[vtkusers] Collaboration on macport for VTK 5.2.0

Fri Sep 19 14:32:14 EDT 2008

Hi Biv,

I've learned what I know about macports only in the last few days,
simply by reading their guide:
http://guide.macports.org/chunked/
Especially the sections 4 and 5:
http://guide.macports.org/chunked/development.html
http://guide.macports.org/chunked/reference.html

I've done a lot of work in the last few weeks trying to build various
libraries from scratch and I find it's difficult to get the library
dependency issues right.  I've started to work on the macport Portfile
as a tidy way to (a) record my work for posterity and (b) make it
easier for myself and other to replicate the work when I've forgotten
all about it.

I started working on the vtk5 portfile simply by running:
port edit vtk5
and saving that Portfile into my testing repository.  It really helps
to have a starting place to work from.

So now I'm adapting the Portfile for VTK 5.2.0 and testing different
build options (variants) on a recent mac pro and a macbook pro, both
running 10.5.  I also have access to an older powerpc system running
10.5.  Although I have three systems for testing, I'm fairly new to
macports and I find it takes "forever" to build this port and it has
to rebuild from scratch every time that it detects a change in the
Portfile.  I could really use help with coding and testing a few
different variants to see if they work.

Thanks for offering to help out.  Do you have admin privilege on your
system(s)?  I guess you do because your already using macports.
Attached is the current "snapshot" of the Portfile.  I've followed the
instructions here on how to create a small local repository:
http://guide.macports.org/chunked/development.local-repositories.html

1. First edit the sources.conf file for macports:
sudo pico /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf

2. Insert a URL pointing to your local repository location before the
rsync URL, eg:

file:///Users/<yourLoginID>/ports
rsync://rsync.macports.org/release/ports

3. Then create the test repository, something like this:

mkdir -p ~/ports/graphics/vtk5
cp ~/Downloads/Portfile ~/ports/graphics/vtk5/
cd ~/ports
portindex

4. Then try to find the local test port, ie it looks like this for me:

[ dweber at weber-mbp ~/ports ]$ port search vtk
vtk5                           graphics/vtk5  5.2.0        3D
visualization toolkit (www.vtk.org)
VTK                            graphics/vtk   4.2.6        3D
visualization toolkit
vtk5                           graphics/vtk5  5.0.3        3D
visualization toolkit
[ dweber at weber-mbp ~/ports ]$ port info vtk5
Warning: Found 2 port vtk5 definitions, displaying first one.
vtk5 5.2.0, graphics/vtk5 (Variants: universal, darwin_8, darwin_9,
shared, examples, testing, tclSys)
http://www.vtk.org/

An open source, freely available software system for computer
graphics, image processing, and visualization used by thousands of
researchers and developers around the world. VTK consists of a C++
class library, and several interpreted interface layers including
Tcl/Tk, Java, and Python.

Build Dependencies: cmake
Library Dependencies: python25
Platforms: darwin
Maintainers: darren.weber.lists at gmail.com
[ dweber at weber-mbp ~/ports ]$

5. Then try to install it with the default variants, ie:

sudo port install vtk5

{ Wait a long time for the download and the build stages.  Do
something else and check on it later. }

6. Read the Portfile and see if you can figure out what is going on.
Ask me questions.  I want to make some progress this week and next on
getting the java and python wrapping working.  We also need to test
different platforms and the X11 build and probably enable a static
build (it cannot support java and python, but it does support tcl
wrapping; I think).  I also want to enable the database libraries for
mysql and postgresql connections.  I've been able to install those
databases and get the VTK build options working for them, but it's not
trivial.

I would hope at the end of next week or the week thereafter to have a
Portfile that can be uploaded to the macport servers through a trac
ticket.  Also, the work that goes into this may translate to similar
ports for ITK and Paraview.

Thanks!

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 6:25 AM, Gerrick Bivins
<gbivins at objectreservoir.com> wrote:
> Hi Darren,
>
> I don't know much about creating port files(although I use macports quite a
> bit) but I can certainly help you test anything you produce.
> biv
>
>
> On 9/18/08 8:45 PM, "Darren Weber" <darren.weber.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 6:38 PM, Darren Weber
>> <darren.weber.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I'm working on adapting a macport called vtk5 to work with VTK 5.2.0
>>> (see current version attached - a work in progress).  If anyone else
>>> is using macports or building VTK for OSX (10.5 or otherwise), please
>>> get in contact so we can develop a nice macport for the 5.2.0 release.
>>>  I could use a lot of help to code and test different variants of the
>>> build configuration in the Portfile.  I've already contacted previous
>>> maintainers of the vtk macport and they are not available to continue
>>> the work.
>>>
>>> Thanks, Darren
>>>
>>> PS, I put the file attached into ~/ports/graphics/vtk5 and run
>>> portindex from ~/ports/ to make this port available for testing on my
>>> local system.  It is not ready for integration into macports, without
>>> further testing.
>>>
>>
>> PPS, See local portfile config details at:
>> http://guide.macports.org/chunked/development.local-repositories.html
>> See also:
>> http://guide.macports.org/chunked/development.html
>> http://guide.macports.org/chunked/reference.html
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