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NAME
bpmake - nntools compilation utility for backpropagation
SYNOPSIS
bpmake [ make arguments ]
DESCRIPTION
bpmake is a compilation tool for automatically creating backpropagtion
neural network simulations with the aspirin neural network code
generator. These simulations are automatically linked with the
Migraines interface libraries and the data file reading libraries.
bpmake is implemented as a shell script that is used with the Unix
make utility. Your environment should have the following variables set
before using bpmake: NNTOOLS set to the path where the
Aspirin/Migraines software is installed. MACHTYPE set to the type of
machine you are on. MANPATH should have $NNTOOLS/man appened to it
(e.g. if NNTOOLS=/u1/nntools then setenv MANPATH
${MANPATH}:/u1/nntools/man). Your path should include:
$NNTOOLS/bin/$MACHTYPE, where $MACHTYPE expands to the type of machine
you are running on. If you are unsure of the value to use for MACHTYPE
then list the directories in $NNTOOLS/bin. All supported machines
installed at your site will be listed. A single aspirin file should
exist in the current directory with a .aspirin suffix. By executing
bpmake the aspirin simulation code generator will be invoked using the
backpropagtion simulation code generator. The resulting C code
simulation is then compiled by bpmake. If there is a file user_init.c
then this file is also compiled. The user_init.c file is the place the
user can alter simulation parameters and preprocess data. This file
MUST contain a function that returns void and takes no arguments
called user_init(). The final executable simulation will call this
function before it has initialized the simulation. It is in this
function that you can change parameters (e.g. learning rate) and
define your own generators for suppling data to the simulation. See
Aspirin for Migraines User's Manual for details about using the
user_init.c file. Finally, a generic simulation (located in
$NNTOOLS/migraines/bp ) called Backprop.c will be compiled and linked
to the previously compiled files. The executable will be named by
using the prefix of the aspirin file (e.g. speech.aspirin => speech).
For examples of using bpmake with an aspirin file see the directory
$NNTOOLS/examples.
MAKE & ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The Makefile used for the compilation with bpmake allows the user to
override the internal variables by environment variables or variables
supplied on the command line. This is done by having the variable
USE_ENV set to -e. For example, the compiler optimization can be
altered by setting the OPTIMIZE variable. A very important variable
is USER_LIBS. By setting this to a list of objects and/or libraries
the user can link the user_init.c file to other functions. For
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example, if you are reading images using Pixrects in the user_init.c
file then you would set the USER_LIBS to -lpixrect so the Pixrect
routines could be linked.
DATA FILES
The bpmake utility links a library of data file readers to the
simulation. A number of formats are supplied. The simulation uses a
data format (.df) file to control the loading of the data files. The
.df file is an ascii file of "ReadFile" commands that tell the
simulation what files to read and what format they are in. The .df
file syntax supports C preprocessor #defines, macros and comments to
make loading of large numbers of data files easy. See
$NNTOOLS/examples for examples of simulations that use data files.
Refer to The Aspirin/MIGRAINES Software Tools User's Manual for
details of the .df syntax and supported data file types.
RUNNING A SIMULATION
A simulation created with bpmake has a number of run time options. For
this discussion assume that you have a file called speech.aspirin. You
have typed bpmake and a simulation was generated called speech. The
simulation can produce dump files of the weights in neural network.
These dump files can be used to start the simulation from any point
during the learning. If you execute speech with a filename of a dump
file then the weights from that file will be loaded into the network
simulation. In addition to a filename argument, the generated
simulation takes a large number of flags. These can be found by
executing speech -help The following will be printed out:
usage: speech [flags] [dump file]
flags:
[-d][-datafile <datafile>] read datafile (a .df file)
[-a][-alpha <learning rate>] set learning rate
[-i][-inertia <inertia>] set inertia
[-F][-Filename <dump file name>] ("Network" default)
[-l][-learn] learn without graphics
[-s][-save <iterations>] save to "Network.save" every
<iterations> (5000 default)
[-#] Append the current iteration number to the save file name
[-t][-test <iterations> <passes> <bound>] test for convergence
every <iterations> (5000 default) by going <passes>(default 100)
through generators without an error exceeding +/-
<bound>(default 0.1)
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[-N][-Notest ] never test for convergence
[-I][-Iterations <max_iterations>] exit after max_iterations
(default is unlimited)
[-n <mean> <variance>] add normally distributed noise to
inputs(very slow)
[-u <mean> <variance>] add uniformly distributed noise to
inputs(slow)
[-f][-forward <iterations>] go forward <iterations> (used for
stats and benchmarking)
[-E][-Epoch] go forward one epoch (1 pass thru all data)
(does not apply to user-defined generators!)
[-p][-print] print outputs and targets (used with -f)
[-P][-Pdpfa <threshold>] Calculate Pd and Pfa for -f <iterations>
using <threshold> for detection threshold (L2 norm)
[-A][-AsciiDump] print out all the weights and thresholds to
stdout
[-AsciiDumpNoFmt] print out all the weights and thresholds to
stdout (no formatting, use with -L)
[-L][-LoadAscii] read from stdin the results of -AsciiDumpNoFmt
[-h][-help] this message
For examples of running a simulation read the README files of examples
located in $NNTOOLS/examples. Each example contains a file called
Learn which is a shell script that will run the entire example. Read
this file to see how to run the example by hand or execute the file to
have the example run automatically.
FILES
*.aspirin neural network description file user_init.c user's
customization file $NNTOOLS/migraines/bp/Backprop.c the generic
simulation $NNTOOLS/migraines/bp/bpmake the shell script
$NNTOOLS/migraines/bp/Makefile.bp the Makefile
SEE ALSO
The Aspirin/MIGRAINES Software Tools User's Manual
BUGS
Mail bug reports to the author and be sure to include the version
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information in the report.
AUTHOR
Russell Leighton
email: taylor@world.std.com
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