Trying to backward through the graph a second time, but the buffers have already been freed. Specify retain_graph=True when calling backward the first time

for epoch in range(num_epochs):
    # For each batch in the dataloader
    for i, data in enumerate(dataloader, 0):

        ############################
        # (1) Update D network: maximize log(D(x)) + log(1 - D(G(z)))
        ###########################
        ## Train with all-real batch
        netD.zero_grad()
        # Format batch
        real_cpu = data[0].to(device)
        b_size = real_cpu.size(0)
        label = torch.full((b_size,), real_label, device=device)
        # Forward pass real batch through D
        output = netD(real_cpu).view(-1)
        # Calculate loss on all-real batch
        errD_real = criterion(output, label)
        # Calculate gradients for D in backward pass
        errD_real.backward()
        D_x = output.mean().item()

        ## Train with all-fake batch
        # Generate batch of latent vectors
        noise = torch.randn(b_size, nz, 1, 1, device=device)
        # Generate fake image batch with G
        fake = netG(noise)
        label.fill_(fake_label)
        # Classify all fake batch with D
        output = netD(fake.detach()).view(-1)
        # Calculate D's loss on the all-fake batch
        errD_fake = criterion(output, label)
        # Calculate the gradients for this batch
        errD_fake.backward()
        D_G_z1 = output.mean().item()
        # Add the gradients from the all-real and all-fake batches
        errD = errD_real + errD_fake
        # Update D
        optimizerD.step()

        ############################
        # (2) Update G network: maximize log(D(G(z)))
        ###########################
        netG.zero_grad()
        label.fill_(real_label)  # fake labels are real for generator cost
        # Since we just updated D, perform another forward pass of all-fake batch through D
        output = netD(fake).view(-1)
        # Calculate G's loss based on this output
        errG = criterion(output, label)
        # Calculate gradients for G
        errG.backward()
        D_G_z2 = output.mean().item()
        # Update G
        optimizerG.step()

This is the code from the tutorial DCGAN
https://pytorch.org/tutorials/beginner/dcgan_faces_tutorial.html

I can’t understand why we need detach() here.
And once I remove detach, it would arise the error.

# Classify all fake batch with D
        output = netD(fake.detach()).view(-1)

Hi,

Calling .backward() will free the computational graph for saving memory.

fake is used to compute the loss of netD and also used in updating netG, after performing .backward() on loss of netD, fake will be freed without .detach() (here detach is used to exclude fake from the computational graph so that calling .backward() on loss of netD will not free fake).

Thus, if you remove .detach() (it will free fake) and call .backward() on loss of netG, it will raise the error that needs retain_graph=True.

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