Pip install packages that need compilation

[ezgimercan]

Continuing the discussion from Slicer-Python Packages Use and Install:

@lassoan

Slicer’s pip does not yet support packages that need compilation. To get access to all Python packages, you have to build Slicer with your Python distribution. See some information here: https://www.slicer.org/wiki/Documentation/Labs/SlicerCondaIntegration

Hi Andras,
Just checking to see if this is still the case. I am trying to integrate an old C++ code into a scripted module, I converted all to Python and it is using dlib library (dlib · PyPI). I am getting CMake errors from Python Interactor, which I assume related to the above post.

RuntimeError:
*******************************************************************
 CMake must be installed to build the following extensions: dlib
*******************************************************************

Thanks!

[jamesobutler (James Butler)]

Yes, for ones that need to be compiled I would suggest to do the method described in this post so that it is compiled and packaged at time of building the extension. The build machine of the extension would then be the one that would need the build requirements.

Install python library with extension

Ciao @PaoloZaffino, if your extension is in the extension manager, you can actually do it directly in the cmake (so they will be packed at compilation time on the kitware factory machines): add python requirements in the superbuild: https://github.com/Punzo/SlicerAstro/blob/master/SuperBuild.cmake#L28 https://github.com/Punzo/SlicerAstro/blob/master/SuperBuild/slicerastro-requirements.txt https://github.com/Punzo/SlicerAstro/blob/master/SuperBuild/External_python-slicerastro-requirements.…

[jamesobutler (James Butler)]

If you’re curious about if dlib would make prebuilt binaries, you can see the developer’s response at https://github.com/davisking/dlib/issues/2121#issuecomment-653662699.

Of course finding a different python package that can do what you want and has wheels could be another option to avoid a superbuild project.

[ezgimercan]

Thanks, this helps a lot! I think I can find similar functions in opencv.