refine docstrings

paddle/gserver/layers/CudnnBatchNormLayer.cpp

@@ -21,8 +21,6 @@ namespace paddle {
 
 REGISTER_LAYER(cudnn_batch_norm, CudnnBatchNormLayer);
 
-const double CudnnBatchNormLayer::MIN_EPS = 1E-5;
-
 bool CudnnBatchNormLayer::init(const LayerMap& layerMap,
                                const ParameterMap& parameterMap) {
   /* Initialize the basic parent class */
@@ -61,14 +59,8 @@ void CudnnBatchNormLayer::forward(PassType passType) {
   real* movingMean = movingMean_->getW()->getData();
   real* movingVar = movingVar_->getW()->getData();
 
-  /**
-  * If epsilon_ equals to 1e-5 and eps_ is assigned the value of
-  * static_cast<double>(epsilon_), The CUDNN_STATUS_BAD_PARAM error
-  * will occur due to eps_ value is less than
-  * CUDNN_BN_MIN_EPSILON.
-  * The following code is to ensure that the eps_ meets requirement.
-  */
-  eps_ = std::max(MIN_EPS, static_cast<double>(epsilon_));
+  // cuDNN does not allow an epsilon value less than CUDNN_BN_MIN_EPSILON.
+  eps_ = std::max(CUDNN_BN_MIN_EPSILON, static_cast<double>(epsilon_));
 
   if (!useGlobalStats_) {
     REGISTER_TIMER_INFO("CudnnBatchFwTimer", getName().c_str());
@@ -137,14 +129,8 @@ void CudnnBatchNormLayer::backward(const UpdateCallback& callback) {
   real* savedMean = savedMean_->getData();
   real* savedInvVar = savedInvVar_->getData();
 
-  /**
-  * If epsilon_ equals to 1e-5 and eps_ is assigned the value of
-  * static_cast<double>(epsilon_), The CUDNN_STATUS_BAD_PARAM error
-  * will occur due to eps_ value is less than
-  * CUDNN_BN_MIN_EPSILON.
-  * The following code is to ensure that the eps_ meets requirement.
-  */
-  eps_ = std::max(MIN_EPS, static_cast<double>(epsilon_));
+  // cuDNN does not allow an epsilon value less than CUDNN_BN_MIN_EPSILON.
+  eps_ = std::max(CUDNN_BN_MIN_EPSILON, static_cast<double>(epsilon_));
 
   auto create = [](MatrixPtr& m, size_t h, size_t w, real** p) {
     Matrix::resizeOrCreate(m, h, w, false, true);

paddle/gserver/layers/CudnnBatchNormLayer.h

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ limitations under the License. */
 
 #pragma once
 
+#include <cudnn.h>
 #include "BatchNormBaseLayer.h"
 #include "Layer.h"
 #include "paddle/utils/Stat.h"
@@ -46,9 +47,6 @@ public:
   void backward(const UpdateCallback& callback = nullptr) override;
 
 protected:
-  /// Minimum allowed value is CUDNN_BN_MIN_EPSILON defined in cudnn.h.
-  static const double MIN_EPS;
-
   /// Epsilon value used in the batch normalization formula.
   /// Same epsilon value should be used in forward and backward functions.
   double eps_;

proto/ModelConfig.proto

@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@ message LayerConfig {
   optional ReshapeConfig reshape_conf = 59;
 
   // for batch normalization layer
-  // small constant added to the variance to avoid numerical problems.
+  // The small constant added to the variance to improve numeric stability.
   optional double epsilon = 60 [ default = 0.00001 ];
 }
 

python/paddle/trainer/config_parser.py

@@ -2483,7 +2483,8 @@ class BatchNormLayer(LayerBase):
             self.config.use_global_stats = use_global_stats
         if moving_average_fraction is not None:
             self.config.moving_average_fraction = moving_average_fraction
-
+        if epsilon is not None:
+            assert epsilon >= 1e-5, "epsilon must be no less than 1e-5."
             self.config.epsilon = epsilon
 
         input_layer = self.get_input_layer(0)

python/paddle/trainer_config_helpers/layers.py

@@ -3107,7 +3107,7 @@ def batch_norm_layer(input,
                              will use the mean and variance of the current batch
                              of test data.
     :type use_global_stats: bool | None.
-    :param epsilon: Small constant added to the variance to avoid numerical problems.
+    :param epsilon: The small constant added to the variance to improve numeric stability.
     :type epsilon: float.
     :param moving_average_fraction: Factor used in the moving average computation.
                                    :math:`runningMean = newMean*(1-factor) + runningMean*factor`
@@ -3127,8 +3127,6 @@ def batch_norm_layer(input,
            (batch_norm_type == "mkldnn_batch_norm") or \
            (batch_norm_type == "cudnn_batch_norm")
 
-    assert epsilon >= 1e-5, "epsilon must be no less than 1e-5."
-
     l = Layer(
         name=name,
         img3D=img3D,