Reduce memory overhead for TransportableObject

* Always represent TransportableObject internally as a single array of
bytes. Various properties, such as `header`, or `object_string`, decode
various segments of the byte array.

* Store the serialized object as raw picklebytes without
base64-encoding. As a result, `get_deserialized()` no longer needs to
create a temporary copy of the raw picklebytes. The data segment is
directly unpickled. Base64-encoding is applied to the data segment or
the entire internal buffer whenever a print friendly representation of
the `TransportableObject` is desired.

* Since the properties of `TransportableObject` are simply views into
the underlying buffer, `TransportableObject` may itself be serialized
efficiently by simply writing out the byte array.
`

Add backward compatibility layer for deserialization

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 - Added support for Python 3.11
 - Removed official support for Python 3.8
+- Improved memory overhead for operations involving TransportableObject
 
 ## [0.235.1-rc.0] - 2024-06-10
 

covalent/_workflow/transportable_object.py

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 import base64
 import json
 import platform
-from typing import Any, Callable, Tuple
+from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, Tuple
 
 import cloudpickle
 
@@ -29,77 +29,12 @@
 DATA_OFFSET_BYTES = 8
 HEADER_OFFSET = STRING_OFFSET_BYTES + DATA_OFFSET_BYTES
 BYTE_ORDER = "big"
-
-
-class _TOArchive:
-    """Archived transportable object."""
-
-    def __init__(self, header: bytes, object_string: bytes, data: bytes):
-        """
-        Initialize TOArchive.
-
-        Args:
-            header: Archived transportable object header.
-            object_string: Archived transportable object string.
-            data: Archived transportable object data.
-
-        Returns:
-            None
-        """
-
-        self.header = header
-        self.object_string = object_string
-        self.data = data
-
-    def cat(self) -> bytes:
-        """
-        Concatenate TOArchive.
-
-        Returns:
-            Concatenated TOArchive.
-
-        """
-
-        header_size = len(self.header)
-        string_size = len(self.object_string)
-        data_offset = STRING_OFFSET_BYTES + DATA_OFFSET_BYTES + header_size + string_size
-        string_offset = STRING_OFFSET_BYTES + DATA_OFFSET_BYTES + header_size
-
-        data_offset = data_offset.to_bytes(DATA_OFFSET_BYTES, BYTE_ORDER, signed=False)
-        string_offset = string_offset.to_bytes(STRING_OFFSET_BYTES, BYTE_ORDER, signed=False)
-
-        return string_offset + data_offset + self.header + self.object_string + self.data
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def load(serialized: bytes, header_only: bool, string_only: bool) -> "_TOArchive":
-        """
-        Load TOArchive object from serialized bytes.
-
-        Args:
-            serialized: Serialized transportable object.
-            header_only: Load header only.
-            string_only: Load string only.
-
-        Returns:
-            Archived transportable object.
-
-        """
-
-        string_offset = TOArchiveUtils.string_offset(serialized)
-        header = TOArchiveUtils.parse_header(serialized, string_offset)
-        object_string = b""
-        data = b""
-
-        if not header_only:
-            data_offset = TOArchiveUtils.data_offset(serialized)
-            object_string = TOArchiveUtils.parse_string(serialized, string_offset, data_offset)
-
-            if not string_only:
-                data = TOArchiveUtils.parse_data(serialized, data_offset)
-        return _TOArchive(header, object_string, data)
+TOBJ_FMT_STR = "0.1"
 
 
 class TOArchiveUtils:
+    """Utilities for reading serialized TransportableObjects"""
+
     @staticmethod
     def data_offset(serialized: bytes) -> int:
         size64 = serialized[STRING_OFFSET_BYTES : STRING_OFFSET_BYTES + DATA_OFFSET_BYTES]
@@ -119,24 +54,38 @@ def string_byte_range(serialized: bytes) -> Tuple[int, int]:
 
     @staticmethod
     def data_byte_range(serialized: bytes) -> Tuple[int, int]:
-        """Return byte range for the b64 picklebytes"""
+        """Return byte range for the picklebytes"""
         start_byte = TOArchiveUtils.data_offset(serialized)
         return start_byte, -1
 
     @staticmethod
-    def parse_header(serialized: bytes, string_offset: int) -> bytes:
+    def header(serialized: bytes) -> dict:
+        string_offset = TOArchiveUtils.string_offset(serialized)
         header = serialized[HEADER_OFFSET:string_offset]
-        return header
+        return json.loads(header.decode("utf-8"))
 
     @staticmethod
-    def parse_string(serialized: bytes, string_offset: int, data_offset: int) -> bytes:
+    def string_segment(serialized: bytes) -> bytes:
+        string_offset = TOArchiveUtils.string_offset(serialized)
+        data_offset = TOArchiveUtils.data_offset(serialized)
         return serialized[string_offset:data_offset]
 
     @staticmethod
-    def parse_data(serialized: bytes, data_offset: int) -> bytes:
+    def data_segment(serialized: bytes) -> bytes:
+        data_offset = TOArchiveUtils.data_offset(serialized)
         return serialized[data_offset:]
 
 
+class _ByteArrayFile:
+    """File-like interface for appending to a bytearray."""
+
+    def __init__(self, buf: bytearray):
+        self._buf = buf
+
+    def write(self, data: bytes):
+        self._buf.extend(data)
+
+
 class TransportableObject:
     """
     A function is converted to a transportable object by serializing it using cloudpickle
@@ -149,13 +98,13 @@ class TransportableObject:
     """
 
     def __init__(self, obj: Any) -> None:
-        b64object = base64.b64encode(cloudpickle.dumps(obj))
-        object_string_u8 = str(obj).encode("utf-8")
+        self._buffer = bytearray()
 
-        self._object = b64object.decode("utf-8")
-        self._object_string = object_string_u8.decode("utf-8")
+        # Reserve space for the byte offsets to be written at the end
+        self._buffer.extend(b"\0" * HEADER_OFFSET)
 
-        self._header = {
+        _header = {
+            "format": TOBJ_FMT_STR,
             "py_version": platform.python_version(),
             "cloudpickle_version": cloudpickle.__version__,
             "attrs": {
@@ -164,23 +113,48 @@ def __init__(self, obj: Any) -> None:
             },
         }
 
+        # Write header and object string
+        header_u8 = json.dumps(_header).encode("utf-8")
+        header_len = len(header_u8)
+
+        object_string_u8 = str(obj).encode("utf-8")
+        object_string_len = len(object_string_u8)
+
+        self._buffer.extend(header_u8)
+        self._buffer.extend(object_string_u8)
+        del object_string_u8
+
+        # Append picklebytes (not base64-encoded)
+        cloudpickle.dump(obj, _ByteArrayFile(self._buffer))
+
+        # Write byte offsets
+        string_offset = HEADER_OFFSET + header_len
+        data_offset = string_offset + object_string_len
+
+        string_offset_bytes = string_offset.to_bytes(STRING_OFFSET_BYTES, BYTE_ORDER)
+        data_offset_bytes = data_offset.to_bytes(DATA_OFFSET_BYTES, BYTE_ORDER)
+        self._buffer[:STRING_OFFSET_BYTES] = string_offset_bytes
+        self._buffer[STRING_OFFSET_BYTES:HEADER_OFFSET] = data_offset_bytes
+
     @property
     def python_version(self):
-        return self._header["py_version"]
+        return self.header["py_version"]
 
     @property
     def header(self):
-        return self._header
+        return TOArchiveUtils.header(self._buffer)
 
     @property
     def attrs(self):
-        return self._header["attrs"]
+        return self.header["attrs"]
 
     @property
     def object_string(self):
         # For compatibility with older Covalent
         try:
-            return self._object_string
+            return (
+                TOArchiveUtils.string_segment(memoryview(self._buffer)).tobytes().decode("utf-8")
+            )
         except AttributeError:
             return self.__dict__["object_string"]
 
@@ -201,11 +175,15 @@ def get_deserialized(self) -> Callable:
 
         """
 
-        return cloudpickle.loads(base64.b64decode(self._object.encode("utf-8")))
+        return cloudpickle.loads(TOArchiveUtils.data_segment(memoryview(self._buffer)))
 
     def to_dict(self) -> dict:
         """Return a JSON-serializable dictionary representation of self"""
-        return {"type": "TransportableObject", "attributes": self.__dict__.copy()}
+        attr_dict = {
+            "buffer_b64": base64.b64encode(memoryview(self._buffer)).decode("utf-8"),
+        }
+
+        return {"type": "TransportableObject", "attributes": attr_dict}
 
     @staticmethod
     def from_dict(object_dict) -> "TransportableObject":
@@ -219,7 +197,7 @@ def from_dict(object_dict) -> "TransportableObject":
         """
 
         sc = TransportableObject(None)
-        sc.__dict__ = object_dict["attributes"]
+        sc._buffer = base64.b64decode(object_dict["attributes"]["buffer_b64"].encode("utf-8"))
         return sc
 
     def get_serialized(self) -> str:
@@ -233,7 +211,9 @@ def get_serialized(self) -> str:
             object: The serialized transportable object.
         """
 
-        return self._object
+        # For backward compatibility
+        data_segment = TOArchiveUtils.data_segment(memoryview(self._buffer))
+        return base64.b64encode(data_segment).decode("utf-8")
 
     def serialize(self) -> bytes:
         """
@@ -246,7 +226,7 @@ def serialize(self) -> bytes:
             pickled_object: The serialized object alongwith the python version.
         """
 
-        return _to_archive(self).cat()
+        return self._buffer
 
     def serialize_to_json(self) -> str:
         """
@@ -295,9 +275,7 @@ def make_transportable(obj) -> "TransportableObject":
             return TransportableObject(obj)
 
     @staticmethod
-    def deserialize(
-        serialized: bytes, *, header_only: bool = False, string_only: bool = False
-    ) -> "TransportableObject":
+    def deserialize(serialized: bytes) -> "TransportableObject":
         """
         Deserialize the transportable object.
 
@@ -307,9 +285,58 @@ def deserialize(
         Returns:
             object: The deserialized transportable object.
         """
+        to = TransportableObject(None)
+        header = TOArchiveUtils.header(serialized)
+
+        # For backward compatibility
+        if header.get("format") is None:
+            # Re-encode TObj serialized using older versions of the SDK,
+            # characterized by the lack of a "format" field in the
+            # header. TObj was previously serialized as
+            # [offsets][header][string][b64-encoded picklebytes],
+            # whereas starting from format 0.1 we store them as
+            # [offsets][header][string][picklebytes].
+            to._buffer = TransportableObject._upgrade_tobj_format(serialized, header)
+        else:
+            to._buffer = serialized
+        return to
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _upgrade_tobj_format(serialized: bytes, header: Dict) -> bytes:
+        """Re-encode a serialized TObj in the newer format.
+
+        This involves adding a format version in the header and
+        base64-decoding the data segment. Because the header at the
+        beginning of the byte array, the string and data offsets need
+        to be recomputed.
+        """
+        buf = bytearray()
+
+        # Upgrade header and recompute byte offsets
+        header["format"] = TOBJ_FMT_STR
+        serialized_header = json.dumps(header).encode("utf-8")
+        string_offset = HEADER_OFFSET + len(serialized_header)
+
+        # This is just a view into the bytearray and consumes
+        # negligible space on its own.
+        string_segment = TOArchiveUtils.string_segment(serialized)
+
+        data_offset = string_offset + len(string_segment)
+        string_offset_bytes = string_offset.to_bytes(STRING_OFFSET_BYTES, BYTE_ORDER)
+        data_offset_bytes = data_offset.to_bytes(DATA_OFFSET_BYTES, BYTE_ORDER)
+
+        # Write the new byte offsets
+        buf.extend(b"\0" * HEADER_OFFSET)
+        buf[:STRING_OFFSET_BYTES] = string_offset_bytes
+        buf[STRING_OFFSET_BYTES:HEADER_OFFSET] = data_offset_bytes
 
-        ar = _TOArchive.load(serialized, header_only, string_only)
-        return _from_archive(ar)
+        buf.extend(serialized_header)
+        buf.extend(string_segment)
+
+        # base64-decode the data segment into raw picklebytes
+        buf.extend(base64.b64decode(TOArchiveUtils.data_segment(serialized)))
+
+        return buf
 
     @staticmethod
     def deserialize_list(collection: list) -> list:
@@ -356,44 +383,3 @@ def deserialize_dict(collection: dict) -> dict:
             else:
                 raise TypeError("Couldn't deserialize collection")
         return new_dict
-
-
-def _to_archive(to: TransportableObject) -> _TOArchive:
-    """
-    Convert a TransportableObject to a _TOArchive.
-
-    Args:
-        to: Transportable object to be converted.
-
-    Returns:
-        Archived transportable object.
-
-    """
-
-    header = json.dumps(to._header).encode("utf-8")
-    object_string = to._object_string.encode("utf-8")
-    data = to._object.encode("utf-8")
-    return _TOArchive(header=header, object_string=object_string, data=data)
-
-
-def _from_archive(ar: _TOArchive) -> TransportableObject:
-    """
-    Convert a _TOArchive to a TransportableObject.
-
-    Args:
-        ar: Archived transportable object.
-
-    Returns:
-        Transportable object.
-
-    """
-
-    decoded_object_str = ar.object_string.decode("utf-8")
-    decoded_data = ar.data.decode("utf-8")
-    decoded_header = json.loads(ar.header.decode("utf-8"))
-    to = TransportableObject(None)
-    to._header = decoded_header
-    to._object_string = decoded_object_str or ""
-    to._object = decoded_data or ""
-
-    return to

tests/covalent_dispatcher_tests/_service/assets_test.py

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 """Unit tests for the FastAPI asset endpoints"""
 
+import base64
 import tempfile
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from typing import Generator
@@ -704,7 +705,7 @@ def test_get_pickle_offsets():
 
         start, end = _get_tobj_pickle_offsets(f"file://{write_file.name}")
 
-        assert data[start:].decode("utf-8") == tobj.get_serialized()
+        assert data[start:] == base64.b64decode(tobj.get_serialized().encode("utf-8"))
 
 
 def test_generate_partial_file_slice():