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Update DLPack content to address unsupported use cases (#709)
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Also extend the description of errors when DLPack cannot be supported
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rgommers authored Jan 12, 2024
1 parent 8fe8b08 commit 7a56675
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19 changes: 19 additions & 0 deletions spec/draft/design_topics/data_interchange.rst
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Expand Up @@ -84,3 +84,22 @@ page gives a high-level specification for data exchange in Python using DLPack.
are recommended to do so using the same syntax and semantics as outlined
below. They are not required to return an array object from ``from_dlpack``
which conforms to this standard.

Non-supported use cases
-----------------------

Use of DLPack requires that the data can be represented by a strided, in-memory
layout on a single device. This covers usage by a large range of, but not all,
known and possible array libraries. Use cases that are not supported by DLPack
include:

- Distributed arrays, i.e., the data residing on multiple nodes or devices,
- Sparse arrays, i.e., sparse representations where a data value (typically
zero) is implicit.

There may be other reasons why it is not possible or desirable for an
implementation to materialize the array as strided data in memory. In such
cases, the implementation may raise a `BufferError` in the `__dlpack__` or
`__dlpack_device__` method. In case an implementation is never able to export
its array data via DLPack, it may omit `__dlpack__` and `__dlpack_device__`
completely, and hence `from_dlpack` may raise an `AttributeError`.
14 changes: 14 additions & 0 deletions src/array_api_stubs/_draft/creation_functions.py
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Expand Up @@ -232,6 +232,20 @@ def from_dlpack(x: object, /) -> array:
:class: note
The returned array may be either a copy or a view. See :ref:`data-interchange` for details.
Raises
------
BufferError
The ``__dlpack__`` and ``__dlpack_device__`` methods on the input array
may raise ``BufferError`` when the data cannot be exported as DLPack
(e.g., incompatible dtype or strides). It may also raise other errors
when export fails for other reasons (e.g., not enough memory available
to materialize the data). ``from_dlpack`` must propagate such
exceptions.
AttributeError
If the ``__dlpack__`` and ``__dlpack_device__`` methods are not present
on the input array. This may happen for libraries that are never able
to export their data with DLPack.
"""


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