Arm backend: support standalone executor_runner by usamahz · Pull Request #17814 · pytorch/executorch

usamahz · 2026-03-03T10:22:23Z

Problem

Standalone Arm runner builds were drifting from the top-level ExecuTorch configuration: presets weren’t reused, paths/defaults were inconsistent, and missing targets could silently fall back to local builds, hiding configuration issues.

What this PR changes

Uses the shared arm_baremetal preset/Utils in standalone mode so the runner inherits the same ExecuTorch settings as top-level builds.
Aligns Ethos-U defaults (arm-scratch paths, in-repo core driver) to avoid mismatched SDK sources.
Updates build scripts/preset to rely on preset-driven configuration (no install step) and adjusts the minimal notebook accordingly.

UX impact (two build modes)

Standalone build (run.sh / cmake -S examples/arm/executor_runner): easier to use, consistent defaults, clear errors.
Integrated/superbuild (top-level ExecuTorch): unchanged behavior; no global overrides.

Metrics

~8× faster rebuilds in local Arm runner workflow (per local testing).

cc @digantdesai @freddan80 @per @zingo @oscarandersson8218 @mansnils @Sebastian-Larsson @robell @rascani @SS-JIA @Erik-Lundell

Allow the Arm executor runner to be configured standalone by defaulting EXECUTORCH_ROOT, marking standalone configs explicitly, and pulling ExecuTorch into the build tree as a subdirectory. This gives run.sh (and downstream integrators) a single CMake entry point instead of relying on a preconfigured top-level build. Signed-off-by: Usamah Zaheer <[email protected]> Change-Id: I81c5f92de5c6dafe0db28e14f618f84823f3009c

pytorch-bot · 2026-03-03T10:22:27Z

🔗 Helpful Links

🧪 See artifacts and rendered test results at hud.pytorch.org/pr/pytorch/executorch/17814

📄 Preview Python docs built from this PR

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❗ 1 Active SEVs

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❌ 31 New Failures, 1 Cancelled Job, 2 Unrelated Failures

As of commit 5db85f2 with merge base 0d010de ():

NEW FAILURES - The following jobs have failed:

pull / test-samsung-models-linux / linux-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command docker exec -t badf7a5cfeb42d3b95f6964aaff64c157b3319af1f6fe597cc9e7ca9b7c22e9e /exec failed with exit code 1
pull / test-samsung-quantmodels-linux / linux-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command docker exec -t 9f19bcdb88a866e25ef9ecd9ae267564f88e30b240876f9355b57da4e50c940f /exec failed with exit code 1
pull / unittest / macos / macos-job (gh)
export/tests/test_target_recipes.py::TestTargetRecipes::test_mv3_model
trunk / changes (gh)
The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
trunk / test-arm-backend-zephyr (cortex-m55) / linux-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command docker exec -t c0bc342a9f8ded8a59f066b82c3dca167ff4403668b89da6bebb3d67f1165c43 /exec failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-arm-backend-zephyr (ethos-u55) / linux-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command docker exec -t 419ef774d94996ed8a5679ac1acee9759fd1496279ac47683230214a09422512 /exec failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-arm-backend-zephyr (ethos-u85) / linux-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command docker exec -t f1eb11484d4d2f8986017f568c55f8adff7b57bb50a700f305ddd4e1241d6c55 /exec failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-arm-ootb-linux (run_deit_e2e_ethos_u) / linux-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command docker exec -t bc685563cae74e0ad2c4cf22a738fc77949eb354b5c5413c51c7aeaa925d4e18 /exec failed with exit code 2
trunk / test-arm-ootb-linux (run_ootb_tests_ethos_u) / linux-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command docker exec -t d4ea1c99811c7d81ee9db6f095c78548ee2b213bb734f0e474539acca4923143 /exec failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-coreml-delegate / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 128
trunk / test-huggingface-transformers-macos (bert|coreml_fp32_gpu|--quantize) / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-huggingface-transformers-macos (distilbert|coreml_fp32_gpu|--quantize) / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-huggingface-transformers-macos (llama3.2-1b|coreml_fp32_gpu|--quantize) / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-huggingface-transformers-macos (olmo-1b|coreml_fp32_gpu|--quantize) / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-huggingface-transformers-macos (qwen3-0.6b|coreml_fp32_gpu|--quantize) / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-huggingface-transformers-macos (smollm2-135m|coreml_fp32_gpu|--quantize) / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-llama-torchao-lowbit / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/ec2-user/runner/_work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (emformer_transcribe, portable) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (emformer_transcribe, xnnpack-q8) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (mobilebert, portable) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (mobilebert, xnnpack-q8) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (mv3, portable) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (mv3, xnnpack-q8) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (resnet50, portable) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (resnet50, xnnpack-q8) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (vit, portable) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-models-windows (vit, xnnpack-q8) / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-multimodal-macos (gemma3-4b) / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/runner/work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / test-static-llama-ane / macos-job (gh)
RuntimeError: Command bash /Users/ec2-user/runner/_work/_temp/exec_script failed with exit code 1
trunk / unittest-release / windows / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1
Windows MSVC Build / build-windows-msvc / windows-job (gh)
The process 'C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe' failed with exit code 1

CANCELLED JOB - The following job was cancelled. Please retry:

trunk / unittest-release / linux / linux-job (gh)
##[error]The operation was canceled.

BROKEN TRUNK - The following jobs failed but were present on the merge base:

👉 Rebase onto the `viable/strict` branch to avoid these failures

pull / unittest-editable / macos / macos-job (gh) (trunk failure)
AttributeError: '_OpNamespace' 'mkldnn' object has no attribute '_is_mkldnn_acl_supported'
trunk / unittest-release / macos / macos-job (gh) (trunk failure)
AttributeError: '_OpNamespace' 'mkldnn' object has no attribute '_is_mkldnn_acl_supported'

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usamahz · 2026-03-03T10:26:24Z

@pytorchbot label "partner:arm" , "release notes: arm" , "ciflow/trunk"

pytorch-bot · 2026-03-03T10:26:30Z

To add these label(s) (ciflow/trunk) to the PR, please first approve the workflows that are awaiting approval (scroll to the bottom of this page).

This helps ensure we don't trigger CI on this PR until it is actually authorized to do so. Please ping one of the reviewers if you do not have access to approve and run workflows.

pytorch-bot · 2026-03-03T10:30:22Z

To add the ciflow label ciflow/trunk please first approve the workflows that are awaiting approval (scroll to the bottom of this page).

This helps ensure we don't trigger CI on this PR until it is actually authorized to do so. Please ping one of the reviewers if you do not have access to approve and run workflows.

pytorch-bot · 2026-03-03T10:30:35Z

To add the ciflow label ciflow/trunk please first approve the workflows that are awaiting approval (scroll to the bottom of this page).

This helps ensure we don't trigger CI on this PR until it is actually authorized to do so. Please ping one of the reviewers if you do not have access to approve and run workflows.

pytorch-bot · 2026-03-03T10:30:55Z

To add the ciflow label ciflow/trunk please first approve the workflows that are awaiting approval (scroll to the bottom of this page).

This helps ensure we don't trigger CI on this PR until it is actually authorized to do so. Please ping one of the reviewers if you do not have access to approve and run workflows.

usamahz · 2026-03-03T10:34:33Z

@pytorchbot label "release notes: arm"

Use the shared arm_baremetal preset (and Utils.cmake) whenever the runner is configured standalone so required ExecuTorch options stay centralized. Default EXECUTORCH_ROOT/ET_DIR_PATH to the repo root, document why the Ethos-U SDK path points at examples/arm/arm-scratch, keep running with the user-provided Python interpreter, move the ET_PTE_FILE_PATH guard ahead of the fatal check, and fail fast if required ExecuTorch targets (extension_runner_util, quantized/cortex_m kernels) are missing instead of silently building local copies. Signed-off-by: Usamah Zaheer <[email protected]> Change-Id: Idd8c47702649f503e3c0e7aa0c0dcd0fdbce063e

zingo · 2026-03-03T15:07:26Z

OK to merge after all test-arm /cortex-m tests PASS
There some to be some problems with test-arm-ootb-linux tests that need attention.

zingo · 2026-03-03T17:54:39Z

I started a re-run of the failed test, but I spot that the PR needs a rebase also 😥

digantdesai · 2026-05-11T16:33:25Z

+# tooling directory rather than assuming a fixed relative depth.
+set(_candidate_executorch_root "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}")
+set(_default_executorch_root "")
+while(TRUE)


This is a bit fragile, any better way to do this?

This has been reworked in the newer iteration: #19018

digantdesai · 2026-05-11T16:36:32Z

-set(ET_DIR_PATH
-    "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../../.."
-    CACHE PATH "Path to ExecuTorch dir"
+set(_arm_runner_placeholder_pte


curious why do we need this?

This has been removed in the newer iteration: #19018

digantdesai

I like it. But with any big change, make sure existing CI is green, and you have enough testing. Also sorry for a very late review. CC: @GregoryComer for FYI

usamahz · 2026-05-12T12:56:06Z

This PR is superseded by the newer iteration PR: #19018

PR #19018 contains the updated version of this work, so reviews and further discussion can continue there.

usamahz · 2026-05-13T07:29:19Z

This PR is superseded by the newer iteration PR: #19018

PR #19018 contains the updated version of this work, so reviews and further discussion can continue there.

usamahz requested review from digantdesai, kirklandsign and larryliu0820 as code owners March 3, 2026 10:22

meta-cla Bot added the CLA Signed This label is managed by the Facebook bot. Authors need to sign the CLA before a PR can be reviewed. label Mar 3, 2026

zingo added partner: arm For backend delegation, kernels, demo, etc. from the 3rd-party partner, Arm ciflow/trunk labels Mar 3, 2026

pytorch-bot Bot removed the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

zingo added the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

pytorch-bot Bot removed the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

zingo added the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

pytorch-bot Bot removed the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

pytorch-bot Bot added the release notes: arm Changes to the ARM backend delegate label Mar 3, 2026

zingo added the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

pytorch-bot Bot removed the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

zingo added the ciflow/trunk label Mar 3, 2026

zingo approved these changes Mar 3, 2026

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digantdesai reviewed May 11, 2026

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zingo mentioned this pull request May 12, 2026

Zephyr: Auto-export models from prj.conf #19369

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digantdesai mentioned this pull request May 13, 2026

Arm backend: Modernise and standalone the executor runner #19018

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usamahz closed this May 13, 2026

usamahz reopened this May 13, 2026

usamahz closed this May 13, 2026

github-actions Bot added the module: arm Issues related to arm backend label May 13, 2026

usamahz reopened this May 13, 2026

usamahz closed this May 13, 2026

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🔗 Helpful Links

🧪 See artifacts and rendered test results at hud.pytorch.org/pr/pytorch/executorch/17814

❗ 1 Active SEVs

❌ 31 New Failures, 1 Cancelled Job, 2 Unrelated Failures

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