TheRock/rocm-libraries/projects/hipdnn/docs/Superbuild.md

Superbuild: Building hipDNN with Providers

Overview

The rocm-libraries superbuild allows building hipDNN and its provider plugins (miopen-provider, hipblaslt-provider) together from a single build directory. This eliminates the need to install hipDNN before building providers and ensures all components are built against the same source.

Quick Start

From the rocm-libraries root:

# Using the hipdnn preset (recommended)
cmake --preset hipdnn

# Or manually specifying components
cmake -B build -GNinja -DROCM_LIBS_ENABLE_COMPONENTS="hipdnn;miopen-provider;hipblaslt-provider" .
cmake --build build

How It Works

The superbuild uses add_subdirectory() to include each component sequentially. Components added earlier make their CMake targets visible to components added later, removing the need for find_package().

Dependency Flow

hipdnn (added first)
├── hipdnn_data_sdk    (INTERFACE target)
├── hipdnn_plugin_sdk  (INTERFACE target)
├── hipdnn_test_sdk    (INTERFACE target)
└── hipdnn_backend     (shared library)
         │
         ▼
miopen-provider / hipblaslt-provider (added after)
└── Uses SDK targets directly (skips find_package)

Each provider's CMakeLists.txt uses conditional target checks:

if(NOT TARGET hipdnn_data_sdk)
    find_package(hipdnn_data_sdk CONFIG REQUIRED)
endif()

This means the same CMakeLists.txt works for both superbuild and standalone builds.

Components

Component	Directory	Key Target	External Dependencies
hipdnn	projects/hipdnn/	hipdnn_backend	ROCm/HIP
miopen-provider	dnn-providers/miopen-provider/	miopen_plugin	MIOpen
hipblaslt-provider	dnn-providers/hipblaslt-provider/	hipblaslt_plugin	hipBLASLt

Selecting Components

You can build any subset of components:

# hipDNN only (no plugins)
cmake -B build -GNinja -DROCM_LIBS_ENABLE_COMPONENTS="hipdnn" .

# hipDNN + miopen-provider only
cmake -B build -GNinja -DROCM_LIBS_ENABLE_COMPONENTS="hipdnn;miopen-provider" .

# All DNN components
cmake -B build -GNinja -DROCM_LIBS_ENABLE_COMPONENTS="hipdnn;miopen-provider;hipblaslt-provider" .

Note: Providers depend on hipDNN. If you include a provider, you must also include hipdnn.

Build Targets

In the superbuild, targets are prefixed with the project name to avoid collisions between components.

Code Quality Targets

Each component provides prefixed targets and hyphenated aliases:

Alias Target	Description
hipdnn-check-format	Check hipDNN code formatting
hipdnn-format	Auto-format hipDNN sources
hipdnn-tidy	Run clang-tidy on hipDNN
miopen-provider-check-format	Check miopen-provider code formatting
miopen-provider-format	Auto-format miopen-provider sources
miopen-provider-tidy	Run clang-tidy on miopen-provider
hipblaslt-provider-check-format	Check hipblaslt-provider code formatting
hipblaslt-provider-format	Auto-format hipblaslt-provider sources

Test Targets

Each component provides prefixed test targets:

Alias Target	Description
hipdnn-check	Run all hipDNN tests
hipdnn-<category>-check	Run hipDNN tests labeled by a category from projects/hipdnn/test_categories.yaml; current categories include quick, standard, comprehensive, full, unit, and integration
miopen-provider-check	Run all miopen-provider tests
miopen-provider-<category>-check	Run miopen-provider tests labeled by a category from its test category YAML files; current public categories are quick, standard, comprehensive, and full
hipblaslt-provider-check	Run all hipblaslt-provider tests
hipblaslt-provider-unit-check	Run hipblaslt-provider unit tests only

Superbuild vs Standalone Builds

	Superbuild	Standalone
When to use	Building multiple components together	Working on a single component
Setup	Single cmake configure from repo root	Configure from component directory
Dependencies	Automatic via target visibility	Requires find_package() (install deps first)
Target names	Prefixed (e.g., hipdnn-check)	Unprefixed (e.g., check)
Build directory	<repo-root>/build/	<component>/build/

For standalone build instructions, see:

• Building hipDNN
• miopen-provider README
• hipblaslt-provider README

Troubleshooting

Target name collisions

If you see CMake errors about duplicate target names, ensure you are building from the repository root (not from a component subdirectory) when using the superbuild. The superbuild sets ROCM_LIBS_SUPERBUILD=ON, which enables target name prefixing.