[vtk-developers] Fixing VTK Python Installation

[Brad King]

Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:
> Thanks for letting me know.  Can I go ahead change the
> CMake/KitCommonBlock.cmake to use the Apple approach for Python?

Yes.

> I will be in and out the next couple of weeks so will need a dashboard
> buddy but can check in the changes.

I volunteer for this role.

> My vote is to leave things simple right now so that everything works
> for a single version of VTK (VTK-5.x).  I don't see the need to work
> up a hurried solution at this time with a non-standard approach that
> we will have to support in the future.

That's fine with me.

> Alternatively, we could add a (fully documented)
> VTK_PYTHON_SETUP_EXTRA_ARGS entry (in advanced?) where the user can do
> whatever they want.  So in the INSTALL rule one simply has to do the
> following:
> 
>   cd Wrapping/Python
>   python setup.py install ${VTK_PYTHON_SETUP_EXTRA_ARGS}

As long as it somehow can work from the main INSTALL target any 
implementation is fine with me.

> Well, setup.py is useful to create a Python installer::

Okay.  Providing such a setup.py in the build tree seems like a good idea.

> Well, that looks like an incredibly complex task since we would have
> to build all of VTK.  I think it is OK to just go with a default
> INSTALL rule that does what most would expect.

Agreed.

> A VTK-Python build would go like this:
> 
>  1. Install CMake.
>  2. Download VTK sources.
>  3. Configure VTK.
>  4. Build VTK.
>  5. Install VTK.
> 
> If you know what you are doing you can use setup.py to do whatever
> else is needed.  I'll try and document it in
> Wrapping/Python/README.txt.

Perfect.

Thanks,
-Brad