for every Go module that depends on the API. Point the
replace directive to the location within your Go workspace where you installed
the API, substituting the location of your Go
workspace for /go
in the command below:
$ go mod init hello-world
$ go mod edit -require github.com/google/[email protected]+incompatible
$ go mod edit -require github.com/tensorflow/[email protected]+incompatible
$ go mod edit -replace github.com/google/tsl=/go/src/github.com/google/tsl
$ go mod edit -replace github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow=/go/src/github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
$ go mod tidy
With the TensorFlow Go API installed, create an
example program with the following source code (hello_tf.go
):
package main
import (
tf "github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/tensorflow/go"
"github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/tensorflow/go/op"
"fmt"
)
func main() {
// Construct a graph with an operation that produces a string constant.
s := op.NewScope()
c := op.Const(s, "Hello from TensorFlow version " + tf.Version())
graph, err := s.Finalize()
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
// Execute the graph in a session.
sess, err := tf.NewSession(graph, nil)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
output, err := sess.Run(nil, []tf.Output{c}, nil)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Println(output[0].Value())
}
$ go mod init app
$ go mod edit -require github.com/google/[email protected]+incompatible
$ go mod edit -require github.com/tensorflow/[email protected]+incompatible
$ go mod edit -replace github.com/google/tsl=/go/src/github.com/google/tsl
$ go mod edit -replace github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow=/go/src/github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
$ go mod tidy
$ go run hello_tf.go
The command outputs: Hello from TensorFlow version *number*
A Dockerfile is available, which executes the installation and setup process for the Go bindings and builds the example program. To use, install Docker and then run the following commands:
$ docker build -t tensorflow/build:golang-example https://github.com/tensorflow/build.git#:golang_install_guide/example-program
$ docker run tensorflow/build:golang-example