pytorch - 💡(How to fix) Fix torch.compile(torch.func.grad(fn)) hangs when einsum('bi,bj->bij') produces a ~400M-element intermediate followed by scaled_dot_product_attention [1 participants]

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pytorch/pytorch#181655Fetched 2026-04-28 06:23:56
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Error Message

torch.compile(torch.func.grad(fn)) hangs indefinitely when the function contains torch.einsum('bi,bj->bij', x, x) where x has shape [16, 4992]. This outer-product einsum produces a [16, 4992, 4992] tensor (~398M elements, ~1.5 GB float32). Two subsequent scaled_dot_product_attention calls on that tensor make the gradient compilation either OOM or hang in a compute-bound loop with no error. Unlike the SymPy bug, there is no inductor traceback — the process is killed by the external timeout before any exception is raised.

Error logs

Fix Action

Fix / Workaround

CPU: Architecture: x86_64 CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit Address sizes: 52 bits physical, 57 bits virtual Byte Order: Little Endian CPU(s): 384 On-line CPU(s) list: 0-383 Vendor ID: AuthenticAMD Model name: AMD EPYC 9684X 96-Core Processor CPU family: 25 Model: 17 Thread(s) per core: 2 Core(s) per socket: 96 Socket(s): 2 Stepping: 2 BogoMIPS: 5099.98 Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good amd_lbr_v2 nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf rapl pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt tce topoext perfctr_core perfctr_nb bpext perfctr_llc mwaitx cpb cat_l3 cdp_l3 hw_pstate ssbd mba perfmon_v2 ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced vmmcall fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid cqm rdt_a avx512f avx512dq rdseed adx smap avx512ifma clflushopt clwb avx512cd sha_ni avx512bw avx512vl xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc cqm_mbm_total cqm_mbm_local user_shstk avx512_bf16 clzero irperf xsaveerptr rdpru wbnoinvd amd_ppin cppc amd_ibpb_ret arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean flushbyasid decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold avic v_vmsave_vmload vgif x2avic v_spec_ctrl vnmi avx512vbmi umip pku ospke avx512_vbmi2 gfni vaes vpclmulqdq avx512_vnni avx512_bitalg avx512_vpopcntdq la57 rdpid overflow_recov succor smca fsrm flush_l1d debug_swap ibpb_exit_to_user Virtualization: AMD-V L1d cache: 6 MiB (192 instances) L1i cache: 6 MiB (192 instances) L2 cache: 192 MiB (192 instances) L3 cache: 2.3 GiB (24 instances) NUMA node(s): 2 NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-95,192-287 NUMA node1 CPU(s): 96-191,288-383 Vulnerability Gather data sampling: Not affected Vulnerability Itlb multihit: Not affected Vulnerability L1tf: Not affected Vulnerability Mds: Not affected Vulnerability Meltdown: Not affected Vulnerability Mmio stale data: Not affected Vulnerability Reg file data sampling: Not affected Vulnerability Retbleed: Not affected Vulnerability Spec rstack overflow: Mitigation; Safe RET Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization Vulnerability Spectre v2: Mitigation; Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB conditional; STIBP always-on; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS Not affected; BHI Not affected Vulnerability Srbds: Not affected Vulnerability Tsx async abort: Not affected Vulnerability Vmscape: Mitigation; IBPB before exit to userspace

Code Example

import torch, torch.nn as nn, torch.nn.functional as F, torch.func as tf

m = nn.Linear(4, 26)
torch.manual_seed(0)
t = torch.randn([16, 16, 12, 4])

def fn(x):
    x = m(x)                                      # [16, 16, 12, 26]
    x = torch.flatten(x, start_dim=1)             # [16, 4992]
    x = torch.cos(x)
    x = torch.einsum('bi,bj->bij', x, x)          # [16, 4992, 4992] — 398M elements
    x = F.scaled_dot_product_attention(x, x, x)   # huge SDPA
    x = F.scaled_dot_product_attention(x, x, x)
    return x.mean()

torch.func.grad(fn)(t)                  # completes (slowly)
torch.compile(torch.func.grad(fn))(t)   # hangs indefinitely
RAW_BUFFERClick to expand / collapse

🐛 Describe the bug

torch.compile(torch.func.grad(fn)) hangs indefinitely when the function contains torch.einsum('bi,bj->bij', x, x) where x has shape [16, 4992]. This outer-product einsum produces a [16, 4992, 4992] tensor (~398M elements, ~1.5 GB float32). Two subsequent scaled_dot_product_attention calls on that tensor make the gradient compilation either OOM or hang in a compute-bound loop with no error.

Unlike the SymPy bug, there is no inductor traceback — the process is killed by the external timeout before any exception is raised.

Reproducer (crash_a990abaf)

import torch, torch.nn as nn, torch.nn.functional as F, torch.func as tf

m = nn.Linear(4, 26)
torch.manual_seed(0)
t = torch.randn([16, 16, 12, 4])

def fn(x):
    x = m(x)                                      # [16, 16, 12, 26]
    x = torch.flatten(x, start_dim=1)             # [16, 4992]
    x = torch.cos(x)
    x = torch.einsum('bi,bj->bij', x, x)          # [16, 4992, 4992] — 398M elements
    x = F.scaled_dot_product_attention(x, x, x)   # huge SDPA
    x = F.scaled_dot_product_attention(x, x, x)
    return x.mean()

torch.func.grad(fn)(t)                  # completes (slowly)
torch.compile(torch.func.grad(fn))(t)   # hangs indefinitely

Error logs

No response

Versions

Collecting environment information... PyTorch version: 2.11.0+cu130 Is debug build: False CUDA used to build PyTorch: 13.0 ROCM used to build PyTorch: N/A

OS: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS (x86_64) GCC version: (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04.3) 11.4.0 Clang version: 15.0.0 ([email protected]:llvm/llvm-project.git 4ba6a9c9f65bbc8bd06e3652cb20fd4dfc846137) CMake version: version 3.22.1 Libc version: glibc-2.35

Python version: 3.10.12 (main, Mar 3 2026, 11:56:32) [GCC 11.4.0] (64-bit runtime) Python platform: Linux-6.8.0-94-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35 Is CUDA available: False CUDA runtime version: No CUDA CUDA_MODULE_LOADING set to: N/A GPU models and configuration: No CUDA Nvidia driver version: No CUDA cuDNN version: No CUDA Is XPU available: False HIP runtime version: N/A MIOpen runtime version: N/A Is XNNPACK available: True Caching allocator config: N/A

CPU: Architecture: x86_64 CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit Address sizes: 52 bits physical, 57 bits virtual Byte Order: Little Endian CPU(s): 384 On-line CPU(s) list: 0-383 Vendor ID: AuthenticAMD Model name: AMD EPYC 9684X 96-Core Processor CPU family: 25 Model: 17 Thread(s) per core: 2 Core(s) per socket: 96 Socket(s): 2 Stepping: 2 BogoMIPS: 5099.98 Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good amd_lbr_v2 nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf rapl pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt tce topoext perfctr_core perfctr_nb bpext perfctr_llc mwaitx cpb cat_l3 cdp_l3 hw_pstate ssbd mba perfmon_v2 ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced vmmcall fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid cqm rdt_a avx512f avx512dq rdseed adx smap avx512ifma clflushopt clwb avx512cd sha_ni avx512bw avx512vl xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc cqm_mbm_total cqm_mbm_local user_shstk avx512_bf16 clzero irperf xsaveerptr rdpru wbnoinvd amd_ppin cppc amd_ibpb_ret arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean flushbyasid decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold avic v_vmsave_vmload vgif x2avic v_spec_ctrl vnmi avx512vbmi umip pku ospke avx512_vbmi2 gfni vaes vpclmulqdq avx512_vnni avx512_bitalg avx512_vpopcntdq la57 rdpid overflow_recov succor smca fsrm flush_l1d debug_swap ibpb_exit_to_user Virtualization: AMD-V L1d cache: 6 MiB (192 instances) L1i cache: 6 MiB (192 instances) L2 cache: 192 MiB (192 instances) L3 cache: 2.3 GiB (24 instances) NUMA node(s): 2 NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-95,192-287 NUMA node1 CPU(s): 96-191,288-383 Vulnerability Gather data sampling: Not affected Vulnerability Itlb multihit: Not affected Vulnerability L1tf: Not affected Vulnerability Mds: Not affected Vulnerability Meltdown: Not affected Vulnerability Mmio stale data: Not affected Vulnerability Reg file data sampling: Not affected Vulnerability Retbleed: Not affected Vulnerability Spec rstack overflow: Mitigation; Safe RET Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization Vulnerability Spectre v2: Mitigation; Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB conditional; STIBP always-on; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS Not affected; BHI Not affected Vulnerability Srbds: Not affected Vulnerability Tsx async abort: Not affected Vulnerability Vmscape: Mitigation; IBPB before exit to userspace

Versions of relevant libraries: [pip3] numpy==2.2.6 [pip3] nvidia-cublas==13.1.0.3 [pip3] nvidia-cuda-cupti==13.0.85 [pip3] nvidia-cuda-nvrtc==13.0.88 [pip3] nvidia-cuda-runtime==13.0.96 [pip3] nvidia-cudnn-cu13==9.19.0.56 [pip3] nvidia-cufft==12.0.0.61 [pip3] nvidia-curand==10.4.0.35 [pip3] nvidia-cusolver==12.0.4.66 [pip3] nvidia-cusparse==12.6.3.3 [pip3] nvidia-cusparselt-cu13==0.8.0 [pip3] nvidia-nccl-cu13==2.28.9 [pip3] nvidia-nvjitlink==13.0.88 [pip3] nvidia-nvtx==13.0.85 [pip3] torch==2.11.0 [pip3] triton==3.6.0 [conda] Could not collect

cc @chauhang @penguinwu @Chillee @samdow @kshitij12345 @oulgen @jamesjwu @aorenste @anijain2305 @laithsakka @masnesral @coconutruben @aditvenk @drisspg @liangel-02 @howardzhang-cv

extent analysis

TL;DR

The issue can be mitigated by avoiding the compilation of the gradient function using torch.compile when it involves large tensor operations like torch.einsum and F.scaled_dot_product_attention.

Guidance

  • The problem seems to stem from the large memory allocation required for the tensor produced by torch.einsum('bi,bj->bij', x, x), which has approximately 398 million elements and requires about 1.5 GB of memory.
  • The subsequent F.scaled_dot_product_attention calls exacerbate the issue, potentially leading to out-of-memory (OOM) errors or indefinite hangs.
  • To verify the issue, try running the provided reproducer code and observe if it hangs or produces an OOM error.
  • Consider applying a workaround by avoiding the compilation of the gradient function for large tensor operations or by optimizing the memory usage of the torch.einsum and F.scaled_dot_product_attention operations.

Example

No specific code example is provided as the issue seems to be related to the memory allocation and compilation of the gradient function rather than a specific code snippet.

Notes

The provided information suggests that the issue is related to the memory allocation and compilation of the gradient function. However, without further details, it is difficult to provide a definitive solution. The workaround suggested above may help mitigate the issue, but it may not be a permanent fix.

Recommendation

Apply a workaround by avoiding the compilation of the gradient function for large tensor operations. This can be done by removing the torch.compile call and using the torch.func.grad function directly, as shown in the reproducer code: torch.func.grad(fn)(t).

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pytorch - 💡(How to fix) Fix torch.compile(torch.func.grad(fn)) hangs when einsum('bi,bj->bij') produces a ~400M-element intermediate followed by scaled_dot_product_attention [1 participants]