# Builtin message passing functions¶

In DGL, message passing is expressed by two APIs:

• send(edges, message_func) for computing the messages along the given edges.
• recv(nodes, reduce_func) for collecting the in-coming messages, perform aggregation and so on.

Although the two-stage abstraction can cover all the models that are defined in the message passing paradigm, it is inefficient due to storing explicit messages. See our blogpost for more details and performance results.

Our solution, also explained in the blogpost, is to fuse the two stages into one kernel so no explicit messages are generated and stored. To achieve this, we recommend using our builtin message/reduce functions so that DGL can analyze and map them to fused dedicated kernels. Here are some examples (in pytorch syntax):

import dgl
import dgl.function as fn
import torch as th
g = ... # create a DGLGraph
g.ndata['h'] = th.randn((g.number_of_nodes(), 10)) # each node has feature size 10
g.edata['w'] = th.randn((g.number_of_edges(), 1))  # each edge has feature size 1
# collect features from source nodes and aggregate them in destination nodes
g.update_all(fn.copy_u('h', 'm'), fn.sum('m', 'h_sum'))
# multiply source node features with edge weights and aggregate them in destination nodes
g.update_all(fn.u_mul_e('h', 'w', 'm'), fn.max('m', 'h_max'))
# compute edge embedding by multiplying source and destination node embeddings
g.apply_edges(fn.u_mul_v('h', 'h', 'w_new'))


fn.copy_u, fn.u_mul_e, fn.u_mul_v are builtin message functions, while fn.sum and fn.max are builtin reduce functions. We use u, v and e to represent source nodes, destination nodes and edges among them, respectively. Hence, copy_u copies the source node data as the messages, u_mul_e multiplies source node features with edge features, so on and so forth.

To define a unary message function (e.g. copy_u) requires one input feature name and one output message name. To define a binary message function (e.g. u_mul_e) requires two input feature names and one output message name. During the computation, the message function will read the data under the given names, perform computation, and return the output using the output name. For example, the above fn.u_mul_e('h', 'w', 'm') is the same as the following user-defined function:

def udf_u_mul_e(edges):
return {'m' : edges.src['h'] * edges.data['w']}


To define a reduce function, one input message name and one output node feature name need to be specified. For example, the above fn.max('m', 'h_max') is the same as the following user-defined function:

def udf_max(nodes):
return {'h_max' : th.max(nodes.mailbox['m'], 1)[0]}


Broadcasting is supported for binary message function, which means the tensor arguments can be automatically expanded to be of equal sizes. The supported broadcasting semantic is standard as in numpy’s and pytorch’s. For unfamiliar users, we highly suggest reading those documents as broadcasting is very useful. In the above example, fn.u_mul_e will perform broadcasted multiplication automatically because the node feature 'h' and the edge feature 'w' are of different, but broadcastable shapes.

All DGL’s builtin functions support both CPU and GPU and backward computation so they can be used in any autograd system. Also, builtin functions can be used not only in update_all or apply_edges as shown in the example, but wherever message/reduce functions are required (e.g. pull, push, send_and_recv, etc.).

Here is a cheatsheet of all the DGL builtins.

Category Functions Memo
Unary message function copy_u
copy_e
copy_src alias of copy_u
copy_edge alias of copy_e
Binary message function u_add_v, u_sub_v, u_mul_v, u_div_v
u_add_e, u_sub_e, u_mul_e, u_div_e
v_add_u, v_sub_u, v_mul_u, v_div_u
v_add_e, v_sub_e, v_mul_e, v_div_e
e_add_u, e_sub_u, e_mul_u, e_div_u
e_add_v, e_sub_v, e_mul_v, e_div_v
src_mul_edge alias of u_mul_e
Reduce function max
min
sum
prod

## Next Step¶

• Checkout our dgl.nn module for how builtin functions are used to implement Graph Neural Network layers.