Installing Tracktable From Source

Attention

For all build/installation issues and errors encountered in the steps below refer to the Common Issues & Errors Page.

There are a few cases where you might want to build from source. For example:

  • You might need access to features on the development branch.

  • You might be running a version of Python for which we do not build wheels (binary packages).

  • You might be on an unsupported platform.

  • You might not have permission to use binary packages on your system.

In that case, this section is for you.

Step 0: Audience

We assume that you are familiar with downloading, compiling and installing software from source as well as with your operating system’s package manager (if any). You will need to know how to set or modify environment variables, run the compiler and find libraries or header files on your system.

Step 1: Dependencies

Wherever possible, install the dependencies using package managers such as

  • Windows, Mac, Linux:

    • conda (Anaconda’s built-in package manager),

    • pip (comes with Python),

  • Windows:

    While Windows specific package managers are available the Tracktable team cannot guarantee they have the required dependencies needed to build tracktable from source

  • Linux:

    • yum

    • apt-get

  • Mac:

Instructions on using Anaconda to configure a fully functional development environment are located in the Anaconda Virtual Environment section below.

Tracktable has the following required dependencies:

Python

C++

Tracktable requires a C++14-capable compiler as of release 1.5.

  • Compiler Options

  • GEOS library 3.8.1 or newer - https://trac.osgeo.org/geos

  • Boost 1.74 or newer - https://www.boost.org/

    Tip

    Windows users can find pre-built Boost binaries at https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost-binaries/

    Hint

    Windows users should remember to add the path of the Boost installation to the systems PATH environment variable.

    • We need several of Boost’s compiled libraries including chrono, date_time, iostreams, log, random, timer and especially Boost.Python. As with other dependencies, check your operating system’s package manager first. It’s possible that you can install Boost with all its optional components from there.

      • If you already have a recent Boost installation you can check for Boost.Python by looking for files named (prefix)boost_python.(suffix) where (prefix) is lib on Unix-like systems and (suffix) is .so on Unix systems, .so or .dylib on Mac OSX and .dll (and .lib) on Windows.

    • You must build Boost with Boost.Python enabled using the headers from the same Python installation you will use to run Tracktable.

    • Tracktable requires a C++14-capable compiler as of version 1.5.

    Note

    We know that it is inconvenient to try to keep up with recent versions of a library as big as Boost. We only change the required version when absolutely necessary.

Documentation

If you want to build documentation you will also need the following packages:

Movies

If you want to render movies you will need FFMPEG:

  • FFMPEG 4.2.4 or newer - https://www.ffmpeg.org

    • If you build from source please be sure to include the MPEG4 and FFV1 codecs. Both of these are included with the standard FFMPEG download. Tracktable can use other codecs but does not require them.

    Tip

    Windows users can obtain the ffmpeg executable by installing Image Magick (https://www.imagemagick.org)

Other

Build Notes for Dependencies Built from Source

The notes in this section are for cases when you have absolutely no choice but to build external packages from source.

Building Boost

Tip

You must build Boost with Boost.Python enabled using the headers from the same Python installation you will use to run Tracktable.

The instructions to build Boost from source can be found at https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_75_0/more/getting_started/index.html

The specific instructions for building Boost.Python can be found at https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_75_0/libs/python/doc/html/building/

Building FFMPEG

For up-to-date instructions on building FFMPEG please refer to https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide and choose your OS. We recommend that you compile in support for H264 video (via libx264).

Anaconda Virtual Environment

Attention

The tracktable development anaconda environment that is created in this section is plug and play on Linux and MacOS and will build the Tracktable source code with no additional configuration. For Windows, there are additional steps required to configure cmake and an IDE to recognize the anaconda environment. These additional steps are dependent on the existing Windows environment, compiler and IDE being used and are outside the scope of the troubleshooting provided in this documentation.

If you have Anaconda installed then the Anaconda virtual environment commands below will create and configure a virtual environment that is ready to use to build Tracktable from source. Enter the following commands in a command/terminal/Anaconda prompt.

Important

Be sure to substitute the location where you saved tracktable_dev_environment.yml in the command above.

  1. Verify that the tracktable-dev virtual environment was created

    conda env list

  2. Activate the virtual environment

    conda activate tracktable-dev

  3. Deactivate the virtual environment (optional)

    conda deactivate

  4. Delete the virtual environment when it is no longer needed

conda remove --name tracktable-dev --all

  1. Create the Anaconda virtual environment

    We include a YML configuration file (tracktable_dev_environment.yml) that can be used to create an Anaconda virtual environment named tracktable-dev. This file will create the environment in one shot and doesn’t require any additional package installation after the environment is activated.

    conda env create -f /path/to/tracktable_dev_environment.yml

    Important

    Be sure to substitute the location where you saved tracktable_dev_environment.yml in the command above.

  2. Verify that the tracktable-dev virtual environment was created

    conda env list

  3. Activate the virtual environment

    conda activate tracktable-dev

  4. Deactivate the virtual environment (optional)

    conda deactivate

  5. Delete the virtual environment when it is no longer needed

conda remove --name tracktable-dev --all

Step 2: Configuration

CMake enforces what we call “out-of-source” builds: that is, you cannot build object files alongside source code files. This makes it much easier to manage multiple build configurations. It also means that the first thing you must do is create a build directory.

Important

In the rest of this guide we will use TRACKTABLE_HOME to refer to the directory where you unpacked the Tracktable source.

$ cd TRACKTABLE_HOME
$ mkdir build
$ cd build

Tip

You can also put your build directory anywhere else you please.

Next, use CMake’s configuration utility ccmake (or it’s command line version ‘cmake’ if you prefer) to configure compile settings.

If you made your build directory inside the source directory

$ ccmake ..

Or, if you made the build directory elsewhere

$ ccmake TRACKTABLE_HOME/

Once CMake starts you will see a mostly empty screen with the message EMPTY CACHE.

  • Press c (if you use ccmake) or click Configure (if you use the CMake GUI) to start configuration.

  • After a moment, several new options will appear including BUILD_PYTHON_WRAPPING and BUILD_SHARED_LIBS. Leave these set to ON.

    Warning

    Without these options you will not be able to use any of Tracktable’s Python components.

  • Set the value of CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to the directory where you want to install the software.

  • To build the documentation set the BUILD_DOCUMENTATION or BUILD_DOCUMENTATION_CXX_ONLY options to ON once you have the respective tools installed.

    Note

    There is no option to only build the Python documentation since the Python documentation build process depends upon the C++ documentation.

  • Press c or click the Configure button again to incorporate your choices.

Now you need to set options that are normally hidden. Press t or select the Show Advanced Options checkbox.

Here are the variables you need to check:

  1. Boost_INCLUDE_DIR and Boost_LIBRARY_DIR.

    These should point to your Boost install with Boost.Python. Filenames for the boost_date_time and boost_python libraries should appear automatically.

    If you change either of these directories in CMake, press c or click Configure to make your changes take effect.

2. Python3_EXECUTABLE, Python3_LIBRARIES, Python3_INCLUDE_DIRS

Make sure that all three of these point to the same installation. If you change any of these variables, press c or click Configure to make your changes take effect.

Important

You must make sure that all three components (interpreter, library and headers) correspond to one another or else the Python code will crash on startup with an unhelpful error message about thread state.

Note

On Mac OSX with MacPorts in particular, CMake has a habit of using whatever Python executable is first in your path, the include directory from /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework and the library from /usr/lib/. MacPorts installs its Python library in /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7 with headers in Headers/ and the Python library in lib/libpython3.7.dylib. Substitute whatever version you have installed in place of 3.7. If you have installed your own Python interpreter then use whatever path you chose for its installation.

Now press g or click Generate to confirm all of your choices and generate Makefiles, Visual Studio project files or your chosen equivalent.

Note

Some older CMake installations have an odd bug that shows up with certain Linux installations. You may see Boost_DIR set to something like /usr/lib64 no matter what value you try to set for Boost_INCLUDE_DIR and Boost_LIBRARY_DIR. If you experience this, try adding the line

set(Boost_NO_BOOST_CMAKE ON)

to TRACKTABLE_HOME/tracktable/CMakeLists.txt and then rerun CMake as described above.

Common Gotchas

Boost import targets not found

This happens when your installed version of CMake is too old for your installed version of Boost. Please upgrade CMake to the version listed in :ref:` Other Dependencies <other_dependencies>` section. If the problem persists, the Boost imports can be manually entered into your cmake configuration.

Anaconda does not install ccmake

This is a known bug that has been fixed in conda-forge but has not yet propagated to the main distribution. Install cmake from the conda-forge channel as follows:

$ conda install -c conda-forge cmake

Old version of Boost found in /usr/lib or /usr/lib64

Set the Boost_INCLUDE_DIR variable in CMake to point to the location of the include files for your preferred Boost installation. The filenames for the compiled libraries will be updated the next time you press c or Configure.

Windows: import error referring to the “_core_types” library

If you are using Tracktable under Windows, you might also need to install the C++ runtime library. This is a necessary component for any program compiled with Microsoft’s Visual C++ suite. You can get it from the following URL:

https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

The most common indication that you’re missing this library is an import error, Error importing Tracktable's core types library., when you try to import Tracktable in a Python interpreter.

Step 3: Build and Test

  • On Unix-like systems, type make.

  • For Visual Studio, run nmake, run msbuild on a project file, or open up the project files in your IDE (as appropriate). msbuild ALL_BUILD.vcxproj /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release

Once the build process has finished go to your build directory and run ctest (part of CMake) to run all the tests. They should all succeed.

Note

Some of the later Python tests such as P_Mapmaker may take a minute or two.

Tip

Windows users who chose Visual Studio project files during configuration can run the “test” project to run all the tests. This is a thin wrapper that calls CTest.

If you have multiple cores or processors and your build system supports it, by all means build in parallel. GNU Make will do this when you say make -j <n> where <n> is the number of compilers you’re willing to run. A bare make -j will cause it to run as many compiler instances as it believes you have cores or processors. Windows users using msbuild, can use the /m:<n> option from the command line.

Warning

The Python wrappers, especially the wrappers for DBSCAN, feature vectors and the R-tree, take between 1GB and 1.5GB of memory to compile. Keep this in mind when you run parallel builds. A good rule of thumb is to run no more than 1 process for every 1.5-2GB of main memory in your computer.

Common Problems

CMake error: “cannot find numpy”

This usually arises when CMake detects a different Python installation than the one you actually use. Take a look at the Python3_EXECUTABLE field in CMake. If it says something like /usr/bin/python and you use a Python distribution like Anaconda.

To fix, change Python3_EXECUTABLE to point to the Python interpreter in your environment. For Anaconda under Linux and OS X, this is usually either ~/anaconda3/bin/python or ~/anaconda3/envs/<environment name>/bin/python. Remember to also change Python3_LIBRARIES and Python3_INCLUDE_DIRS to the files inside your Anaconda directory.

Python tests crashing

If the tests whose names begin with P_ crash, you probably have a mismatch between Python3_EXECUTABLE and Python3_LIBRARIES. Check their values in ccmake / CMake GUI. If your Python executable is in (for example) /usr/local/python/bin/python then its corresponding library will usually be somewhere in /usr/local/python – for example, /usr/local/python/lib/libpython3.6.so – instead of in some directory outside /usr/local/python.

Python tests running but failing

  • Cause #1: One or more required Python packages missing.

    Check to make sure you have installed everything listed in the Dependencies section.

  • Cause #2: Couldn’t load one or more C++ libraries.

    Make sure that the directories containing the libraries in question are in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH (DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for MacOS) environment variable.

  • Cause #3: The wrong Python interpreter is being invoked.

    This really shouldn’t happen: we use the same Python interpreter that you specify in Python3_EXECUTABLE and set PYTHONPATH ourselves while running tests.

Windows VS/MSBuild Debug Build Fails

When creating a debug build in a Visual Studio based environment, it maybe necessary to add the the \bigobj flag to the CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG field.

Nearby Stars Go Nova

We’re afraid you’re on your own if this happens.

Step 4: Install

You can use Tracktable as-is from its build directory or install it elsewhere on your system. To install it, type make install in the build directory (or, again, your IDE’s equivalent). You can choose the install destination by changing the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable in CMake.

You will also need to add Tracktable to your system’s Python search path, usually stored in an environment variable named PYTHONPATH.

  • If you are going to run Tracktable from the directory where you unpacked it then add the directory TRACKTABLE_HOME/tracktable/Python/ to your PYTHONPATH.

  • If you installed Tracktable via make install then you will need to add INSTALL_DIR/Python/ to your PYTHONPATH. Here INSTALL_DIR is the directory you specified for installation when running CMake.

Finally, you will need to tell your system where to find the Tracktable C++ libraries.

Hint

On Windows, unless modified any Tracktable DLLs generated by Visual Studio will be located in tracktable\out\build\<build config>\bin. When installing Tracktable from Visual Studio on Windows the DLLs located in tracktable/out/install/<build config>/bin/TracktableCore.dll will be used for installation. build config is referring to the selected build configuration in Visual Studio i.e. x64-Release, x64-Debug, etc.

  • If you are running from your build tree (common during development) then the libraries will be in BUILD/lib and BUILD/bin

  • If you are running from an installed location the libraries will be in INSTALL_DIR/lib and INSTALL_DIR/bin.

  • On Windows, add the library directory to your PATH environment variable.

  • On Linux and most Unix-like systems, add the library directory to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

  • On Mac OSX, add the library directory to your DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

On Unix-like systems you can also add the library directory to your system-wide ld.so.conf file. You will need root permissions in order to do so. That is beyond the scope of this document.