StaticLibraries

Building OpenVINO static libraries

Contents

• Introduction
• Configure OpenVINO runtime in CMake stage
• Build static OpenVINO libraries
• Link static OpenVINO runtime
• Static OpenVINO libraries + Conditional compilation for particular models
• Limitations

Introduction

Building static OpenVINO Runtime libraries allows to additionally reduce a binary size when it's used together with conditional compilation. This happens because all interface symbols of OpenVINO runtime libraries are not exported to end users during static build, which allows linker to remove them. See Static OpenVINO libraries + Conditional compilation for particular models

Configure OpenVINO runtime in CMake stage

Default architecture of OpenVINO runtime assumes that the following components can be dynamically loaded in runtime:

• Inference backends (CPU, GPU, MULTI, HETERO, etc)
• Frontends (IR, ONNX, PDPD, etc)
• Preprocessing library (to perform preprocessing like resize, color space conversions)
• IR v7 reader (used in legacy tests only, if you are to going to run OpenVINO tests, set -DENABLE_TESTS=OFF which disables IR v7 reader)

In the static OpenVINO runtime, all these plugins should be linked into a final user application, so to minimize the total binary size, turn OFF unnecessary components. Use CMake Options for Custom Compilation as a reference for OpenVINO CMake configuration.

For example, to enable only IR v11 reading and CPU inference capabilities, use:

cmake -DENABLE_VPU=OFF \
    -DENABLE_IR_V7_READER=OFF \
    -DENABLE_CLDNN=OFF \
    -DENABLE_GNA=OFF \
    -DENABLE_VPU=OFF \
    -DENABLE_HETERO=OFF \
    -DENABLE_MULTI=OFF \
    -DNGRAPH_ONNX_FRONTEND_ENABLE=OFF \
    -DNGRAPH_PDPD_FRONTEND_ENABLE=OFF \
    -DNGRAPH_TF_FRONTEND_ENABLE=OFF

Note: Inference backends located in external repositories can also be used in static build. Use -DIE_EXTRA_MODULES=<path to external plugin root> to enable them.

Build static OpenVINO libraries

To build OpenVINO runtime in a static mode, you need to specify the additional CMake option:

cmake -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF <all other CMake options> <openvino_sources root>

After as usual CMake build command:

cmake --build . --target inference_engine --config Release -j12

Then installation step:

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<install_root> -P cmake_install.cmake

The OpenVINO runtime is located in <install_root>/runtime/lib

Link static OpenVINO runtime

Once you build static OpenVINO Runtime libraries and installed them, you can use one of the ways to add them to your project

CMake interface

Just use CMake's find_package as usual and link openvino::runtime:

find_package(OpenVINO REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(<application> PRIVATE openvino::runtime)

openvino::runtime transitively adds all other static OpenVINO libraries to linker command.

Pass libraries to linker directly

If you want to configure your project directly, you need to pass all libraries from <install_root>/runtime/lib to linker command.

Note: this way is not recommended since a proper order of static libraries should be used, while CMake interface supports this out of box. Please, contact developers to have explanations for a proper command.

Static OpenVINO libraries + Conditional compilation for particular models

OpenVINO Runtime can be compiled for particular models using Conditional compilation for particular models guide. Conditional compilation feature can be paired with static OpenVINO libraries to build even smaller end user applications in terms of binary size. The following procedure can be used (based on detailed Conditional compilation for particular models guide):

• Build OpenVINO Runtime as usual with CMake option -DSELECTIVE_BUILD=COLLECT
• Run targets applications on targets models to collect traces
• Build final OpenVINO static Runtime with -DSELECTIVE_BUILD=ON -DSELECTIVE_BUILD_STAT=/path/*.csv -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF

Limitations

• Enabled and tests capabilities on OpenVINO runtime in static build:

  • OpenVINO common runtime - work with ov::Function, perform model loading on particular device
  • CPU, MULTI, HETERO, AUTO inference plugins
  • Not enabled: GNA, GPU, MYRIAD Still compiled as shared libraries: IR, ONNX, PDPD, TF frontends to read ov::Function

• Static build support building of static libraries only for OpenVINO Runtime libraries. All other thirdparty dependencies remain in the same format:

  • libGNA is still a shared library
  • TBB is still a shared library; to provide your own TBB build from oneTBB source code use export TBBROOT=<tbb_root> before OpenVINO CMake scripts are run

  Note: TBB team does not recommend to use oneTBB as a static library, see Why onetbb not like static library?

• TBBBind_2_5 is not available on Windows x64 during static OpenVINO build (see description for ENABLE_TBBBIND_2_5 CMake option here). So, capabilities enabled by TBBBind_2_5 are not available. To enable these capabilities, build oneTBB from source code and provide path to built oneTBB artifacts via TBBROOT environment variable before OpenVINO CMake scripts are run.

• ov::Op::type_info static member is deprecated and not available in static build. Don't use type_info during implementation of your own custom operations, use ov::Op::get_type_info_static() instead