PyTorch - Torchvision - BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe

Question

I'm trying to carry out the tutorial named "Training a classifier" with PyTorch. WHen trying to debug this part of the code :

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# functions to show an image


def imshow(img):
    img = img / 2 + 0.5     # unnormalize
    npimg = img.numpy()
    plt.imshow(np.transpose(npimg, (1, 2, 0)))


# get some random training images
dataiter = iter(trainloader)
images, labels = dataiter.next()

# show images
imshow(torchvision.utils.make_grid(images))
# print labels
print(' '.join('%5s' % classes[labels[j]] for j in range(4)))

I get this error message :

Files already downloaded and verified Files already downloaded and verified 
Files already downloaded and verified Files already downloaded and verified Traceback (most recent call last):   
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\spawn.py", line 105, in spawn_main
    exitcode = _main(fd)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\spawn.py", line 114, in _main
    prepare(preparation_data)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\spawn.py", line 225, in prepare
    _fixup_main_from_path(data['init_main_from_path'])   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\spawn.py", line 277, in
_fixup_main_from_path
    run_name="__mp_main__")   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\runpy.py", line 263, in run_path
    pkg_name=pkg_name, script_name=fname)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\runpy.py", line 96, in _run_module_code
    mod_name, mod_spec, pkg_name, script_name)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)   
File "d:\Yggdrasil\Programmation\PyTorch\TutorialCIFAR10.py", line 36, in <module>
    dataiter = iter(trainloader)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\torch\utils\data\dataloader.py", line 451, in __iter__
    return _DataLoaderIter(self)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\torch\utils\data\dataloader.py", line 239, in __init__
    w.start()   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\process.py", line 105, in start
    self._popen = self._Popen(self)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\context.py", line 223, in _Popen
    return _default_context.get_context().Process._Popen(process_obj)     
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\context.py", line 322, in _Popen
    return Popen(process_obj)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\popen_spawn_win32.py", line 33, in __init__
    prep_data = spawn.get_preparation_data(process_obj._name)   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\spawn.py", line 143, in get_preparation_data
    _check_not_importing_main()   
File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\spawn.py", line 136, in
_check_not_importing_main
    is not going to be frozen to produce an executable.) 
RuntimeError:
        An attempt has been made to start a new process before the
        current process has finished its bootstrapping phase.

        This probably means that you are not using fork to start your
        child processes and you have forgotten to use the proper idiom
        in the main module:

            if __name__ == '__main__':
                freeze_support()
                ...

        The "freeze_support()" line can be omitted if the program
        is not going to be frozen to produce an executable. 
 Traceback (most recent call last):   
 File "d:\Yggdrasil\Programmation\PyTorch\TutorialCIFAR10.py", line 36, in <module>
    dataiter = iter(trainloader)   
 File "D:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\torch\utils\data\dataloader.py", line 451, in __iter__
    return _DataLoaderIter(self)   
 File "D:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\torch\utils\data\dataloader.py", line 239, in __init__
    w.start()   
 File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\process.py", line 105, in start
    self._popen = self._Popen(self)   
 File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\context.py", line 223, in _Popen
    return _default_context.get_context().Process._Popen(process_obj)   File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\context.py", line 322, in _Popen
    return Popen(process_obj)   
 File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\popen_spawn_win32.py", line 65, in
__init__
    reduction.dump(process_obj, to_child)   
 File "D:\Anaconda\lib\multiprocessing\reduction.py", line 60, in dump
    ForkingPickler(file, protocol).dump(obj) 
 BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe

All the previous lines in the tutorial are working perfectly.

Does someone know how to solve this, please ? Thanks a lot in advance

Answer 1

The question happened because Windows cannot run this DataLoader in 'num_workers' more than 0. You can see where the trainloader come from.we can see

trainloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(trainset, batch_size=4,
                                      shuffle=True, num_workers=2)

We need to change the 'num_workers' to 0.like this:

trainloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(trainset, batch_size=4,
                                      shuffle=True, num_workers=0)

Every trainloaders need to change like this.