Building and Running a cuDNN Dependent Program#

Building a cuDNN Dependent Program#

Because cuDNN uses symbols defined in external libraries, you need to ensure that the linker can locate these libraries while building a cuDNN dependent program. One way to achieve this is by explicitly specifying them on the linker command.

Linker Dependencies for the Dynamic cuDNN Libs

Linux

Add -lz to the linker command.

Windows

No additional linker flags are required for Windows.

Linker Dependencies for the Static cuDNN Libs

Note

When linking cuDNN statically, wrap the required static sublibraries with the --start-group and --end-group linker flags within the linker command.

Linux

Add -lcublasLt_static -lz -lnvrtc_static -lnvrtc-builtins_static -lnvptxcompiler_static -lcudart_static to the linker command.

Windows

Not applicable. Static cuDNN libs for Windows are not supported.

Running a cuDNN Dependent Program#

While running a cuDNN dependent program, in addition to the paths to the directory of cuDNN, make sure to add the path to the directory of the following libraries to the environment variable $LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Linux, or to the environment variable %PATH% on Windows.

Linux

  • libz.so (required by ld.so at load-time)

  • libcublasLt.so (required by dlopen() at runtime when using certain matmul engines, convolution engines, legacy convolution APIs, RNN APIs, and legacy multihead attention APIs)

  • libnvrtc.so (required by dlopen() at runtime when using runtime-compiled engines)

Windows

  • cublasLt*.dll (required by LoadLibraryA() at runtime when using certain matmul engines, convolution engines, legacy convolution APIs, RNN APIs, and legacy multihead attention APIs)

  • nvrtc*.dll (required by LoadLibraryA() at runtime when using runtime-compiled engines)

Note

When linking cuDNN statically, wrap the needed static sub-libraries with the --whole-archive and --no-whole-archive linker flags within the linker command.

Inter-Library Dependencies#

Since cuDNN is split into several libraries, dependencies between them need to be taken into account. For more information, refer to the API Library Overview.

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