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API life cycle and deprecation policy in official documentation (#4529)
Summary: Pull Request resolved: #4529 This diff adds a new page to the ET public documentation site that establishes the API life cycle and deprecation policy. It's also been linked to from related docs. The doc has some TODO items we can either address in this diff or with follow-up diffs. For Meta reviewers: to comment easily, you can review in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FJmsWoP544bF0Xe3SeREcLAbKPqgrxulScBdak0UoVs/edit?usp=sharing Differential Revision: D60692061
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‎CONTRIBUTING.md

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See the [testing section](#testing) for more information.
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1. If you've changed APIs or added a new tool or feature, [update the
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documentation](#updating-documentation).
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1. If you added an experimental API or deprecated an existing API, follow the
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[API Life Cycle and Deprecation Policy](/docs/source/api-life-cycle.md).
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1. Make sure your code follows the [style guides](#coding-style) and passes the
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[lint checks](#lintrunner).
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1. If you haven't already, complete the [Contributor License Agreement ("CLA")](#contributor-license-agreement-cla).

‎docs/source/_static/img/api_life_cycle.png

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‎docs/source/api-life-cycle.md

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# ExecuTorch API Life Cycle and Deprecation Policy
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## API Life Cycle
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![name](_static/img/api_life_cycle.png)
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Each API of ExecuTorch falls into one of the following life cycle states:
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td>Life Cycle State
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</td>
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<td>Rules
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><em>Experimental</em>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>APIs in this stage are under active development and may change or be removed at any time. That said, the expectation is that we will eventually promote it to <em>stable</em>, unless sufficient negative signals have been collected from the community or better alternatives have been found.
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<li><em>Experimental</em> APIs will be clearly marked (see the “How to Mark?” section below).
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<li><em>Experimental</em> APIs may be changed or removed without notice, and developers should expect no stability guarantees.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><em>Stable</em>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>APIs are considered to be <em>stable</em> if they are not marked as <em>Experimental</em> or <em>Deprecated.</em>
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<li>APIs in this stage have been thoroughly tested and are considered ready for production use.
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<li>The recommended best practice is to not deprecate stable APIs. When writing an API, write it in such a way that it doesn’t need to be deprecated in the future.
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<li><em>Stable</em> APIs can be changed, but not in a BC-breaking way. If BC-breaking changes have to be made, <em>stable</em> APIs will always transition to <em>Deprecated</em> before being broken/removed from the library.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><em>Deprecated</em>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>APIs in this stage are no longer recommended for use and will be removed in a future version of ExecuTorch.
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<li><em>Deprecated</em> APIs will be clearly marked (see the “How to Mark?” section below).
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<li><em>Deprecated</em> APIs will remain functional for at least <em>deprecation period</em> (see the “Deprecation Period” section below) to allow developers time to migrate to alternative APIs, unless there’s extreme circumstances, like security issues having to be fixed.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><em>Deleted</em>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>APIs whose removal are made permanent. Cleaned up from both code and documentation.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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## Deprecation Policy
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Follow these steps to deprecate an API:
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1. Discuss the change and collect initial feedback.
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2. Clearly mark the API deprecated in code and documentation (See “How to Mark?” below). The mark would trigger static and/or runtime warning that contains at least these information (or in documentation only, if a warning message is not feasible):
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1. Clearly point to the non-deprecated alternative to migrate to, or be clear if there is no alternative.
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2. Specify the earliest version in which the API may actually be removed (See “Deprecation Period” below)
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3. Watch out for feedback. Users who weren’t involved in the original discussion can now comment. Maybe reconsider the deprecation.
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4. The API removal may now be made permanent having reached the declared version. Make sure documentation is also cleaned up.
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In the case that a breaking change has to be made to an existing interface, for example, if a non-optional parameter has to be added to a method, then we treat this as a deprecation case. Steps to take:
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1. Create a new API that meets the new requirements.
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2. Migrate use cases from the old API to the new API.
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3. Deprecate the old API.
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## How to Mark?
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We want to make the best effort to mark in the most standard way possible, so that it’s easier for users to integrate with their dev tools, like Linters.
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>API</strong>
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</td>
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<td><strong>Code</strong>
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</td>
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<td><strong>Documentation</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>Python
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li><em>Deprecated</em>: use <a href="https://typing-extensions.readthedocs.io/en/latest/#typing_extensions.deprecated">typing_extensions.deprecated</a> decorator
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<li><em>Experimental</em>: use ExecuTorch's native experimental (TODO not yet implemented) decorator
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Use <code>.. warning::</code> in docstring of deprecated and experimental APIs, see example usage <a href="https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/blob/cd8bbdc71a0258292381a7d54c8b353988d02ff4/torch/nn/utils/stateless.py#L170">here</a>.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>C++
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Use the <code>__ET_DEPRECATED</code> and (TODO not yet implemented) <code>__ET_EXPERIMENTAL</code> macro, see example usage <a href="https://github.com/pytorch/executorch/blob/8e0f856ee269b319ac4195509cf31e3f548aa0e8/runtime/executor/program.h#L81">here</a>.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Start docstring with “DEPRECATED” and “EXPERIMENTAL”, see example usage <a href="https://github.com/pytorch/executorch/blob/9d859653ae916d0a72f6b2b5c5925bed38832140/runtime/executor/program.h#L139">here</a>.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>Android
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</td>
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<td>TODO
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</td>
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<td>TODO
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>iOS
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</td>
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<td>TODO
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</td>
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<td>TODO
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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## Deprecation Period
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Here we recommend waiting for at least 2 minor releases before the removal. For example, if a function is marked as _deprecated_ in release 1.3.x, then it can be _deleted_ in 1.5.x or later.
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## Future Enhancements
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### Enforcement
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We want to implement automated tests to monitor:
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* Were any BC-breaking changes made to stable APIs?
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* Did the removal of an deprecated API happen not sooner than the promised period?
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### Auto migration
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The current deprecation policy still requires users to take actions to migrate off from deprecated APIs. Ideally, we should automate this process. We want to leverage tools like [TorchFix](https://pypi.org/project/TorchFix/) to auto-migrate uses of deprecated APIs when possible.

‎docs/source/executorch-runtime-api-reference.rst

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For a tutorial style introduction to the runtime API, check out the
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`runtime tutorial <running-a-model-cpp-tutorial.html>`__ and its `simplified <extension-module.html>`__ version.
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For detailed information on how APIs evolve and the deprecation process, please refer to the `ExecuTorch API Life Cycle and Deprecation Policy <api-life-cycle.html>`__.
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Model Loading and Execution
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---------------------------
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‎docs/source/export-to-executorch-api-reference.rst

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Export to ExecuTorch API Reference
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----------------------------------
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For detailed information on how APIs evolve and the deprecation process, please refer to the `ExecuTorch API Life Cycle and Deprecation Policy <api-life-cycle.html>`__.
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.. automodule:: executorch.exir
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.. autofunction:: to_edge
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‎docs/source/index.rst

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export-to-executorch-api-reference
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executorch-runtime-api-reference
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api-life-cycle
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.. toctree::
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:glob:

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