Module output alias

Path	pimlico.modules.utility.alias
Executable	no

Alias a datatype coming from the output of another module.

Used to assign a handy identifier to the output of a module, so that we can just refer to this alias module later in the pipeline and use its default output. This can help make for a more readable pipeline config.

For example, say we use split to split a dataset into two random subsets. The two splits can be accessed by referring to the two outputs of that module: split_module.set1 and split_module.set2. However, it’s easy to lose track of what these splits are supposed to be used for, so we might want to give them names:

[split_module]
type=pimlico.modules.corpora.split
set1_size=0.2

[test_set]
type=pimlico.modules.utility.alias
input=split_module.set1

[training_set]
type=pimlico.modules.utility.alias
input=split_module.set2

[training_routine]
type=...
input_corpus=training_set

Note the difference between using this module and using the special alias module type. The alias type creates an alias for a whole module, allowing you to refer to all of its outputs, inherit its settings, and anything else you could do with the original module name. This module, however, provides an alias for exactly one output of a module and generates a module instance of its own in the pipeline (albeit a filter module).

Todo

Add test pipeline

This is a filter module. It is not executable, so won’t appear in a pipeline’s list of modules that can be run. It produces its output for the next module on the fly when the next module needs it.

Inputs

Name	Type(s)
input	base_datatype

Outputs

Name	Type(s)
output	same as input corpus

Example config

This is an example of how this module can be used in a pipeline config file.

[my_alias_module]
type=pimlico.modules.utility.alias
input_input=module_a.some_output