Major Features and Improvements
* Python 3.6 support on Windows.
* Added `tf.layers.conv3d_transpose` layer for spatio temporal deconvolution.
* Added `tf.Session.make_callable()`, which provides a lower overhead means of running a similar step multiple times.
* Added libverbs-based RDMA support to contrib (courtesy junshi15 from Yahoo).
* Bring `tf.feature_column.*` into the API. Non-deprecated functionality from `tf.contrib.layers.*` is moved to `tf.feature_column.*` with cosmetic changes.
* `RNNCell` objects now subclass `tf.layers.Layer`. The strictness described
in the TensorFlow 1.1 release is gone: The first time an RNNCell is used,
it caches its scope. All future uses of the RNNCell will reuse variables from
that same scope. This is a breaking change from the behavior of RNNCells
in TensorFlow versions <= 1.0.1. TensorFlow 1.1 had checks in place to
ensure old code works correctly with the new semantics; this version
allows more flexible uses of RNNCell but can lead to subtle errors if
using code meant for TensorFlow <= 1.0.1. For example, writing:
`MultiRNNCell([lstm] * 5)` will now build a 5-layer LSTM stack where each
layer shares the **same** parameters. To get 5 layers each with their own
parameters, write: `MultiRNNCell([LSTMCell(...) for _ in range(5)])`.
If at all unsure, first test your code with TF 1.1; ensure it raises no
errors, and then upgrade to TF 1.2.
* RNNCells' variable names have been renamed for consistency with Keras layers.
Specifically, the previous variable names "weights" and "biases" have
been changed to "kernel" and "bias", respectively.
This may cause backward incompatibility with regard to your old
checkpoints containing such RNN cells, in which case you can use the tool
[checkpoint_convert script](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/tensorflow/contrib/rnn/python/tools/checkpoint_convert.py)
to convert the variable names in your old checkpoints.
* Many of the RNN functions and classes that were in the `tf.nn` namespace
before the 1.0 release and which were moved to `tf.contrib.rnn` have now
been moved back to the core namespace. This includes
`RNNCell`, `LSTMCell`, `GRUCell`, and a number of other cells. These
now reside in `tf.nn.rnn_cell` (with aliases in `tf.contrib.rnn` for backwards
compatibility). The original `tf.nn.rnn` function is now `tf.nn.static_rnn`,
and the bidirectional static and state saving static rnn functions are also
now back in the `tf.nn` namespace.
Notable exceptions are the `EmbeddingWrapper`, `InputProjectionWrapper` and
`OutputProjectionWrapper`, which will slowly be moved to deprecation
in `tf.contrib.rnn`. These are inefficient wrappers that should often
be replaced by calling `embedding_lookup` or `layers.dense` as pre- or post-
processing of the rnn. For RNN decoding, this functionality has been replaced
with an alternative API in `tf.contrib.seq2seq`.
* Intel MKL Integration (https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/tensorflow-optimizations-on-modern-intel-architecture). Intel developed a number of
optimized deep learning primitives: In addition to matrix multiplication and
convolution, these building blocks include:
Direct batched convolution
Pooling: maximum, minimum, average
Normalization: LRN, batch normalization
Activation: rectified linear unit (ReLU)
Data manipulation: multi-dimensional transposition (conversion), split,
concat, sum and scale.
* TensorForest Estimator now supports SavedModel export for serving.
* Support client-provided ClusterSpec's and propagate them to all workers to enable the creation of dynamic TensorFlow clusters.
* TensorFlow C library now available for Windows.
* We released a new open-source version of TensorBoard.
* [`SavedModel CLI`](https://www.tensorflow.org/versions/master/guide/saved_model_cli) tool available to inspect and execute MetaGraph in SavedModel
* Android releases of TensorFlow are now pushed to jcenter for easier
integration into apps. See
https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/tensorflow/contrib/android/README.md
for more details.
Deprecations
* TensorFlow 1.2 may be the last time we build with cuDNN 5.1. Starting with
TensorFlow 1.3, we will try to build all our prebuilt binaries with cuDNN 6.0.
While we will try to keep our source code compatible with cuDNN 5.1, it will
be best effort.
Breaking Changes to the API
* `org.tensorflow.contrib.android.TensorFlowInferenceInterface` now throws exceptions where possible and has simplified method signatures.
Changes to contrib APIs
* Added `tf.contrib.util.create_example`.
* Added bilinear interpolation to `tf.contrib.image`.
* Add `tf.contrib.stateless` for random ops with custom seed control.
* MultivariateNormalFullCovariance added to contrib/distributions/
* tensorflow/contrib/rnn undergoes RNN cell variable renaming for
consistency with Keras layers. Specifically, the previous variable names
"weights" and "biases" are changed to "kernel" and "bias", respectively.
This may cause backward incompatibility with regard to your old
checkpoints containing such RNN cells, in which case you can use the
[checkpoint_convert script](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/tensorflow/contrib/rnn/python/tools/checkpoint_convert.py)
to convert the variable names in your old checkpoints.
* Added `tf.contrib.kernel_methods` module with Ops and estimators for primal
(explicit) kernel methods in TensorFlow.
Bug Fixes and Other Changes
* In python, `Operation.get_attr` on type attributes returns the Python DType
version of the type to match expected get_attr documentation rather than the
protobuf enum.
* tensorflow/contrib/rnn undergoes RNN cell variable renaming for
consistency with Keras layers. Specifically, the previous variable names
"weights" and "biases" are changed to "kernel" and "bias", respectively.
* Changed MIN_SDK version to 8.0 when building iOS libraries.
* Fixed LIBXSMM integration.
* Make decode_jpeg/decode_png/decode_gif handle all formats, since users frequently try to decode an image as the wrong type.
* Improve implicit broadcasting lowering.
* Improving stability of GCS/BigQuery clients by a faster retrying of stale transmissions.
* Remove OpKernelConstruction::op_def() as part of minimizing proto dependencies.
* VectorLaplaceDiag distribution added.
* Android demo no longer requires libtensorflow_demo.so to run (libtensorflow_inference.so still required)
* Added `categorical_column_with_vocabulary_file`.
* Introduce ops for batching/unbatching tensors across Session::Run() calls.
* Add tf.log_sigmoid(x) = tf.log(tf.sigmoid(x)) = -tf.nn.softplus(-x).
* Changed hooks lists to immutable tuples, and now allow any iterable for the associated arguments.
* Introduce TFDecorator.
* Added an Mfcc op for speech feature generation.
* Improved DirectSession::Run() overhead and error checking. Feeding a value of the wrong type will now synchronously raise an INVALID_ARGUMENT error instead of asynchronously raising an INTERNAL error. Code that depends on the (undefined) behavior when feeding a tensor of the wrong type may need to be updated.
* Added unreduced NONE, and reduced MEAN options for losses. Removed "WEIGHTED_" prefix from other Reduction constants.
* assertAllClose now handles dicts.
* Added Gmock matcher for HloInstructions.
* Add var name to errors on variable restore.
* Added an AudioSpectrogram op for audio feature generation.
* Added `reduction` arg to losses.
* `tf.placeholder` can represent scalar shapes and partially known.
* Remove estimator_spec(mode) argument.
* Added an AudioSpectrogram op for audio feature generation.
* TensorBoard disables all runs by default if there are more than 40 runs.
* Removed old doc generator code.
* GCS file system integration now supports domain buckets, e.g gs://bucket.domain.com/path.
* Add `tf.summary.text` for outputting text to TensorBoard.
* The "run" command of tfdbg's command-line interface now supports filtering of tensors by node name, op type and tensor dtype.
* `tf.string_to_number` now supports int64 and float64 outputs.
Thanks to our Contributors
This release contains contributions from many people at Google, as well as:
4F2E4A2E, Aaron Schumacher, Abhi Agg, admcrae, Adriano Carmezim, Adrià Arrufat,
agramesh1, Akimitsu Seo, Alan Mosca, Alex Egg, Alex Rothberg, Alexander Heinecke,
Alexander Matyasko, Alexandr Baranezky, Alexandre Caulier, Ali Siddiqui, Anand Venkat,
Andrew Hundt, Androbin, Anmol Sharma, Arie, Arno Leist, Arron Cao, AuréLien Geron, Bairen Yi,
Beomsu Kim, Carl Thomé, cfperez, Changming Sun, Corey Wharton, critiqjo, Dalei Li, Daniel
Rasmussen, Daniel Trebbien, DaríO Hereñú, David Eng, David Norman, David Y. Zhang, Davy Song, ddurham2,
Deepak Subburam, Dmytro Kyrychuk, Dominic Rossi, Dominik SchlöSser, Dustin Tran,
Eduardo Pinho, Egil Martinsson, Elliot Saba, Eric Bigelow, Erik Smistad, Evan Klitzke,
Fabrizio Milo, Falcon Dai, Fei Gao, FloopCZ, Fung Lam, Gautam, GBLin5566, Greg Peatfield,
Gu Wang, Guenther Schmuelling, Hans Pabst, Harun Gunaydin, Huaizheng, Ido Shamay, Ikaro
Silva, Ilya Edrenkin, Immexxx, James Mishra, Jamie Cooke, Jay Young, Jayaram Bobba,
Jianfei Wang, jinghua2, Joey Meyer, John Maidens, Jonghoon Jin, Julian Villella,
Jun Kim, Jun Shi, Junwei Pan, jyegerlehner, Karan Desai, Karel Van De Plassche,
Kb Sriram, KhabarlakKonstantin, Koan-Sin Tan, krivard, Kwotsin, Leandro Gracia Gil,
Li Chen, Liangliang He, Louie Helm, lspvic, Luiz Henrique Soares, LáSzló Csomor,
Mark Wong, Mathew Wicks, Matthew Rahtz, Maxwell Paul Brickner, Michael Hofmann, Miguel
Flores Ruiz De Eguino, MikeTam1021, Mortada Mehyar, Mycosynth, Namnamseo,
Nate Harada, Neven Miculinic, Nghia Tran, Nick Lyu, Niranjan Hasabnis, Nishidha, Oleksii
Kuchaiev, Oyesh Mann Singh, Panmari, Patrick, Paul Van Eck, Piyush Chaudhary, Quim Llimona,
Raingo, Richard Davies, Ruben Vereecken, Sahit Chintalapudi, Sam Abrahams, Santiago Castro,
Scott Sievert, Sean O'Keefe, Sebastian Schlecht, Shane, Shubhankar Deshpande, Spencer Schaber,
Sunyeop Lee, t13m, td2014, Thomas H. P. Andersen, Toby Petty, Umang Mehta,
Vadim Markovtsev, Valentin Iovene, Vincent Zhao, Vit Stepanovs, Vivek Rane, Vu Pham, wannabesrevenge,
weipingpku, wuhaixutab, wydwww, Xiang Gao, Xiaolin Lin, xiaoyaozhuzi, Yaroslav Bulatov, Yi Liu,
Yoshihiro Sugi, Yuan (Terry) Tang, Yuming Wang, Yuxin Wu, Zader Zheng, Zhaojun Zhang, zhengjiajin,
ZhipengShen, Ziming Dong, zjj2wry
We are also grateful to all who filed issues or helped resolve them, asked and
answered questions, and were part of inspiring discussions.