Parameters

This page contains descriptions of all parameters in LightGBM.

List of other helpful links

External Links

Parameters Format

The parameters format is key1=value1 key2=value2 .... Parameters can be set both in config file and command line. By using command line, parameters should not have spaces before and after =. By using config files, one line can only contain one parameter. You can use # to comment.

If one parameter appears in both command line and config file, LightGBM will use the parameter from the command line.

Core Parameters

  • config 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: config_file
    • path of config file
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • task 🔗︎, default = train, type = enum, options: train, predict, convert_model, refit, aliases: task_type
    • train, for training, aliases: training
    • predict, for prediction, aliases: prediction, test
    • convert_model, for converting model file into if-else format, see more information in IO Parameters
    • refit, for refitting existing models with new data, aliases: refit_tree
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version; for language-specific packages you can use the correspondent functions
  • objective 🔗︎, default = regression, type = enum, options: regression, regression_l1, huber, fair, poisson, quantile, mape, gammma, tweedie, binary, multiclass, multiclassova, xentropy, xentlambda, lambdarank, aliases: objective_type, app, application
    • regression application
      • regression_l2, L2 loss, aliases: regression, mean_squared_error, mse, l2_root, root_mean_squared_error, rmse
      • regression_l1, L1 loss, aliases: mean_absolute_error, mae
      • huber, Huber loss
      • fair, Fair loss
      • poisson, Poisson regression
      • quantile, Quantile regression
      • mape, MAPE loss, aliases: mean_absolute_percentage_error
      • gamma, Gamma regression with log-link. It might be useful, e.g., for modeling insurance claims severity, or for any target that might be gamma-distributed
      • tweedie, Tweedie regression with log-link. It might be useful, e.g., for modeling total loss in insurance, or for any target that might be tweedie-distributed
    • binary, binary log loss classification (or logistic regression). Requires labels in {0, 1}; see cross-entropy application for general probability labels in [0, 1]
    • multi-class classification application
      • multiclass, softmax objective function, aliases: softmax
      • multiclassova, One-vs-All binary objective function, aliases: multiclass_ova, ova, ovr
      • num_class should be set as well
    • cross-entropy application
      • xentropy, objective function for cross-entropy (with optional linear weights), aliases: cross_entropy
      • xentlambda, alternative parameterization of cross-entropy, aliases: cross_entropy_lambda
      • label is anything in interval [0, 1]
    • lambdarank, lambdarank application
      • label should be int type in lambdarank tasks, and larger number represents the higher relevance (e.g. 0:bad, 1:fair, 2:good, 3:perfect)
      • label_gain can be used to set the gain (weight) of int label
      • all values in label must be smaller than number of elements in label_gain
  • boosting 🔗︎, default = gbdt, type = enum, options: gbdt, gbrt, rf, random_forest, dart, goss, aliases: boosting_type, boost
  • data 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: train, train_data, train_data_file, data_filename
    • path of training data, LightGBM will train from this data
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • valid 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: test, valid_data, valid_data_file, test_data, test_data_file, valid_filenames
    • path(s) of validation/test data, LightGBM will output metrics for these data
    • support multiple validation data, separated by ,
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • num_iterations 🔗︎, default = 100, type = int, aliases: num_iteration, n_iter, num_tree, num_trees, num_round, num_rounds, num_boost_round, n_estimators, constraints: num_iterations >= 0
    • number of boosting iterations
    • Note: internally, LightGBM constructs num_class * num_iterations trees for multi-class classification problems
  • learning_rate 🔗︎, default = 0.1, type = double, aliases: shrinkage_rate, eta, constraints: learning_rate > 0.0
    • shrinkage rate
    • in dart, it also affects on normalization weights of dropped trees
  • num_leaves 🔗︎, default = 31, type = int, aliases: num_leaf, max_leaves, max_leaf, constraints: num_leaves > 1
    • max number of leaves in one tree
  • tree_learner 🔗︎, default = serial, type = enum, options: serial, feature, data, voting, aliases: tree, tree_type, tree_learner_type
    • serial, single machine tree learner
    • feature, feature parallel tree learner, aliases: feature_parallel
    • data, data parallel tree learner, aliases: data_parallel
    • voting, voting parallel tree learner, aliases: voting_parallel
    • refer to Parallel Learning Guide to get more details
  • num_threads 🔗︎, default = 0, type = int, aliases: num_thread, nthread, nthreads, n_jobs
    • number of threads for LightGBM
    • 0 means default number of threads in OpenMP
    • for the best speed, set this to the number of real CPU cores, not the number of threads (most CPUs use hyper-threading to generate 2 threads per CPU core)
    • do not set it too large if your dataset is small (for instance, do not use 64 threads for a dataset with 10,000 rows)
    • be aware a task manager or any similar CPU monitoring tool might report that cores not being fully utilized. This is normal
    • for parallel learning, do not use all CPU cores because this will cause poor performance for the network communication
  • device_type 🔗︎, default = cpu, type = enum, options: cpu, gpu, aliases: device
    • device for the tree learning, you can use GPU to achieve the faster learning
    • Note: it is recommended to use the smaller max_bin (e.g. 63) to get the better speed up
    • Note: for the faster speed, GPU uses 32-bit float point to sum up by default, so this may affect the accuracy for some tasks. You can set gpu_use_dp=true to enable 64-bit float point, but it will slow down the training
    • Note: refer to Installation Guide to build LightGBM with GPU support
  • seed 🔗︎, default = 0, type = int, aliases: random_seed, random_state
    • this seed is used to generate other seeds, e.g. data_random_seed, feature_fraction_seed
    • will be overridden, if you set other seeds

Learning Control Parameters

  • max_depth 🔗︎, default = -1, type = int
    • limit the max depth for tree model. This is used to deal with over-fitting when #data is small. Tree still grows leaf-wise
    • < 0 means no limit
  • min_data_in_leaf 🔗︎, default = 20, type = int, aliases: min_data_per_leaf, min_data, min_child_samples, constraints: min_data_in_leaf >= 0
    • minimal number of data in one leaf. Can be used to deal with over-fitting
  • min_sum_hessian_in_leaf 🔗︎, default = 1e-3, type = double, aliases: min_sum_hessian_per_leaf, min_sum_hessian, min_hessian, min_child_weight, constraints: min_sum_hessian_in_leaf >= 0.0
    • minimal sum hessian in one leaf. Like min_data_in_leaf, it can be used to deal with over-fitting
  • bagging_fraction 🔗︎, default = 1.0, type = double, aliases: sub_row, subsample, bagging, constraints: 0.0 < bagging_fraction <= 1.0
    • like feature_fraction, but this will randomly select part of data without resampling
    • can be used to speed up training
    • can be used to deal with over-fitting
    • Note: to enable bagging, bagging_freq should be set to a non zero value as well
  • bagging_freq 🔗︎, default = 0, type = int, aliases: subsample_freq
    • frequency for bagging
    • 0 means disable bagging; k means perform bagging at every k iteration
    • Note: to enable bagging, bagging_fraction should be set to value smaller than 1.0 as well
  • bagging_seed 🔗︎, default = 3, type = int, aliases: bagging_fraction_seed
    • random seed for bagging
  • feature_fraction 🔗︎, default = 1.0, type = double, aliases: sub_feature, colsample_bytree, constraints: 0.0 < feature_fraction <= 1.0
    • LightGBM will randomly select part of features on each iteration if feature_fraction smaller than 1.0. For example, if you set it to 0.8, LightGBM will select 80% of features before training each tree
    • can be used to speed up training
    • can be used to deal with over-fitting
  • feature_fraction_seed 🔗︎, default = 2, type = int
    • random seed for feature_fraction
  • early_stopping_round 🔗︎, default = 0, type = int, aliases: early_stopping_rounds, early_stopping
    • will stop training if one metric of one validation data doesn’t improve in last early_stopping_round rounds
    • <= 0 means disable
  • max_delta_step 🔗︎, default = 0.0, type = double, aliases: max_tree_output, max_leaf_output
    • used to limit the max output of tree leaves
    • <= 0 means no constraint
    • the final max output of leaves is learning_rate * max_delta_step
  • lambda_l1 🔗︎, default = 0.0, type = double, aliases: reg_alpha, constraints: lambda_l1 >= 0.0
    • L1 regularization
  • lambda_l2 🔗︎, default = 0.0, type = double, aliases: reg_lambda, lambda, constraints: lambda_l2 >= 0.0
    • L2 regularization
  • min_gain_to_split 🔗︎, default = 0.0, type = double, aliases: min_split_gain, constraints: min_gain_to_split >= 0.0
    • the minimal gain to perform split
  • drop_rate 🔗︎, default = 0.1, type = double, aliases: rate_drop, constraints: 0.0 <= drop_rate <= 1.0
    • used only in dart
    • dropout rate: a fraction of previous trees to drop during the dropout
  • max_drop 🔗︎, default = 50, type = int
    • used only in dart
    • max number of dropped trees during one boosting iteration
    • <=0 means no limit
  • skip_drop 🔗︎, default = 0.5, type = double, constraints: 0.0 <= skip_drop <= 1.0
    • used only in dart
    • probability of skipping the dropout procedure during a boosting iteration
  • xgboost_dart_mode 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool
    • used only in dart
    • set this to true, if you want to use xgboost dart mode
  • uniform_drop 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool
    • used only in dart
    • set this to true, if you want to use uniform drop
  • drop_seed 🔗︎, default = 4, type = int
    • used only in dart
    • random seed to choose dropping models
  • top_rate 🔗︎, default = 0.2, type = double, constraints: 0.0 <= top_rate <= 1.0
    • used only in goss
    • the retain ratio of large gradient data
  • other_rate 🔗︎, default = 0.1, type = double, constraints: 0.0 <= other_rate <= 1.0
    • used only in goss
    • the retain ratio of small gradient data
  • min_data_per_group 🔗︎, default = 100, type = int, constraints: min_data_per_group > 0
    • minimal number of data per categorical group
  • max_cat_threshold 🔗︎, default = 32, type = int, constraints: max_cat_threshold > 0
    • used for the categorical features
    • limit the max threshold points in categorical features
  • cat_l2 🔗︎, default = 10.0, type = double, constraints: cat_l2 >= 0.0
    • used for the categorical features
    • L2 regularization in categorcial split
  • cat_smooth 🔗︎, default = 10.0, type = double, constraints: cat_smooth >= 0.0
    • used for the categorical features
    • this can reduce the effect of noises in categorical features, especially for categories with few data
  • max_cat_to_onehot 🔗︎, default = 4, type = int, constraints: max_cat_to_onehot > 0
    • when number of categories of one feature smaller than or equal to max_cat_to_onehot, one-vs-other split algorithm will be used
  • top_k 🔗︎, default = 20, type = int, aliases: topk, constraints: top_k > 0
    • used in Voting parallel
    • set this to larger value for more accurate result, but it will slow down the training speed
  • monotone_constraints 🔗︎, default = None, type = multi-int, aliases: mc, monotone_constraint
    • used for constraints of monotonic features
    • 1 means increasing, -1 means decreasing, 0 means non-constraint
    • you need to specify all features in order. For example, mc=-1,0,1 means decreasing for 1st feature, non-constraint for 2nd feature and increasing for the 3rd feature
  • feature_contri 🔗︎, default = None, type = multi-double, aliases: feature_contrib, fc, fp, feature_penalty
    • used to control feature’s split gain, will use gain[i] = max(0, feature_contri[i]) * gain[i] to replace the split gain of i-th feature
    • you need to specify all features in order
  • forcedsplits_filename 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: fs, forced_splits_filename, forced_splits_file, forced_splits
    • path to a .json file that specifies splits to force at the top of every decision tree before best-first learning commences
    • .json file can be arbitrarily nested, and each split contains feature, threshold fields, as well as left and right fields representing subsplits
    • categorical splits are forced in a one-hot fashion, with left representing the split containing the feature value and right representing other values
    • Note: the forced split logic will be ignored, if the split makes gain worse
    • see this file as an example
  • refit_decay_rate 🔗︎, default = 0.9, type = double, constraints: 0.0 <= refit_decay_rate <= 1.0
    • decay rate of refit task, will use leaf_output = refit_decay_rate * old_leaf_output + (1.0 - refit_decay_rate) * new_leaf_output to refit trees
    • used only in refit task in CLI version or as argument in refit function in language-specific package

IO Parameters

  • verbosity 🔗︎, default = 1, type = int, aliases: verbose
    • controls the level of LightGBM’s verbosity
    • < 0: Fatal, = 0: Error (Warning), = 1: Info, > 1: Debug
  • max_bin 🔗︎, default = 255, type = int, constraints: max_bin > 1
    • max number of bins that feature values will be bucketed in
    • small number of bins may reduce training accuracy but may increase general power (deal with over-fitting)
    • LightGBM will auto compress memory according to max_bin. For example, LightGBM will use uint8_t for feature value if max_bin=255
  • min_data_in_bin 🔗︎, default = 3, type = int, constraints: min_data_in_bin > 0
    • minimal number of data inside one bin
    • use this to avoid one-data-one-bin (potential over-fitting)
  • bin_construct_sample_cnt 🔗︎, default = 200000, type = int, aliases: subsample_for_bin, constraints: bin_construct_sample_cnt > 0
    • number of data that sampled to construct histogram bins
    • setting this to larger value will give better training result, but will increase data loading time
    • set this to larger value if data is very sparse
  • histogram_pool_size 🔗︎, default = -1.0, type = double, aliases: hist_pool_size
    • max cache size in MB for historical histogram
    • < 0 means no limit
  • data_random_seed 🔗︎, default = 1, type = int, aliases: data_seed
    • random seed for data partition in parallel learning (excluding the feature_parallel mode)
  • output_model 🔗︎, default = LightGBM_model.txt, type = string, aliases: model_output, model_out
    • filename of output model in training
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • snapshot_freq 🔗︎, default = -1, type = int, aliases: save_period
    • frequency of saving model file snapshot
    • set this to positive value to enable this function. For example, the model file will be snapshotted at each iteration if snapshot_freq=1
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • input_model 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: model_input, model_in
    • filename of input model
    • for prediction task, this model will be applied to prediction data
    • for train task, training will be continued from this model
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • output_result 🔗︎, default = LightGBM_predict_result.txt, type = string, aliases: predict_result, prediction_result, predict_name, prediction_name, pred_name, name_pred
    • filename of prediction result in prediction task
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • initscore_filename 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: init_score_filename, init_score_file, init_score, input_init_score
    • path of file with training initial scores
    • if "", will use train_data_file + .init (if exists)
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • valid_data_initscores 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: valid_data_init_scores, valid_init_score_file, valid_init_score
    • path(s) of file(s) with validation initial scores
    • if "", will use valid_data_file + .init (if exists)
    • separate by , for multi-validation data
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • pre_partition 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: is_pre_partition
    • used for parallel learning (excluding the feature_parallel mode)
    • true if training data are pre-partitioned, and different machines use different partitions
  • enable_bundle 🔗︎, default = true, type = bool, aliases: is_enable_bundle, bundle
  • max_conflict_rate 🔗︎, default = 0.0, type = double, constraints: 0.0 <= max_conflict_rate < 1.0
    • max conflict rate for bundles in EFB
    • set this to 0.0 to disallow the conflict and provide more accurate results
    • set this to a larger value to achieve faster speed
  • is_enable_sparse 🔗︎, default = true, type = bool, aliases: is_sparse, enable_sparse, sparse
    • used to enable/disable sparse optimization
  • sparse_threshold 🔗︎, default = 0.8, type = double, constraints: 0.0 < sparse_threshold <= 1.0
    • the threshold of zero elements percentage for treating a feature as a sparse one
  • use_missing 🔗︎, default = true, type = bool
    • set this to false to disable the special handle of missing value
  • zero_as_missing 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool
    • set this to true to treat all zero as missing values (including the unshown values in libsvm/sparse matrices)
    • set this to false to use na for representing missing values
  • two_round 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: two_round_loading, use_two_round_loading
    • set this to true if data file is too big to fit in memory
    • by default, LightGBM will map data file to memory and load features from memory. This will provide faster data loading speed, but may cause run out of memory error when the data file is very big
  • save_binary 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: is_save_binary, is_save_binary_file
    • if true, LightGBM will save the dataset (including validation data) to a binary file. This speed ups the data loading for the next time
  • enable_load_from_binary_file 🔗︎, default = true, type = bool, aliases: load_from_binary_file, binary_load, load_binary
    • set this to true to enable autoloading from previous saved binary datasets
    • set this to false to ignore binary datasets
  • header 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: has_header
    • set this to true if input data has header
  • label_column 🔗︎, default = "", type = int or string, aliases: label
    • used to specify the label column
    • use number for index, e.g. label=0 means column_0 is the label
    • add a prefix name: for column name, e.g. label=name:is_click
  • weight_column 🔗︎, default = "", type = int or string, aliases: weight
    • used to specify the weight column
    • use number for index, e.g. weight=0 means column_0 is the weight
    • add a prefix name: for column name, e.g. weight=name:weight
    • Note: index starts from 0 and it doesn’t count the label column when passing type is int, e.g. when label is column_0, and weight is column_1, the correct parameter is weight=0
  • group_column 🔗︎, default = "", type = int or string, aliases: group, group_id, query_column, query, query_id
    • used to specify the query/group id column
    • use number for index, e.g. query=0 means column_0 is the query id
    • add a prefix name: for column name, e.g. query=name:query_id
    • Note: data should be grouped by query_id
    • Note: index starts from 0 and it doesn’t count the label column when passing type is int, e.g. when label is column_0 and query_id is column_1, the correct parameter is query=0
  • ignore_column 🔗︎, default = "", type = multi-int or string, aliases: ignore_feature, blacklist
    • used to specify some ignoring columns in training
    • use number for index, e.g. ignore_column=0,1,2 means column_0, column_1 and column_2 will be ignored
    • add a prefix name: for column name, e.g. ignore_column=name:c1,c2,c3 means c1, c2 and c3 will be ignored
    • Note: works only in case of loading data directly from file
    • Note: index starts from 0 and it doesn’t count the label column when passing type is int
  • categorical_feature 🔗︎, default = "", type = multi-int or string, aliases: cat_feature, categorical_column, cat_column
    • used to specify categorical features
    • use number for index, e.g. categorical_feature=0,1,2 means column_0, column_1 and column_2 are categorical features
    • add a prefix name: for column name, e.g. categorical_feature=name:c1,c2,c3 means c1, c2 and c3 are categorical features
    • Note: only supports categorical with int type
    • Note: index starts from 0 and it doesn’t count the label column when passing type is int
    • Note: all values should be less than Int32.MaxValue (2147483647)
    • Note: using large values could be memory consuming. Tree decision rule works best when categorical features are presented by consecutive integers starting from zero
    • Note: all negative values will be treated as missing values
  • predict_raw_score 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: is_predict_raw_score, predict_rawscore, raw_score
    • used only in prediction task
    • set this to true to predict only the raw scores
    • set this to false to predict transformed scores
  • predict_leaf_index 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: is_predict_leaf_index, leaf_index
    • used only in prediction task
    • set this to true to predict with leaf index of all trees
  • predict_contrib 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: is_predict_contrib, contrib
    • used only in prediction task
    • set this to true to estimate SHAP values, which represent how each feature contributes to each prediction
    • produces #features + 1 values where the last value is the expected value of the model output over the training data
    • Note: if you want to get more explanation for your model’s predictions using SHAP values like SHAP interaction values, you can install shap package
  • num_iteration_predict 🔗︎, default = -1, type = int
    • used only in prediction task
    • used to specify how many trained iterations will be used in prediction
    • <= 0 means no limit
  • pred_early_stop 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool
    • used only in prediction task
    • if true, will use early-stopping to speed up the prediction. May affect the accuracy
  • pred_early_stop_freq 🔗︎, default = 10, type = int
    • used only in prediction task
    • the frequency of checking early-stopping prediction
  • pred_early_stop_margin 🔗︎, default = 10.0, type = double
    • used only in prediction task
    • the threshold of margin in early-stopping prediction
  • convert_model_language 🔗︎, default = "", type = string
    • used only in convert_model task
    • only cpp is supported yet
    • if convert_model_language is set and task=train, the model will be also converted
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • convert_model 🔗︎, default = gbdt_prediction.cpp, type = string, aliases: convert_model_file
    • used only in convert_model task
    • output filename of converted model
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version

Objective Parameters

  • num_class 🔗︎, default = 1, type = int, aliases: num_classes, constraints: num_class > 0
    • used only in multi-class classification application
  • is_unbalance 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: unbalance, unbalanced_sets
    • used only in binary application
    • set this to true if training data are unbalanced
    • Note: this parameter cannot be used at the same time with scale_pos_weight, choose only one of them
  • scale_pos_weight 🔗︎, default = 1.0, type = double, constraints: scale_pos_weight > 0.0
    • used only in binary application
    • weight of labels with positive class
    • Note: this parameter cannot be used at the same time with is_unbalance, choose only one of them
  • sigmoid 🔗︎, default = 1.0, type = double, constraints: sigmoid > 0.0
    • used only in binary and multiclassova classification and in lambdarank applications
    • parameter for the sigmoid function
  • boost_from_average 🔗︎, default = true, type = bool
    • used only in regression, binary and cross-entropy applications
    • adjusts initial score to the mean of labels for faster convergence
  • reg_sqrt 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool
    • used only in regression application
    • used to fit sqrt(label) instead of original values and prediction result will be also automatically converted to prediction^2
    • might be useful in case of large-range labels
  • alpha 🔗︎, default = 0.9, type = double, constraints: alpha > 0.0
  • fair_c 🔗︎, default = 1.0, type = double, constraints: fair_c > 0.0
    • used only in fair regression application
    • parameter for Fair loss
  • poisson_max_delta_step 🔗︎, default = 0.7, type = double, constraints: poisson_max_delta_step > 0.0
    • used only in poisson regression application
    • parameter for Poisson regression to safeguard optimization
  • tweedie_variance_power 🔗︎, default = 1.5, type = double, constraints: 1.0 <= tweedie_variance_power < 2.0
    • used only in tweedie regression application
    • used to control the variance of the tweedie distribution
    • set this closer to 2 to shift towards a Gamma distribution
    • set this closer to 1 to shift towards a Poisson distribution
  • max_position 🔗︎, default = 20, type = int, constraints: max_position > 0
    • used only in lambdarank application
    • optimizes NDCG at this position
  • label_gain 🔗︎, default = 0,1,3,7,15,31,63,...,2^30-1, type = multi-double
    • used only in lambdarank application
    • relevant gain for labels. For example, the gain of label 2 is 3 in case of default label gains
    • separate by ,

Metric Parameters

  • metric 🔗︎, default = "", type = multi-enum, aliases: metrics, metric_types
    • metric(s) to be evaluated on the evaluation set(s)
      • "" (empty string or not specified) means that metric corresponding to specified objective will be used (this is possible only for pre-defined objective functions, otherwise no evaluation metric will be added)
      • "None" (string, not a None value) means that no metric will be registered, aliases: na, null, custom
      • l1, absolute loss, aliases: mean_absolute_error, mae, regression_l1
      • l2, square loss, aliases: mean_squared_error, mse, regression_l2, regression
      • l2_root, root square loss, aliases: root_mean_squared_error, rmse
      • quantile, Quantile regression
      • mape, MAPE loss, aliases: mean_absolute_percentage_error
      • huber, Huber loss
      • fair, Fair loss
      • poisson, negative log-likelihood for Poisson regression
      • gamma, negative log-likelihood for Gamma regression
      • gamma_deviance, residual deviance for Gamma regression
      • tweedie, negative log-likelihood for Tweedie regression
      • ndcg, NDCG, aliases: lambdarank
      • map, MAP, aliases: mean_average_precision
      • auc, AUC
      • binary_logloss, log loss, aliases: binary
      • binary_error, for one sample: 0 for correct classification, 1 for error classification
      • multi_logloss, log loss for multi-class classification, aliases: multiclass, softmax, multiclassova, multiclass_ova, ova, ovr
      • multi_error, error rate for multi-class classification
      • xentropy, cross-entropy (with optional linear weights), aliases: cross_entropy
      • xentlambda, “intensity-weighted” cross-entropy, aliases: cross_entropy_lambda
      • kldiv, Kullback-Leibler divergence, aliases: kullback_leibler
    • support multiple metrics, separated by ,
  • metric_freq 🔗︎, default = 1, type = int, aliases: output_freq, constraints: metric_freq > 0
    • frequency for metric output
  • is_provide_training_metric 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool, aliases: training_metric, is_training_metric, train_metric
    • set this to true to output metric result over training dataset
    • Note: can be used only in CLI version
  • eval_at 🔗︎, default = 1,2,3,4,5, type = multi-int, aliases: ndcg_eval_at, ndcg_at, map_eval_at, map_at
    • used only with ndcg and map metrics
    • NDCG and MAP evaluation positions, separated by ,

Network Parameters

  • num_machines 🔗︎, default = 1, type = int, aliases: num_machine, constraints: num_machines > 0
    • the number of machines for parallel learning application
    • this parameter is needed to be set in both socket and mpi versions
  • local_listen_port 🔗︎, default = 12400, type = int, aliases: local_port, port, constraints: local_listen_port > 0
    • TCP listen port for local machines
    • Note: don’t forget to allow this port in firewall settings before training
  • time_out 🔗︎, default = 120, type = int, constraints: time_out > 0
    • socket time-out in minutes
  • machine_list_filename 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: machine_list_file, machine_list, mlist
    • path of file that lists machines for this parallel learning application
    • each line contains one IP and one port for one machine. The format is ip port (space as a separator)
  • machines 🔗︎, default = "", type = string, aliases: workers, nodes
    • list of machines in the following format: ip1:port1,ip2:port2

GPU Parameters

  • gpu_platform_id 🔗︎, default = -1, type = int
    • OpenCL platform ID. Usually each GPU vendor exposes one OpenCL platform
    • -1 means the system-wide default platform
    • Note: refer to GPU Targets for more details
  • gpu_device_id 🔗︎, default = -1, type = int
    • OpenCL device ID in the specified platform. Each GPU in the selected platform has a unique device ID
    • -1 means the default device in the selected platform
    • Note: refer to GPU Targets for more details
  • gpu_use_dp 🔗︎, default = false, type = bool
    • set this to true to use double precision math on GPU (by default single precision is used)

Others

Continued Training with Input Score

LightGBM supports continued training with initial scores. It uses an additional file to store these initial scores, like the following:

0.5
-0.1
0.9
...

It means the initial score of the first data row is 0.5, second is -0.1, and so on. The initial score file corresponds with data file line by line, and has per score per line.

And if the name of data file is train.txt, the initial score file should be named as train.txt.init and in the same folder as the data file. In this case, LightGBM will auto load initial score file if it exists.

Otherwise, you should specify the path to the custom named file with initial scores by the initscore_filename parameter.

Weight Data

LightGBM supports weighted training. It uses an additional file to store weight data, like the following:

1.0
0.5
0.8
...

It means the weight of the first data row is 1.0, second is 0.5, and so on. The weight file corresponds with data file line by line, and has per weight per line.

And if the name of data file is train.txt, the weight file should be named as train.txt.weight and placed in the same folder as the data file. In this case, LightGBM will load the weight file automatically if it exists.

Also, you can include weight column in your data file. Please refer to the weight_column parameter in above.

Query Data

For LambdaRank learning, it needs query information for training data. LightGBM uses an additional file to store query data, like the following:

27
18
67
...

It means first 27 lines samples belong to one query and next 18 lines belong to another, and so on.

Note: data should be ordered by the query.

If the name of data file is train.txt, the query file should be named as train.txt.query and placed in the same folder as the data file. In this case, LightGBM will load the query file automatically if it exists.

Also, you can include query/group id column in your data file. Please refer to the group_column parameter in above.