onnx--onnx/docs/Syntax.md

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# ONNX Textual Syntax

## Overview

This document describes a textual syntax for ONNX models, which is currently an experimental feature.
The syntax enables a compact and readable representation of ONNX models. It is motivated by a couple
of use-cases. One is to enable compact description of test-cases and its use in CI (both in the ONNX
repo as well as in other dependent repos such as ONNX-MLIR). The second is to help simplify the
definition of ONNX functions. Several of the existing function-definitions are verbose, and the
use of this syntax will lead to more compact, readable, and easier-to-maintain function definitions.
Efficient representation and efficient parsing of very large tensor-constants is *not* a goal.
Alternative methods should be used for that.

## The API

The key parser methods are the ```OnnxParser::Parse``` methods, used as below.

```cpp
  const char* code = R"ONNX(
<
  ir_version: 7,
  opset_import: [ "" : 10 ]
>
agraph (float[N, 128] X, float[128, 10] W, float[10] B) => (float[N, 10] C)
{
    T = MatMul(X, W)
    S = Add(T, B)
    C = Softmax(S)
}
)ONNX";

  ModelProto model;
  OnnxParser::Parse(model, code);

  checker::check_model(model);
```

See the [test-cases](../onnx/test/cpp/parser_test.cc) for more examples illustrating the API and syntax.

## The Syntax

The grammar below describes the syntax:

```bnf
   id-list ::= id (',' id)*
   quotable-id-list ::= quotable-id (',' quotable-id)*
   tensor-dim ::= '?' | quotable-id | int-constant
   tensor-dims ::= tensor-dim (',' tensor-dim)*
   tensor-type ::= prim-type | prim-type '[' ']' | prim-type '[' tensor-dims ']'
   type ::= tensor-type | 'seq' '(' type ')' | 'map' '(' prim-type ',' type ')'
            | 'optional' '(' type ')' | 'sparse_tensor' '(' tensor-type ')'
   value-info ::= type quotable-id
   value-infos ::= value-info (',' value-info)*
   value-info-list ::= '(' value-infos? ')
   id-or-value-info ::= type? quotable-id
   id-or-value-infos ::= id-or-value-info (',' id-or-value-info)*
   quoted-str :== '"' ([^"])* '"'
   quotable-id :== id | quoted-str
   str-str :== quoted-str ':' quoted-str
   str-str-list :== '[' str-str (',' str-str)* ']'
   internal-data ::= '{' prim-constants '}'
   external-data ::= str-str-list
   constant-data ::= internal-data | external-data
   value-info-or-initializer ::= type quotable-id [ '=' constant-data ]
   value-info-or-initializers ::= value-info-or-initializer (',' value-info-or-initializer)*
   input-list ::= '(' value-info-or-initializers? ')'
   output-list ::= '(' value-infos? ')'
   initializer-list ::= '<' value-info-or-initializers? '>'
   prim-constants ::= prim-constant (',' prim-constant)*
   tensor-constant ::= tensor-type (quotable-id)? ('=')? '{' prim-constants '}'
   attr-ref ::= '@' id
   single-attr-value ::= tensor-constant | graph | prim-constant | attr-ref
   attr-value-list ::= '[' single-attr-value (',' single-attr-value)* ']'
   attr-value ::= single-attr-value | attr-value-list
   attr-type ::= ':' id
   attr ::= id attr-type? '=' attr-value
   attr-list ::= '<' attr (',' attr)* '>'
   node-label ::= '[' quotable-id ']'
   node ::= node-label? quotable-id-list? '=' qualified-id attr-list? '(' quotable-id-list? ')'
         |  node-label? quotable-id-list? '=' qualified-id '(' quotable-id-list? ')' attr-list
   node-list ::= '{' node* '}'
   graph ::= quotable-id input-list '=>' output-list initializer-list node-list
   other-data ::= id ':' value
   other-data-list ::= '<' other-data (',' other-data)* '>'
   fun-attr-list ::= '<' id | attr (',' id | attr)* '>'
   fun-input-list ::= '(' id-or-value-infos ')'
   fun-output-list ::= '(' id-or-value-infos ')'
   fun-value-infos ::= ( '<' value-infos '>' )?
   function ::= other-data-list? id fun-attr-list? quotable-id fun-input-list '=>' fun-output-list fun-value-infos node-list
   model ::= other-data-list? graph function*
```