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faiss/c_api/IndexIVF_c.h
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Alexandr Guzhva 799bf3aaec Introduce early stop facilities for IVF, attempt 2 (#5160)
Summary:
# Introduce early-stop controls for IVF search

This PR adds optional early-stop controls to IVF search through `SearchParametersIVF`.

IVF search looks in a sequence of buckets. Normally it keeps looking until it has checked all requested buckets. This PR adds a few ways to stop earlier:

- stop after enough candidate vectors have been checked,
- stop FastScan after enough buckets have been checked,
- stop range search after several nearby buckets produce no results.

All new fields default to disabled, so existing searches keep their current behavior unless callers opt in.

## New SearchParametersIVF fields

Default values:

| Field | Default | Effect |
|---|---:|---|
| `ensure_topk_full` | `false` | disabled; keep the existing hard `max_codes` behavior |
| `max_lists_num` | `0` | disabled; FastScan is bounded only by `nprobe` |
| `max_empty_result_buckets` | `0` | disabled; range search scans all requested probes |

`ensure_topk_full`

For k-NN search, `max_codes` limits how many candidate vectors are scanned. With `ensure_topk_full=false`, the search stops when the budget is reached.

With `ensure_topk_full=true`, very small budgets become less aggressive: `max_codes` is treated as at least `k` post-filter scans. This helps when `max_codes < k`, or when an `IDSelector` filters out many candidates before a distance is computed.

In the generic IVF path this is supported for `parallel_mode` 0 and 3. In FastScan k-NN it is supported by the per-query implementations 10 and 11.

`max_lists_num`

FastScan k-NN can also stop after visiting a limited number of inverted lists. `0` means disabled. With `ensure_topk_full`, this list budget is treated as at least `k` lists. This is only used by the FastScan per-query path (`search_implem_10`, also used for implementation 11).

When FastScan is left on `implem = 0`, setting an early-stop k-NN option makes the dispatcher choose the per-query implementation automatically. If an incompatible FastScan implementation is selected explicitly, Faiss throws instead of ignoring the option.

`max_empty_result_buckets`

This is for range search. It stops probing a query after that many consecutive probed lists add no in-radius results. The counter resets as soon as a list adds at least one result.

`0` means disabled. Setting this trades recall for less work: once nearby buckets repeatedly produce no hits, farther buckets are less likely to help.

The generic IVF range path supports this in `parallel_mode == 0`. FastScan range search also supports it through implementation 10. With `implem = 0`, FastScan selects implementation 10 automatically when this option is set; explicit incompatible implementations throw.

## Selector-aware scan accounting

This PR adds `InvertedListScannerStats`, returned by inverted-list scanner methods. It currently reports:

- `scan_cnt`: number of distances actually computed,
- `nheap_updates`: number of result updates.

The important behavior change is that `IndexIVFStats::ndis` now uses `scan_cnt`. With an `IDSelector`, candidates rejected by the selector are not counted as computed distances. Without a selector, this matches the previous count because every scanned code reaches distance computation.

This same post-filter count is used by `ensure_topk_full`, so a restrictive selector no longer consumes the search budget with candidates that were never eligible for the result heap.

## FastScan behavior

FastScan k-NN now applies `max_codes`, `max_lists_num`, and `ensure_topk_full` in the per-query implementation. The code keeps separate counters per query, so multi-query batches have independent budgets.

For `max_codes`, FastScan uses the result handler's scanned-row count. This means filtered-out rows do not consume the code budget.

FastScan range search rejects k-NN-only options (`max_codes`, `max_lists_num`, and `ensure_topk_full`). It accepts `max_empty_result_buckets` when the selected implementation can preserve per-query probe order.

## API exposure

The new fields are exposed through:

- C++ `SearchParametersIVF`,
- Python bindings,
- the C API.

The statistics is tracked via `InvertedListScanner::scan_codes(..., ResultHandler& handler)` call. In order to make it work inside `IndexIVF::search()`, it has been decided to transition it into this particular override of `InvertedListScanner::scan_codes()`. As a result, non-`ResultHandler` version of `scan_codes()` has been marked as non-virtual, so the custom `InvertedListScanner` implementations should override `ResultHandler`-based versions only. Another consequence is that `IndexIVFPQFastScanScanner` and `IndexIVFRaBitQFastScanScanner` accept only `HeapResultHandler` types of `ResultHandler`. These are the compromises that had to be made.

## Tests

The tests cover:

- default parameters preserving baseline k-NN and range-search results,
- `ensure_topk_full` filling more result slots under tight budgets,
- selector-aware `IndexIVFStats::ndis`,
- range-search early exit and counter reset behavior,
- unsupported parallel modes and FastScan implementations,
- FastScan k-NN and range-search early-stop behavior,
- Python and C API field exposure.

Pull Request resolved: https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/pull/5160

Reviewed By: limqiying

Differential Revision: D103044128

Pulled By: mnorris11

fbshipit-source-id: 80f1241c13ffc8173a3da0f2974fa9b6dd318890
2026-05-01 12:23:05 -07:00

191 lines
6.3 KiB
C

/*
* Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.
*
* This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
* LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
*/
// -*- c -*-
#ifndef FAISS_INDEX_IVF_C_H
#define FAISS_INDEX_IVF_C_H
#include "Clustering_c.h"
#include "Index_c.h"
#include "faiss_c.h"
#include "impl/AuxIndexStructures_c.h"
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
FAISS_DECLARE_CLASS_INHERITED(SearchParametersIVF, SearchParameters)
FAISS_DECLARE_DESTRUCTOR(SearchParametersIVF)
FAISS_DECLARE_SEARCH_PARAMETERS_DOWNCAST(SearchParametersIVF)
int faiss_SearchParametersIVF_new(FaissSearchParametersIVF** p_sp);
int faiss_SearchParametersIVF_new_with(
FaissSearchParametersIVF** p_sp,
FaissIDSelector* sel,
size_t nprobe,
size_t max_codes);
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER(SearchParametersIVF, const FaissIDSelector*, sel)
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER_SETTER(SearchParametersIVF, size_t, nprobe)
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER_SETTER(SearchParametersIVF, size_t, max_codes)
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER_SETTER(SearchParametersIVF, size_t, max_lists_num)
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER_SETTER(SearchParametersIVF, int, ensure_topk_full)
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER_SETTER(
SearchParametersIVF,
size_t,
max_empty_result_buckets)
/** Index based on a inverted file (IVF)
*
* In the inverted file, the quantizer (an Index instance) provides a
* quantization index for each vector to be added. The quantization
* index maps to a list (aka inverted list or posting list), where the
* id of the vector is then stored.
*
* At search time, the vector to be searched is also quantized, and
* only the list corresponding to the quantization index is
* searched. This speeds up the search by making it
* non-exhaustive. This can be relaxed using multi-probe search: a few
* (nprobe) quantization indices are selected and several inverted
* lists are visited.
*
* Sub-classes implement a post-filtering of the index that refines
* the distance estimation from the query to database vectors.
*/
FAISS_DECLARE_CLASS_INHERITED(IndexIVF, Index)
FAISS_DECLARE_DESTRUCTOR(IndexIVF)
FAISS_DECLARE_INDEX_DOWNCAST(IndexIVF)
/// number of possible key values
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER(IndexIVF, size_t, nlist)
/// number of probes at query time
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER_SETTER(IndexIVF, size_t, nprobe)
/// quantizer that maps vectors to inverted lists
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER(IndexIVF, FaissIndex*, quantizer)
/**
* = 0: use the quantizer as index in a kmeans training
* = 1: just pass on the training set to the train() of the quantizer
* = 2: kmeans training on a flat index + add the centroids to the quantizer
*/
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER(IndexIVF, char, quantizer_trains_alone)
/// whether object owns the quantizer
FAISS_DECLARE_GETTER_SETTER(IndexIVF, int, own_fields)
/** moves the entries from another dataset to self. On output,
* other is empty. add_id is added to all moved ids (for
* sequential ids, this would be this->ntotal */
int faiss_IndexIVF_merge_from(
FaissIndexIVF* index,
FaissIndexIVF* other,
idx_t add_id);
/** copy a subset of the entries index to the other index
*
* if subset_type == 0: copies ids in [a1, a2)
* if subset_type == 1: copies ids if id % a1 == a2
* if subset_type == 2: copies inverted lists such that a1
* elements are left before and a2 elements are after
*/
int faiss_IndexIVF_copy_subset_to(
const FaissIndexIVF* index,
FaissIndexIVF* other,
int subset_type,
idx_t a1,
idx_t a2);
/** search a set of vectors, that are pre-quantized by the IVF
* quantizer. Fill in the corresponding heaps with the query
* results. search() calls this.
*
* @param n nb of vectors to query
* @param x query vectors, size nx * d
* @param assign coarse quantization indices, size nx * nprobe
* @param centroid_dis
* distances to coarse centroids, size nx * nprobe
* @param distance
* output distances, size n * k
* @param labels output labels, size n * k
* @param store_pairs store inv list index + inv list offset
* instead in upper/lower 32 bit of result,
* instead of ids (used for reranking).
*/
int faiss_IndexIVF_search_preassigned(
const FaissIndexIVF* index,
idx_t n,
const float* x,
idx_t k,
const idx_t* assign,
const float* centroid_dis,
float* distances,
idx_t* labels,
int store_pairs);
size_t faiss_IndexIVF_get_list_size(const FaissIndexIVF* index, size_t list_no);
/** initialize a direct map
*
* @param new_maintain_direct_map if true, create a direct map,
* else clear it
*/
int faiss_IndexIVF_make_direct_map(
FaissIndexIVF* index,
int new_maintain_direct_map);
/** Check the inverted lists' imbalance factor.
*
* 1= perfectly balanced, >1: imbalanced
*/
double faiss_IndexIVF_imbalance_factor(const FaissIndexIVF* index);
/// display some stats about the inverted lists of the index
void faiss_IndexIVF_print_stats(const FaissIndexIVF* index);
/// Get the IDs in an inverted list. IDs are written to `invlist`, which must be
/// large enough
//// to accommodate the full list.
///
/// @param list_no the list ID
/// @param invlist output pointer to a slice of memory, at least as long as the
/// list's size
/// @see faiss_IndexIVF_get_list_size(size_t)
void faiss_IndexIVF_invlists_get_ids(
const FaissIndexIVF* index,
size_t list_no,
idx_t* invlist);
int faiss_IndexIVF_train_encoder(
FaissIndexIVF* index,
idx_t n,
const float* x,
const idx_t* assign);
typedef struct FaissIndexIVFStats {
size_t nq; // nb of queries run
size_t nlist; // nb of inverted lists scanned
size_t ndis; // nb of distances computed
size_t nheap_updates; // nb of times the heap was updated
double quantization_time; // time spent quantizing vectors (in ms)
double search_time; // time spent searching lists (in ms)
} FaissIndexIVFStats;
void faiss_IndexIVFStats_reset(FaissIndexIVFStats* stats);
inline void faiss_IndexIVFStats_init(FaissIndexIVFStats* stats) {
faiss_IndexIVFStats_reset(stats);
}
/// global var that collects all statistics
FaissIndexIVFStats* faiss_get_indexIVF_stats();
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
#endif