Documentation/4.3/Developers/Build Instructions

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For the latest Slicer documentation, visit the read-the-docs.

PREREQUISITES

Please check that the following tools are installed on your machine.

Consider reading platform specific requirements listed below.

Linux

CMake >= 2.8.9
Git >= 1.6.5
Svn
Qt 4.7.4 or 4.8.4. See details here

Ubuntu / Debian

For Ubuntu 13.04 note that you must download or install the standard cmake from [1] because the version of cmake that comes with Ubuntu 13.04 cannot be used to build slicer.

Ubuntu, Debian squeeze, Debian testing (wheezy) users, just type the following line in a terminal

sudo apt-get install subversion git-core git-svn
sudo apt-get install make gcc g++ libX11-dev libXt-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libosmesa6-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libfontconfig-dev libxrender-dev libncurses5-dev

mkdir ~/Support && cd Support     # This is where we will download and install required software

# By copying this one-liner in your terminal, it will download and extract CMake
cmake_package="cmake-2.8.11.2-Linux-i386"; \
wget http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.8/$cmake_package.tar.gz -v -O $cmake_package.tar.gz && \
tar -xzvf $cmake_package.tar.gz;

# By copying this one-liner, symbolic links to cmake tools will be created in /usr/local/bin. 
# That way calling cmake, ctest, ... from the command line will resolve to this version of CMake.
for tool in cmake ccmake ctest cpack; do sudo ln -s ~/$cmake_package/bin/$tool /usr/local/bin/$tool; done

CentOS

CentOS user type:

yum install make gcc-c++ libX11-devel libXt-devel libXext-devel libGLU-devel mesa-libOSMesa-devel mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libGLU-devel ncurses

MacOSX

Mac Os X >= 10.5 (Leopard)
CMake >= 2.8.9
- For Mac Os X >= 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and/or recent XCode >= 4.5.X - CMake >= 2.8.11 is required. See http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.8/cmake-2.8.11-Darwin64-universal.tar.gz

$ curl -O http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.8/cmake-2.8.11-Darwin64-universal.tar.gz
$ tar -xzvf cmake-2.8.11-Darwin64-universal.tar.gz --strip-components=1

$ CMake\ 2.8-11.app/Contents/bin/cmake --version
cmake version 2.8.11

Git >= 1.6.5
Svn
XCode (for the SDK libs)
Qt 4.7.4 or 4.8.4. See details here
XQuartz - For Mac Os X >= 10.8 (Mountain Lion) install XQuartz (http://xquartz.macosforge.org) to get X11 (no longer a default in OS X).

Windows

CMake >= 2.8.9
Qt 4.7.4 or 4.8.4. See details here
Git-X.X.X-preview2013XXXX.exe recommended.
- For convenience, you could update the PATH variable so that git can be automatically discovered when configuring Slicer. If not, you will have to specify the GIT_EXECUTABLE at configure time.
SlikSvn
NSIS (optional): Needed if packaging Slicer - Click here to download.
IDE
- Tested/Recommended: Microsoft Visual Studio 9 2008 (Any edition).
  - Make sure to install:
    - SP1. Click here to download SP1 and click here to understand the motivation.
- Experimental: The plan is to support Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (Any edition). NOTE THAT EXPERIMENTAL MEANS THIS DOESN'T YET WORK :)
  - Make sure to install:
    - SP1. Click here to download SP1 and click here to understand the motivation.
    - SP1 Compiler update. Click here to download and here to understand the motivation.
- Experimental (Visual Studio 2012): Use a desktop version such as Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Desktop and remember Visual Studio 2012 Update 2). Do not use Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8. You must install Windows SDK, otherwise CMake will not even find the C compiler during configure. In CMake, choose Visual Studio 11 Win64 as generator.

- Un-tested: Cygwin suite (building with cygwin gcc not supported, but the cygwin shell environment can be used to run git, svn, etc).

CHECKOUT slicer source files

Check out the code using git and configure the git svn bridge:

Clone the github repository
```
cd MyProjects
git clone git://github.com/Slicer/Slicer.git
```
The Slicer directory is automatically created after cloning Slicer.
Setup the development environment:
```
cd Slicer
./Utilities/SetupForDevelopment.sh
```
For more details see Development With Git.

Configure the git svn bridge to ensure the mapping with svn revision.

cd Slicer
git svn init http://svn.slicer.org/Slicer4/trunk
git update-ref refs/remotes/git-svn refs/remotes/origin/master
git checkout master
git svn rebase

CONFIGURE and generate Slicer solution files

You can configure and generate Slicer solution files using either ccmake or cmake-gui.

Per-platform instructions

Windows

Recommended: cmake-gui
- Configure using default options.
- Set the build directory. For example: C:\Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug or C:\Slicer-SuperBuild-Release.
Remarks:

If you downloaded the Qt binary then qmake will be detected and all paths will be set automatically.
If you built your own Qt (e.g. in Debug mode for use with the designer) set the QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE in cmake-gui.QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE should be set to the path of the qmake.exe file, which is inside the bin directory (for example, \path\to\qt-everywhere-opensource-build-4.7.4\bin\qmake.exe).
You cannot use the same build tree for both release or debug mode builds. If both build types are needed, then the same source directory can be used, but a separate build directory should be created and configured for each build type.
Windows doesn't support path longer than 260 characters, please make sure that the total path name of your Slicer-build directory is no longer than 50 characters ( for example c:\work\Slicer\Slicer-SuperBuild (32 characters) is fine)
If you are making a release build, set your CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES to Release. Otherwise Visual Studio will select Debug by default and your build tree can end up with a mix of release and debug libraries.
Step-by-step debug instuctions

Unix-like

Recommended: ccmake
- Configure using the following commands. By default CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is set to Debug.

mkdir Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug
cd Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=/path/to/QtSDK-1.2/Desktop/Qt/474/gcc/bin/qmake ../Slicer

where you replace /path/to with the real path on your machine where QtSDK-1.2 is located

Remarks:

Using top-level directory name like Slicer-SuperBuild-Release or Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug is recommended.
Step-by-step debug instuctions

General information

Two projects are generated by either cmake, ccmake or cmake-gui.

One of them is in the top-level bin directory Slicer-SuperBuild and the other one is in the subdirectory Slicer-build:

Slicer-SuperBuild/Slicer-build

The first project in Slicer-SuperBuild manages all the external dependencies of Slicer (VTK, ITK, Python, ...). To build Slicer for the first time, run make (or build the solution file in Visual Studio) in Slicer-SuperBuild, which will update and build the external libraries and if successful will then build the subproject Slicer-build.
The second project in Slicer-SuperBuild/Slicer-build is the "traditional" build directory of Slicer. After local changes in Slicer (or after an svn update on the source directory of Slicer), only running make (or building the solution file in Visual Studio) in Slicer-SuperBuild/Slicer-build is necessary (the external libraries are considered built and up to date).
Warning: An significant amount of disk space is required to compile Slicer in Debug (>10GB on Windows)

Workaround firewall blocking git protocol

Some firewall will be blocking the git protocol, a possible workaround is to configure Slicer disabling the option Slicer_USE_GIT_PROTOCOL. Then http protocol will be used instead. Consider also reading https://github.com/commontk/CTK/issues/33

Notes for advanced users

By default, if CMake finds Java on your machine, it automatically builds Java CLIs. If you don't want any Java in your Slicer (or if you don't want to install Java on your Mac Os X), you can pass -DCMAKE_DISABLE_FIND_PACKAGE_Java:BOOL=TRUE when configuring Slicer.
Same applies for OpenSSL: CMAKE_DISABLE_FIND_PACKAGE_OpenSSL:BOOL=TRUE can be passed when building Slicer for packaging.

BUILD Slicer

After configuration, start the build process in the Slicer-SuperBuild directory

Linux or MacOSX (Makefile) Windows (Visual Studio)

Start a terminal.

$ cd ~/Projects/Slicer-SuperBuild

$ make -j<NUMBEROFCORES>

Start Windows Explorer. Need help?

Open Slicer-SuperBuild\Slicer.sln in Visual Studio
Select build configuration. Usually Release of Debug
Select menu Project -> Build Solution

If you make local changes to Slicer, open the solution file located in the directory Slicer-SuperBuild/Slicer-build instead. You should then be able to either build all projects or just a specific one.

RUN Slicer

Linux or MacOSX Windows

Start a terminal.

$ Slicer-SuperBuild/Slicer-build/Slicer

Start Windows Explorer. Need help?

Run Slicer-SuperBuild/Slicer-build/Slicer.exe

Notes:

Linux Ubuntu: if you have odd rendering artifacts, try disabling visual effects (System/Appearance/Visual Effects)
Windows: If build was OK, but it Slicer doesn't start (gives the error: [bin/Release/SlicerQT-real.exe] exit abnormally - Report the problem.) then one possible root cause is that you have a copy of Python26.dll in your windows system directory (e.g., c:\Windows\System32\python26.dll). The solution is to rename or remove the python dll in the system directory. See more details here: http://www.na-mic.org/Bug/view.php?id=1180

Common errors

CMake complains during configuration

CMake may not directly show what's wrong; try to look for log files of the form BUILD/CMakeFiles/*.log (where BUILD is your build directory) to glean further information.

A tool returned an error code from "Generating vtksysProcessFwd9xEnc.c"

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect.
Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail.
Project : error PRJ0019: A tool returned an error code from "Generating
vtksysProcessFwd9xEnc.c"

Install SP1 of Visual Studio

error: ‘class QList<QString>’ has no member named ‘reserve’

/nfs/Users/blowekamp/QtSDK/Desktop/Qt/474/gcc/include/QtCore/qdatastream.h: In function ‘QDataStream& operator>>(QDataStream&, QList<T>&) [with T = QString]’:
/nfs/Users/blowekamp/QtSDK/Desktop/Qt/474/gcc/include/QtCore/qstringlist.h:247:   instantiated from here
/nfs/Users/blowekamp/QtSDK/Desktop/Qt/474/gcc/include/QtCore/qdatastream.h:246: error: ‘class QList<QString>’ has no member named ‘reserve’

You have multiple Qt versions installed on your machine. Try removing the Qt version installed on the system.

libarchive.so: undefined reference to `SHA256_Update'

Linking CXX executable ../../../../../bin/MRMLLogicCxxTests
/home/benjaminlong/work/slicer/Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug/LibArchive-install/lib/libarchive.so: undefined reference to `SHA256_Update'
/home/benjaminlong/work/slicer/Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug/LibArchive-install/lib/libarchive.so: undefined reference to `SHA256_Final'
/home/benjaminlong/work/slicer/Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug/LibArchive-install/lib/libarchive.so: undefined reference to `SHA256_Init'
/home/benjaminlong/work/slicer/Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug/LibArchive-install/lib/libarchive.so: undefined reference to `MD5_Init'

Solution:

cd Slicer-SuperBuild
rm -rf LibArchive-*
make -j4

Details:

A tool returned an error code from "Performing configure step for ..."

CMake has some problems building complex projects on Windows7. See more details in: http://cmake.org/Bug/view.php?id=12957

A fix has been already identified and soon will be available in an official CMake release (probably 2.8.8). Until then this unofficial version can be used (based on CMake-2.8.7): https://qshare.queensu.ca/Users01/lasso/public/cmake-2.8.7.12957-win32-x86.exe.

This issue has been fixed by commit 4fbdce2b included in CMake >= 2.8.8. Download CMake version recommended in the Prequisites

A tool returned an error code from "Performing download step (git clone) for ..."

CMake has problems cloning git repositories on Windows7. See more details in http://cmake.org/Bug/view.php?id=12564

If you think the described problem is the same as you have, please add your specific error message to the bug report (the more people report the problem the sooner it will be fixed).

No rule to make target `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so'

See http://techtidings.blogspot.com/2012/01/problem-with-libglso-on-64-bit-ubuntu.html

X11 Window errors at start time

X Error: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) 3
  Extension:    137 (Uknown extension)
  Minor opcode: 4 (Unknown request)
  Resource id:  0x4200199
X Error: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) 3
  Extension:    137 (Uknown extension)
  Minor opcode: 4 (Unknown request)
  Resource id:  0x42001a6
X Error: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) 3
  Extension:    137 (Uknown extension)
  Minor opcode: 4 (Unknown request)
  Resource id:  0x42001b3

Solution:

Reinstall Nvidia drivers (that also rewrite the xorg.conf file).

error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'ssize_t'

4>1>Compiling...
4>1>version.c
4>1>c:\chene\winbin64\slicer4\cmcurl\urldata.h(585) : error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'ssize_t'
4>1>c:\chene\winbin64\slicer4\cmcurl\urldata.h(593) : error C2365: 'fread' : redefinition; previous definition was 'function'
4>1>        C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\include\stdio.h(248) : see declaration of 'fread'
4>1>c:\chene\winbin64\slicer4\cmcurl\urldata.h(610) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'

Solution:

See #A_tool_returned_an_error_code_from_.22Performing_configure_step_for_....22

ld: framework not found QtWebKit

[...]
Linking CXX shared library libPythonQt.dylib
ld: framework not found QtWebKit
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
make[8]: *** [libPythonQt.dylib] Error 1
[...]

See Slicer issue #2860

Workaround:

See http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=13765#c31824

Solution:

Use a recent nightly build of CMake. It includes patch cc676c3a. Note also that the coming version of CMake 2.8.11 will work as expected.

On MacOSX 10.8, CMake hangs forever

Issue: http://www.na-mic.org/Bug/view.php?id=2957

Solution: Use CMake build >= 2.8.10.20130220-g53b279. See http://www.cmake.org/files/dev/cmake-2.8.10.20130220-g53b279-Darwin-universal.tar.gz

Details:

CMake folks (Thanks Brad King :)) fixed an issue that was preventing the most recent nightly from being used to successfully compile Slicer. The fix has been tested and is known to work. Tomorrow nightly build of CMake and by extension the coming release of CMake 2.8.11 will work.

If you are curious about the details, check the commit message:

http://cmake.org/gitweb?p=cmake.git;a=commitdiff;h=1df09e57 [^]

The associated CMake test have also been updated:

http://cmake.org/gitweb?p=cmake.git;a=commitdiff;h=bff3d9ce [^]

Quick Build on Debian

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install subversion git gcc g++ make cmake-curses-gui libqt4-dev
svn co http://svn.slicer.org/Slicer4/trunk Slicer
mkdir Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug
cd Slicer-SuperBuild-Debug
cmake ../Slicer
make -j5

# runtime dependency:
sudo aptitude install python-tk

Documentation/4.3/Developers/Build Instructions

Contents

PREREQUISITES

Linux

Ubuntu / Debian

CentOS

MacOSX

Windows

CHECKOUT slicer source files

CONFIGURE and generate Slicer solution files

Per-platform instructions

Windows

Unix-like

General information

Workaround firewall blocking git protocol

Notes for advanced users

BUILD Slicer

RUN Slicer

Common errors

CMake complains during configuration

A tool returned an error code from "Generating vtksysProcessFwd9xEnc.c"

error: ‘class QList<QString>’ has no member named ‘reserve’

libarchive.so: undefined reference to `SHA256_Update'

A tool returned an error code from "Performing configure step for ..."

A tool returned an error code from "Performing download step (git clone) for ..."

No rule to make target `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so'

X11 Window errors at start time

error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'ssize_t'

ld: framework not found QtWebKit

On MacOSX 10.8, CMake hangs forever

Quick Build on Debian

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