TypeError: argument of type 'WindowsPath' is not iterable

[yudhanjaya]

I seem to be having an issue loading the bitsandbytes library in Windows (works on Collab without issue). EDIT: not sure if bitsandbytes alone or something else: apologies if this is unrelated.

Error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\User\text-gen\alt2.py", line 4, in <module>
    import bitsandbytes
  File "C:\Users\User\text-gen\textenv\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\__init__.py", line 6, in <module>
    from .autograd._functions import (
  File "C:\Users\User\text-gen\textenv\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\autograd\_functions.py", line 4, in <module>
    import bitsandbytes.functional as F
  File "C:\Users\User\text-gen\textenv\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\functional.py", line 14, in <module>
    from .cextension import COMPILED_WITH_CUDA, lib
  File "C:\Users\User\text-gen\textenv\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\cextension.py", line 41, in <module>
    lib = CUDALibrary_Singleton.get_instance().lib
  File "C:\Users\User\text-gen\textenv\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\cextension.py", line 37, in get_instance
    cls._instance.initialize()
  File "C:\Users\User\text-gen\textenv\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\cextension.py", line 31, in initialize
    self.lib = ct.cdll.LoadLibrary(binary_path)
  File "E:\Anaconda\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 460, in LoadLibrary
    return self._dlltype(name)
  File "E:\Anaconda\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 364, in __init__
    if '/' in name or '\\' in name:
TypeError: argument of type 'WindowsPath' is not iterable

A search around the issue gave me this: https://bugs.python.org/issue39243
The code that I'm trying to run is essentially trying to get the hivemind gpt-j 8-bit model running on my 1080ti (again, works in Collab).

UPDATE: 
Same issue even with a fresh install and simply attempting to loading the library

(base) C:\Users\User\text-gen>pip install git+https://github.com/TimDettmers/bitsandbytes
Collecting git+https://github.com/TimDettmers/bitsandbytes
Cloning https://github.com/TimDettmers/bitsandbytes to c:\users\user\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-vh0wtmvn
Running command git clone --filter=blob:none --quiet https://github.com/TimDettmers/bitsandbytes 'C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-req-build-vh0wtmvn'
Resolved https://github.com/TimDettmers/bitsandbytes to commit f0ae860
Installing build dependencies ... done
Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done

(base) C:\Users\User\text-gen>python
Python 3.9.12 (main, Apr 4 2022, 05:22:27) [MSC v.1916 64 bit (AMD64)] :: Anaconda, Inc. on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

import bitsandbytes

===================================BUG REPORT===================================
Welcome to bitsandbytes. For bug reports, please submit your error trace to: https://github.com/TimDettmers/bitsandbytes/issues
For effortless bug reporting copy-paste your error into this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScPB8emS3Thkp66nvqwmjTEgxp8Y9ufuWTzFyr9kJ5AoI47dQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

WARNING: The following directories listed in your path were found to be non-existent: {WindowsPath('E')}
E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\cuda_setup\paths.py:98: UserWarning: E:\Anaconda did not contain libcudart.so as expected! Searching further paths...
warn(
WARNING: The following directories listed in your path were found to be non-existent: {WindowsPath('/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Besiege/Besiege_Data/Managed'), WindowsPath('F')}
WARNING: The following directories listed in your path were found to be non-existent: {WindowsPath('/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Besiege/Besiege_Data/Managed'), WindowsPath('F')}
CUDA_SETUP: WARNING! libcudart.so not found in any environmental path. Searching /usr/local/cuda/lib64...
WARNING: The following directories listed in your path were found to be non-existent: {WindowsPath('/usr/local/cuda/lib64')}
WARNING: No libcudart.so found! Install CUDA or the cudatoolkit package (anaconda)!
CUDA SETUP: Loading binary E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\libbitsandbytes_cpu.so...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes_init_.py", line 6, in
from .autograd._functions import (
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\autograd_functions.py", line 4, in
import bitsandbytes.functional as F
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\functional.py", line 14, in
from .cextension import COMPILED_WITH_CUDA, lib
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\cextension.py", line 41, in
lib = CUDALibrary_Singleton.get_instance().lib
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\cextension.py", line 37, in get_instance
cls.instance.initialize()
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\bitsandbytes\cextension.py", line 31, in initialize
self.lib = ct.cdll.LoadLibrary(binary_path)
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\ctypes_init.py", line 460, in LoadLibrary
return self.dlltype(name)
File "E:\Anaconda\lib\ctypes_init.py", line 364, in init
if '/' in name or '\' in name:
TypeError: argument of type 'WindowsPath' is not iterable

[tomaarsen]

See #15 for a similar issue. In short, this work relies on libcudart.so and libcuda.so, which are only really usable on Linux.
With other words, there is currently no Windows support. See also #30 on the topic of Windows support.

Perhaps this should be clarified briefly in the README somewhere? @TimDettmers

[TimDettmers]

Thanks for the reply @tomaarsen. Yes, the documentation on this is a bit lagging and it might be better to add this to the readme. I will add it with CUDA 11.8 support.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. If you think this still needs to be addressed please comment on this thread.

[rajasblack]

Thanks for the reply @tomaarsen. Yes, the documentation on this is a bit lagging and it might be better to add this to the readme. I will add it with CUDA 11.8 support.

Please update the README so that it will be useful for folks trying on Windows?

[Titus-von-Koeller]

@rajasblack Windows currently needs compilation from source as described here

There's currently a lot of work done on that front and things are still in flux. But installing from source things should work.