Expose common dataloader args

tests/unit_tests/test_dataset_flux.py

@@ -45,9 +45,10 @@ def test_load_dataset(self):
         for world_size in [2]:
             for rank in range(world_size):
                 dataset_name = "cc12m-test-iterable"
-                batch_size = 1
 
+                batch_size = 1
                 num_steps = 15
+                num_workers = 4
 
                 # TODO: if num_steps * batch_size * world_size is larger than the number of samples
                 # in the dataset, then the test will fail, due to huggingface's
@@ -64,6 +65,8 @@ def test_load_dataset(self):
                         dataset_name,
                         "--training.local_batch_size",
                         str(batch_size),
+                        "--training.dataloader.num_workers",
+                        str(num_workers),
                         "--training.classifier_free_guidance_prob",
                         "0.447",
                         "--training.test_mode",
@@ -82,6 +85,8 @@ def test_load_dataset(self):
                     infinite=True,
                 )
 
+                assert dl.num_workers == num_workers
+
                 it = iter(dl)
 
                 for i in range(0, num_steps):

torchtitan/components/dataloader.py

@@ -53,7 +53,14 @@ class ParallelAwareDataloader(StatefulDataLoader, BaseDataLoader):
         dp_rank: Data parallelism rank for this dataloader.
         dp_world_size: The world size of the data parallelism.
         batch_size: The batch size to use for each iteration.
-        collate_fn: Optional function to collate samples in a batch.
+        collate_fn (Callable, optional): A function that takes a list of samples from the
+            dataset and collates them into a batch. Defaults to ``None``.
+        num_workers: Number of worker processes for data loading. Defaults to 0.
+        persistent_workers: If True, keep workers alive between dataset iterations.
+            Only applicable when num_workers > 0. Defaults to False.
+        prefetch_factor: Number of batches to prefetch per worker. Only applicable
+            when num_workers > 0. Defaults to None (uses PyTorch default of 2).
+        pin_memory: If True, copy tensors to CUDA pinned memory. Defaults to False.
     """
 
     dp_rank: int
@@ -67,11 +74,23 @@ def __init__(
         dp_world_size: int,
         batch_size: int,
         collate_fn: Callable | None = None,
+        num_workers: int = 0,
+        persistent_workers: bool = False,
+        prefetch_factor: int | None = None,
+        pin_memory: bool = False,
     ):
         self.dp_world_size = dp_world_size
         self.dp_rank = dp_rank
         self.batch_size = batch_size
-        super().__init__(dataset, batch_size, collate_fn=collate_fn)
+        super().__init__(
+            dataset,
+            batch_size,
+            collate_fn=collate_fn,
+            num_workers=num_workers,
+            persistent_workers=persistent_workers,
+            prefetch_factor=prefetch_factor,
+            pin_memory=pin_memory,
+        )
         self._rank_id = f"dp_rank_{dp_rank}"
 
     def state_dict(self) -> dict[str, Any]:

torchtitan/config/job_config.py

@@ -198,6 +198,31 @@ class LRScheduler:
     """
 
 
+@dataclass
+class DataLoader:
+    """
+    Configuration for PyTorch DataLoader settings.
+    """
+
+    num_workers: int = 0
+    """Number of worker processes for data loading. 0 means data will be loaded in the main process."""
+
+    persistent_workers: bool = False
+    """
+    If True, the data loader will not shutdown the worker processes after a dataset has been consumed once.
+    This allows to maintain the workers Dataset instances alive. Only applicable when num_workers > 0.
+    """
+
+    prefetch_factor: int | None = None
+    """
+    Number of batches loaded in advance by each worker. If None, the default value (2) is used.
+    Only applicable when num_workers > 0.
+    """
+
+    pin_memory: bool = False
+    """If True, the data loader will copy Tensors into CUDA pinned memory before returning them."""
+
+
 @dataclass
 class Training:
     dataset: str = "c4_test"
@@ -263,6 +288,9 @@ class Training:
     many temporary files.
     """
 
+    dataloader: DataLoader = field(default_factory=DataLoader)
+    """DataLoader configuration"""
+
 
 @dataclass
 class Parallelism:
@@ -908,6 +936,9 @@ class Validation:
     WARNING: When setting to -1 there could be hangs due to mismatch among ranks
     """
 
+    dataloader: DataLoader = field(default_factory=DataLoader)
+    """DataLoader configuration"""
+
     def __post_init__(self):
         assert (
             self.steps > 0 or self.steps == -1

torchtitan/experiments/vlm/datasets/mm_datasets.py

@@ -381,14 +381,14 @@ def build_mm_dataloader(
     """Build a data loader for multimodal datasets.
 
     Args:
-        dp_world_size: Data parallel world size
-        dp_rank: Data parallel rank
-        tokenizer: Tokenizer for text processing
-        job_config: Job configuration
-        infinite: Whether to loop infinitely
+        dp_world_size: Data parallel world size.
+        dp_rank: Data parallel rank.
+        tokenizer: Tokenizer for text processing.
+        job_config: Job configuration containing dataset and DataLoader settings.
+        infinite: Whether to loop infinitely.
 
     Returns:
-        DataLoader with appropriate parallelism handling
+        DataLoader with appropriate parallelism handling.
     """
     dataset_path = job_config.training.dataset_path
     batch_size = job_config.training.local_batch_size
@@ -435,6 +435,10 @@ def build_mm_dataloader(
         dp_world_size=dp_world_size,
         batch_size=batch_size,
         collate_fn=collate_fn,
+        num_workers=job_config.training.dataloader.num_workers,
+        persistent_workers=job_config.training.dataloader.persistent_workers,
+        prefetch_factor=job_config.training.dataloader.prefetch_factor,
+        pin_memory=job_config.training.dataloader.pin_memory,
     )
 
     return base_dataloader

torchtitan/hf_datasets/text_datasets.py

@@ -172,7 +172,15 @@ def build_text_dataloader(
     job_config: JobConfig,
     infinite: bool = True,
 ) -> ParallelAwareDataloader:
-    """Build a data loader for HuggingFace datasets."""
+    """Build a data loader for HuggingFace datasets.
+
+    Args:
+        dp_world_size: Data parallelism world size.
+        dp_rank: Data parallelism rank.
+        tokenizer: Tokenizer to use for encoding text.
+        job_config: Job configuration containing dataset and DataLoader settings.
+        infinite: Whether to loop the dataset infinitely.
+    """
     dataset_name = job_config.training.dataset
     dataset_path = job_config.training.dataset_path
     batch_size = job_config.training.local_batch_size
@@ -193,6 +201,10 @@ def build_text_dataloader(
         dp_rank=dp_rank,
         dp_world_size=dp_world_size,
         batch_size=batch_size,
+        num_workers=job_config.training.dataloader.num_workers,
+        persistent_workers=job_config.training.dataloader.persistent_workers,
+        prefetch_factor=job_config.training.dataloader.prefetch_factor,
+        pin_memory=job_config.training.dataloader.pin_memory,
     )
 
 
@@ -203,7 +215,15 @@ def build_text_validation_dataloader(
     job_config: JobConfig,
     infinite: bool = False,
 ) -> ParallelAwareDataloader:
-    """Build a validation data loader for HuggingFace datasets."""
+    """Build a validation data loader for HuggingFace datasets.
+
+    Args:
+        dp_world_size: Data parallelism world size.
+        dp_rank: Data parallelism rank.
+        tokenizer: Tokenizer to use for encoding text.
+        job_config: Job configuration containing dataset and DataLoader settings.
+        infinite: Whether to loop the dataset infinitely.
+    """
     dataset_name = job_config.validation.dataset
     dataset_path = job_config.validation.dataset_path
     batch_size = job_config.validation.local_batch_size
@@ -224,4 +244,8 @@ def build_text_validation_dataloader(
         dp_rank=dp_rank,
         dp_world_size=dp_world_size,
         batch_size=batch_size,
+        num_workers=job_config.validation.dataloader.num_workers,
+        persistent_workers=job_config.validation.dataloader.persistent_workers,
+        prefetch_factor=job_config.validation.dataloader.prefetch_factor,
+        pin_memory=job_config.validation.dataloader.pin_memory,
     )

torchtitan/models/flux/flux_datasets.py

@@ -314,7 +314,15 @@ def build_flux_dataloader(
     tokenizer: FluxTokenizer | None,
     infinite: bool = True,
 ) -> ParallelAwareDataloader:
-    """Build a data loader for HuggingFace datasets."""
+    """Build a data loader for HuggingFace datasets.
+
+    Args:
+        dp_world_size: Data parallelism world size.
+        dp_rank: Data parallelism rank.
+        job_config: Job configuration containing dataset and DataLoader settings.
+        tokenizer: Tokenizer (kept for compatibility, not used).
+        infinite: Whether to loop the dataset infinitely.
+    """
     dataset_name = job_config.training.dataset
     dataset_path = job_config.training.dataset_path
     batch_size = job_config.training.local_batch_size
@@ -337,6 +345,10 @@ def build_flux_dataloader(
         dp_rank=dp_rank,
         dp_world_size=dp_world_size,
         batch_size=batch_size,
+        num_workers=job_config.training.dataloader.num_workers,
+        persistent_workers=job_config.training.dataloader.persistent_workers,
+        prefetch_factor=job_config.training.dataloader.prefetch_factor,
+        pin_memory=job_config.training.dataloader.pin_memory,
     )
 
 
@@ -400,7 +412,16 @@ def build_flux_validation_dataloader(
     generate_timestamps: bool = True,
     infinite: bool = False,
 ) -> ParallelAwareDataloader:
-    """Build a data loader for HuggingFace datasets."""
+    """Build a validation data loader for HuggingFace datasets.
+
+    Args:
+        dp_world_size: Data parallelism world size.
+        dp_rank: Data parallelism rank.
+        job_config: Job configuration containing dataset and DataLoader settings.
+        tokenizer: Tokenizer (kept for compatibility, not used).
+        generate_timestamps: Whether to generate timesteps for validation.
+        infinite: Whether to loop the dataset infinitely.
+    """
     dataset_name = job_config.validation.dataset
     dataset_path = job_config.validation.dataset_path
     batch_size = job_config.validation.local_batch_size
@@ -424,4 +445,8 @@ def build_flux_validation_dataloader(
         dp_rank=dp_rank,
         dp_world_size=dp_world_size,
         batch_size=batch_size,
+        num_workers=job_config.validation.dataloader.num_workers,
+        persistent_workers=job_config.validation.dataloader.persistent_workers,
+        prefetch_factor=job_config.validation.dataloader.prefetch_factor,
+        pin_memory=job_config.validation.dataloader.pin_memory,
     )