Documentation/Labs/SlicerCondaIntegration

Slicer currently builds a custom python distribution from source, but not all useful packages are available. But Anaconda provides a set of binaries that might provide a more comprehensive ecosystem.

Before attempting to use the whole Anaconda package, the first approach has been to use Miniconda, which is a reduced version of Anaconda.

Note: the platform used is MacOSX 10.9.5 with XCode 6

Compile Slicer against miniconda

Mac

• Download the source code hosted in https://github.com/jonieva/Slicer/tree/Conda
• Build (assuming MacOSX 10.9):

 cmake \
 -DSlicer_USE_CONDA_python:BOOL=ON \
 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug \
 -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=/usr/bin/qmake \
 -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET:STRING=10.9 \
 -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT:FILEPATH=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.9.sdk \	
 -DSlicer_BUILD_CLI:BOOL=OFF \
 -DSlicer_USE_PYTHONQT_WITH_TCL:BOOL=OFF \ 
 ../Slicer

The only changes in the source code are in Superbuild/External_python.cmake and in Superbuild/External_NUMPY.cmake files (in the current version Slicer will use Anaconda Numpy). For the sake of testing, the next Python Conda modules are installed by default: numpy, scikit-learn.

Issues

• libsqlite3.dylib library in miniconda has a conflict with CTK:

  Compiling python scripts: CTKScriptingPythonCore
  Compiling python scripts: ctkSimplePythonShell
  Linking CXX shared module ../../bin/CTKCorePythonQt.so
    dyld: Symbol not found: _sqlite3_intarray_bind
  Referenced from: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData
  Expected in: /Users/Jorge/Projects/BWH/Slicer-Superbuild-Conda-Eclipse/python-miniconda/lib/libsqlite3.dylib
    in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData
  dyld: Symbol not found: _sqlite3_intarray_bind
    Referenced from: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData
    Expected in: /Users/Jorge/Projects/BWH/Slicer-Superbuild-Conda-Eclipse/python-miniconda/lib/libsqlite3.dylib
  in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData

 Workaround: delete or rename the file (there is a hack included in the External_python.cmake file to this end).

• When running Slicer.app (not the binary file in Slicer-Superbuild-Conda/Slicer-build) the program is not using Miniconda, but the System Python, so it doesn't find the right libraries:

Python 2.7.5 (default, Mar  9 2014, 22:15:05) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 5.0 (clang-500.0.68)] on darwin
>>> Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/Jorge/Projects/BWH/Slicer-Superbuild-Conda/Slicer-build/lib/Slicer-4.4/qt-scripted-modules/SimpleFilters.py", line 3, in <module>
    import SimpleITK as sitk
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/SimpleITK-0.9.0.dev656-py2.7-macosx-10.9-intel.egg/SimpleITK/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from .SimpleITK import *
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/SimpleITK-0.9.0.dev656-py2.7-macosx-10.9-intel.egg/SimpleITK/SimpleITK.py", line 28, in <module>
    _SimpleITK = swig_import_helper()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/SimpleITK-0.9.0.dev656-py2.7-macosx-10.9-intel.egg/SimpleITK/SimpleITK.py", line 24, in swig_import_helper
    _mod = imp.load_module('_SimpleITK', fp, pathname, description)
ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/SimpleITK-0.9.0.dev656-py2.7-macosx-10.9-intel.egg/SimpleITK/_SimpleITK.so, 2): Library not loaded: libSimpleITKBasicFilters12-0.9.1.dylib
  Referenced from: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/SimpleITK-0.9.0.dev656-py2.7-macosx-10.9-intel.egg/SimpleITK/_SimpleITK.so
  Reason: image not found

So, in order that the system works, Slicer must be started from a terminal running the file Slicer-Superbuild-Conda/Slicer-build/Slicer

Linux

• Download the source code in https://github.com/jonieva/Slicer/tree/Conda
• Build Slicer normally, except for the setting Slicer_USE_CONDA_python. Example:

cmake \
  '''-DSlicer_USE_CONDA_python:BOOL=ON''' \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug \
  -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=/usr/bin/qmake \  
  -DSlicer_BUILD_CLI:BOOL=OFF \
  -DSlicer_USE_PYTHONQT_WITH_TCL:BOOL=OFF \
  ../Slicer

Different approach

The following worked for me (Steve Pieper, 2015-02-04) using ubuntu 13.10 and miniconda 3.8.4-py27_0

cmake \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug \
  -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=/usr/bin/qmake \
  -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=${HOME}/miniconda/bin/python \
  -DPYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR:PATH=${HOME}/miniconda/include/python2.7 \
  -DPYTHON_LIBRARY:FILEPATH=${HOME}/miniconda/lib/libpython2.7.so  \
  -DSlicer_BUILD_CLI:BOOL=OFF \
  -DSlicer_USE_PYTHONQT_WITH_TCL:BOOL=OFF \
  ../Slicer

make -j20

export PYTHONHOME=${USER}/miniconda

./Slicer-build/Slicer

But after it ran there was slicer's build of numpy inside miniconda, so I needed to do this:

bin/conda uninstall numpy
bin/conda install numpy

I tried using this:

 -DSlicer_USE_SYSTEM_NUMPY:BOOL=ON

but got this error:

...
-- SuperBuild -         CTKAPPLAUNCHER[OK] (SYSTEM)
CMake Error at SuperBuild/External_CTKAPPLAUNCHER.cmake:21 (message):
  Enabling Slicer_USE_SYSTEM_CTKAPPLAUNCHER is not supported !
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMake/ExternalProjectDependency.cmake:561 (include)
  SuperBuild/External_python.cmake:21 (ExternalProject_Include_Dependencies)
  CMake/ExternalProjectDependency.cmake:561 (include)
  SuperBuild/External_VTKv6.cmake:11 (ExternalProject_Include_Dependencies)
  CMake/ExternalProjectDependency.cmake:561 (include)
  SuperBuild/External_teem.cmake:11 (ExternalProject_Include_Dependencies)
  CMake/ExternalProjectDependency.cmake:561 (include)
  CMake/ExternalProjectDependency.cmake:607 (ExternalProject_Include_Dependencies)
  SuperBuild.cmake:320 (ExternalProject_Include_Dependencies)
  CMakeLists.txt:599 (include)

-- Configuring incomplet

• • Building a Slicer-Python with Miniconda

It should work without problems if you download the branch "Conda" in https://github.com/jonieva/Slicer/tree/Conda and running this command:

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=/usr/bin/qmake -DSlicer_BUILD_CLI:BOOL=OFF 
-DSlicer_USE_PYTHONQT_WITH_TCL:BOOL=OFF -DSlicer_USE_CONDA_python:BOOL=ON ../Slicer

Windows

Although the code in https://github.com/jonieva/Slicer/tree/Conda should work with Windows too (using the setting Slicer_USE_CONDA_python=ON), it has not been tested at the moment.