How to build and install TensorFlow

TensorFlow (TF) can be built from source easily and installed as a Python wheel package. I used the following steps to build it using Python3 and with support for CUDA and TensorRT:

• Install Python3 pre-requisites:

$ sudo apt install python3-dev python3-pip

• Install necessary Python3 packages locally:

$ pip3 install -U --user six numpy wheel setuptools mock
$ pip3 install -U --user keras_applications==1.0.6 --no-deps
$ pip3 install -U --user keras_preprocessing==1.0.5 --no-deps

These packages are installed to your ~/.local/lib/python3.x/site-packages directory. TF documentation also installs the latest pip3 from PyPI. However, doing that causes the infamous “Cannot import name main” error, so I do not do that.

• TF uses Bazel as its build tool. Install it as described here. I ended up placing its binary in my ~/bin. Since my ~/bin is in my PATH, the Bazel binary can be executed from any place.

• I recommend creating a tensorflow_root directory. This is because the TF packaging tends to write out to a location outside the TF source directory. Also, TF needs to access other libraries. So this root directory makes it easy to create all TF related directories under one umbrella.

• Clone the TF Git repository inside the root directory:

$ cd tensorflow_root
$ git clone git@github.com:tensorflow/tensorflow.git
$ cd tensorflow

• Configure the build process using:

$ ./configure

Some of the questions it asks and my replies:

• Please specify the location of python. /usr/bin/python3

• Please input the desired Python library path to use. /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages

• Enable: XLA JIT, CUDA and TensorRT. Be careful, TF might not work with latest versions of CUDA, cuDNN and TensorRT. I used CUDA 10.0 and cuDNN 7.3 and TensorRT 5.0.

• Did not enable: OpenCL SYCL and ROCm.

  • It is time to build TF. The command to build is:

$ bazel build --config=opt //tensorflow/tools/pip_package:build_pip_package

The first build can take 2-4 hours to complete.

• Now we are ready to package the build artifacts into a Python package. Specify where you want that package to be placed in the packaging command:

$ ./bazel-bin/tensorflow/tools/pip_package/build_pip_package /path_to_tensorflow_root/tensorflow_pkg

I found that it had generated a Python wheel file named: tensorflow-1.13.1-cp36-cp36m-linux_x86_64.whl

• We are ready to install TF. Make sure you remove older versions of TF:

$ pip3 uninstall tensorflow tensorflow-estimator

• Install TF from the Python wheel package:

$ pip3 install -U --user tensorflow-1.13.1-cp36-cp36m-linux_x86_64.whl

• Check if TF is installed correctly:

$ python3 -c "import tensorflow"

Tried with: Tensorflow 1.13.1 and Ubuntu 18.04