Temporary disabling of Stable extension builds in preparation for Slicer 5.8 Release & Visual Studio update

Development
8

Updates:

To resolve this, we plan to introduce an option that packages a _manylinux.py module

The corresponding fix has been reviewed and integrated. For reference, see pull request Slicer#8168.

Add support for configuring _manylinux module

For convenience and future reference, the associated pull request description is also copied below:

This commit introduces the ability to configure a _manylinux module in the Slicer build system to enhance compatibility when installing binary Python wheels.

This update resolves potential issues with installing Python wheels built for newer GLIBC versions or ABIs, which could cause crashes in environments with older configurations.

Specifically, installing manylinux_2_28_x86_64 ITK wheels compiled with _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1 was causing segmentation faults in the Stable Slicer version, which is compiled with _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0. The _manylinux module ensures that manylinux_2_17_x86_64 ITK wheels are always installed, even when Slicer and its associated Python interpreter are executed on newer operating systems.

The _manylinux.py module is dynamically generated during the build process and ensures that Python packages installed via pip are compatible with the GLIBC version used in the Slicer build environment.

Summary of Changes

External_python.cmake:

  • Added logic to configure _manylinux.py for Linux-based build environments.
  • By default, _manylinux.py is generated. If disabled using the CMake option PYTHON_CONFIGURE_MANYLINUX_MODULE, any existing _manylinux.py module is removed to prevent inadvertent impacts on Python package installations.
  • Introduced a CMake option PYTHON_REMOVE_MANYLINUX_MODULE_IF_EXISTS to allow users to disable the removal of an existing _manylinux.py module.

python_configure_manylinux_module.cmake:

  • New CMake script to detect the system’s GLIBC version using ldd.
  • Dynamically generates the _manylinux.py module, which includes:
    • A manylinux_compatible function to override the default behavior of pip for checking compatibility of manylinux tags.
    • Embedded documentation and compatibility checks to prevent crashes caused by mismatched ABI or GLIBC versions.

By restricting installed packages to compatible manylinux tags, this update ensures stability and reliability for Python packages in the Slicer ecosystem.

References