`dvc exp run` runs multiple experiments by default

Questions
1

I am puzzled by the behavior of dvc exp run. In particular, I read:

When called with no arguments, this is equivalent to dvc repro followed by dvc exp save.

(source)

But I find the behaviour of dvc exp run to differ widely from that of dvc repro, and I do not understand the underlying logic of the former.

When running dvc exp run --force, dvc reproduces multiple experiments in a row, not just one.

  • The first experiment uses the workspace (configuration, code).
  • The next experiments seem to check out the workspace to commits and runs that dvc.yaml.

So something like

> dvc exp run --force

Reproducing experiment 'yucky-huia'
Building workspace index                                                                                                                                       |8.00 [00:00,  114entry/s]
Comparing indexes                                                                                                                                              |26.0 [00:00,  449entry/s]
Applying changes                                                                                                                                               |13.0 [00:00, 1.04kfile/s]
[some code being executed]
Updating lock file 'dvc.lock'
[some code being executed]
Reproducing experiment 'obese-mana'
[The reproduction]
[etc.]

On the other hand, dvc repro runs an experiment using the current workspace.

Could someone help me get what dvc exp run is trying to do? Where is that behavior documented? :pray:

The output of dvc doctor, for reference:

❯ dvc doctor
DVC version: 3.57.0 (pip)
-------------------------
Platform: Python 3.10.14 on Linux-5.15.167.4-microsoft-standard-WSL2-x86_64-with-glibc2.35
Subprojects:
        dvc_data = 3.16.7
        dvc_objects = 5.1.0
        dvc_render = 1.0.2
        dvc_task = 0.40.2
        scmrepo = 3.3.8
Supports:
        http (aiohttp = 3.11.3, aiohttp-retry = 2.9.1),
        https (aiohttp = 3.11.3, aiohttp-retry = 2.9.1),
        s3 (s3fs = 2024.10.0, boto3 = 1.35.36)
Config:
        Global: /home/xavier/.config/dvc
        System: /etc/xdg/dvc
Cache types: hardlink, symlink
Cache directory: ext4 on /dev/sdc
Caches: local
Remotes: s3
Workspace directory: ext4 on /dev/sdc
Repo: dvc, git
Repo.site_cache_dir: /var/tmp/dvc/repo/76d5de47ff46d22ee75c2a81e6d464a4
2

Hmm, that’s weird. It should not be running two experiments at once? Could you possible try to create a minimal reproducible example?

3

@shcheklein
Thank you for your reply :pray:

Could you possible try to create a minimal reproducible example?

I will try, but don’t know whether I’ll succeed (the problem popped out of nowhere, not sure why).

I think the issue started to occur after using dvc push/pull --run-cache. I can try along that line.