[Insight-users] [Announce] Debian packages of ITK 1.6.0 now available

[Gavin Baker]

Greetings,

I am pleased to announce that packages of the Insight Toolkit version 1.6.0,
along with CableSwig 1.6.0, are now available for Debian GNU/Linux.

Release notes and instructions on obtaining the packages are available from:

    http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~gavinb/projects/itk.php


Downloading
~~~~~~~~~~~

The packages are available for installation via apt-get (or direct download)
from the unofficial package repository:

    http://mentors.debian.net/

Please consult the documentation provided (on the site) for installation
intructions.


Supported Releases
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The current release is built with the sid/unstable release for the i386
architecture.

Anyone interested in packages for other architectures (Debian supports over
11!) please contact me directly.


Packages Available Now
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The core ITK libraries (for runtime and development), as well as the
examples source are all available.  I have also packaged CableSwig, which
will enable Tcl/Python wrapping.

    - libinsighttoolkit2          -- runtime libraries
    - libinsighttoolkit2-dev      -- development files (headers, CMake, etc)
    - insighttoolkit-examples     -- source of example programs
    - cableswig                   -- Generates Tcl/Python wrappers


Coming Soon
~~~~~~~~~~~

The applications and documentation packages are in the works.  Now that
CableSwig is packaged, this will enable wrapped versions of ITK for Python
and Tcl.  These packages will comprise:

    - insighttoolkit-apps         -- demo applications (with GUI, Viz)
    - insighttoolkit-doc          -- API reference documentation
    - python-insighttoolkit       -- Python wrappers for ITK
    - tcl-insighttoolkit          -- Tcl wrappers for ITK


ETA for the above is early March.


Versioning
~~~~~~~~~~

These packages use the new soversion support in CMake (thanks to Brad King
and Maitland Bottoms).  The soversion is 2, and the library version is
1.6.0.  I will submit patches so that these can be added to ITK proper, to
ensure consistent versioning with other platforms/releases.

In practice, this change is effectively transparent, and requires no change
to user code; simply ensure you have CMake of at least version 1.8.2.1-1.
Projects can still be built in the same way (ie. still link against
libITKCommon.so etc).  This support ensures compliance with Debian policy
(and good shared library building practice!)  and enables multiple
incompatible libraries to co-exist on the same machine.


Disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~

These packages are not yet officially part of Debian.  Please do not use the
Debian BTS or the insight-users list for problems relating to these
packages.  The email address to use is:

    gavinb ~at~ antonym .dot. org

This is the address also used to sign the packages; my GPG id is 108F60BB
and is fairly well signed.

I have tested the new packages with a number of my own ITK apps (as well as
the Applications).  While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the
quality of the packages, use at your own risk, etc etc.



All feedback and suggestions welcome!

Thanks,

  :: Gavin

-- 
Gavin Baker                                      Complex Systems Group
http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~gavinb             The University of Melbourne