rlworkgroup/garage

Add versioning to pickle file

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#1,278 opened on Apr 3, 2020

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 (1 comment) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Python (1,728 stars) (297 forks)batch import
good first issue

Description

We need to add versioning to pickle file to prevent people from loading a pickling file that is generated by an old version of garage. Doing so will almost always fail, with meaningless error messages, but the folks might not be aware of the root cause.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
python
Domain
backenddata
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
understanding of Python picklefamiliarity with garage's serialization
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70
Research direction
Investigate the current pickle saving and loading mechanism in garage. Look for existing versioning or metadata in pickled files. Propose a version number and a check during loading to prevent loading incompatible pickles. Consider using a dictionary wrapper with a version key. See `garage/experiment/snapshotter.py` and related test files.