Add override option to CLI

Author: kngwyu

README.md

@@ -67,6 +67,30 @@ E.g., if you want to use two hosts(localhost and anotherhost) and run `ppo_atari
 horovodrun -np 2 -H localhost:1,anotherhost:1 pipenv run python examples/ppo_atari.py train
 ```
 
+## Override configuration from CLI
+Currently, Rainy provides a easy-to-use CLI via [click](https://palletsprojects.com/p/click/).
+You can view its usages by, say,
+```bash
+pipenv run python examples/a2c_cart_pole.py --help
+```
+
+This CLI has a simple data-driven interface.
+I.e., you fill a config object, then all commands(train, eval, retarain, and etc.) work.
+So you can start experiments easily without copying and pasting, say, argument parser codes.
+
+However, it has a limitation that you cannot add new options and arguments to each subcommands.
+
+So Rainy CLI provides an option named `override`, which executes the given string as a Python code
+with the config object set as `config`.
+
+Example usage:
+```bash
+pipenv run python examples/a2c_cart_pole.py --override='config.grad_clip=0.5; config.nsteps=10' train
+```
+
+If this feature still doesn't satisfy your requirement,
+then suddenly you need to write your own CLI :cold_sweat:.
+
 ## Implementation Status
 
 |**Algorithm** |**Multi Worker(Sync)**|**Recurrent**                   |**Discrete Action** |**Continuous Action**|**MPI**           |

rainy/utils/cli.py

@@ -9,18 +9,26 @@
 
 
 @click.group()
-@click.option('--gpu', required=False, type=int)
-@click.option('--seed', type=int, default=None)
+@click.option('--gpu', required=False, type=int, help='How many gpus you allow Rainy to use')
+@click.option('--seed', type=int, default=None, help='Random seed set before training')
+@click.option('--override', type=str, default='', help='Override string(See README for detail)')
 @click.pass_context
-def rainy_cli(ctx: dict, gpu: Tuple[int], seed: Optional[int]) -> None:
+def rainy_cli(ctx: dict, gpu: Tuple[int], seed: Optional[int], override: str) -> None:
     ctx.obj['gpu'] = gpu
     ctx.obj['config'].seed = seed
+    if len(override) > 0:
+        import builtins
+        try:
+            exec(override, builtins.__dict__, {'config': ctx.obj['config']})
+        except Exception as e:
+            print('!!! Your override string \'{}\' contains an error !!!'.format(override))
+            raise e
 
 
-@rainy_cli.command()
+@rainy_cli.command(help='Train agents')
 @click.pass_context
-@click.option('--comment', type=str, default=None)
-@click.option('--prefix', type=str, default='')
+@click.option('--comment', type=str, default=None, help='Comment wrote to fingerprint.txt')
+@click.option('--prefix', type=str, default='', help='Prefix of the log directory')
 def train(ctx: dict, comment: Optional[str], prefix: str) -> None:
     c = ctx.obj['config']
     scr = ctx.obj['script_path']
@@ -33,11 +41,12 @@ def train(ctx: dict, comment: Optional[str], prefix: str) -> None:
         print("random play: {}, trained: {}".format(ag.random_episode(), ag.eval_episode()))
 
 
-@rainy_cli.command()
-@click.option('--save', is_flag=True)
-@click.option('--render', is_flag=True)
-@click.option('--replay', is_flag=True)
-@click.option('--action-file', type=str, default='random-actions.json')
+@rainy_cli.command(help='Run the random agent and show its result')
+@click.option('--save', is_flag=True, help='Save actions')
+@click.option('--render', is_flag=True, help='Render the agent')
+@click.option('--replay', is_flag=True, help='Show replay(works with special environments)')
+@click.option('--action-file', type=str,
+              default='best-actions.json', help='Name of the action file')
 @click.pass_context
 def random(ctx: dict, save: bool, render: bool, replay: bool, action_file: str) -> None:
     c = ctx.obj['config']
@@ -46,11 +55,12 @@ def random(ctx: dict, save: bool, render: bool, replay: bool, action_file: str)
     run.random_agent(ag, render=render, replay=replay, action_file=action_file)
 
 
-@rainy_cli.command()
+@rainy_cli.command(help='Load a save file and restart training')
 @click.pass_context
 @click.argument('logdir')
-@click.option('--model', type=str, default=run.SAVE_FILE_DEFAULT)
-@click.option('--additional-steps', type=int, default=100)
+@click.option('--model', type=str, default=run.SAVE_FILE_DEFAULT, help='Name of the save file')
+@click.option('--additional-steps', type=int,
+              default=100, help='The number of  additional training steps')
 def retrain(ctx: dict, logdir: str, model: str, additional_steps: int) -> None:
     c = ctx.obj['config']
     log = c.logger.retrive(logdir)
@@ -60,12 +70,13 @@ def retrain(ctx: dict, logdir: str, model: str, additional_steps: int) -> None:
     print("random play: {}, trained: {}".format(ag.random_episode(), ag.eval_episode()))
 
 
-@rainy_cli.command()
-@click.argument('logdir', required=True, type=str)
-@click.option('--model', type=str, default=run.SAVE_FILE_DEFAULT)
-@click.option('--render', is_flag=True)
-@click.option('--replay', is_flag=True)
-@click.option('--action-file', type=str, default='best-actions.json')
+@rainy_cli.command(help='Load a save file and evaluate the agent')
+@click.argument('logdir')
+@click.option('--model', type=str, default=run.SAVE_FILE_DEFAULT, help='Name of the save file')
+@click.option('--render', is_flag=True, help='Render the agent')
+@click.option('--replay', is_flag=True, help='Show replay(works with special environments)')
+@click.option('--action-file', type=str,
+              default='best-actions.json', help='Name of the action file')
 @click.pass_context
 def eval(ctx: dict, logdir: str, model: str, render: bool, replay: bool, action_file: str) -> None:
     c = ctx.obj['config']
@@ -80,19 +91,19 @@ def eval(ctx: dict, logdir: str, model: str, render: bool, replay: bool, action_
     )
 
 
-@rainy_cli.command()
-@click.option('--log-dir', type=str)
-@click.option('--vi-mode', is_flag=True)
+@rainy_cli.command(help='Open an ipython shell with rainy imported')
+@click.option('--logdir', type=str, help='Name of the directly where the log file')
+@click.option('--vi-mode', is_flag=True, help='Open ipython shell with vi-mode enabled')
 @click.pass_context
-def ipython(ctx: dict, log_dir: Optional[str], vi_mode: bool) -> None:
+def ipython(ctx: dict, logdir: Optional[str], vi_mode: bool) -> None:
     config, make_agent = ctx.obj['config'], ctx.obj['make_agent']  # noqa
-    if log_dir is not None:
-        log = ExperimentLog(log_dir)  # noqa
+    if logdir is not None:
+        log = ExperimentLog(logdir)  # noqa
     else:
         open_log = ExperimentLog  # noqa
     try:
         from ptpython.ipython import embed
-        del ctx, log_dir
+        del ctx, logdir
         import rainy  # noqa
         embed(vi_mode=vi_mode)
     except ImportError: