In this tutorial you will learn how to install ViSP from source on CentOS. These steps have been tested with CentOS 7.0 (x86_64) and with CentOS 7.2 (x86_64) distro, but should work with any other distribution as well.

Note: Concerning ViSP installation, we provide also other Tutorials.

Install prerequisities

gcc 4.4.x or later. This can be installed with:
$ sudo yum install gcc-c++
CMake 2.8.12.2 or higher that could be installed with:
$ sudo yum install cmake

Install 3rd parties

ViSP is interfaced with several 3rd party libraries. The complete list is provided here.

Recommended 3rd parties

We recommend to install the following:

OpenCV
$ sudo yum install opencv-devel
libX11 to be able to open a window to display images
$ sudo yum install libX11-devel
lapack to benefit from optimized mathematical capabilities
$ sudo yum install lapack-devel
libv4l to grab images from usb or analogic cameras
$ sudo yum install libv4l-devel
libxml2 to be able to configure the model-based trackers from xml files
$ sudo yum install libxml2-devel

Other optional 3rd parties

We give also the way to install other 3rd party libraries to enable specific capabilities.

libjpeg and libpng to support jpeg and png images respectively (only useful if OpenCV is not installed)
$ sudo yum install libjpeg-devel libpng-devel

Install ViSP from source code

Create a workspace

First create a workspace in $HOME/visp-ws that will contain ViSP source, build and dataset.
$ export VISP_WS=$HOME/visp-ws
$ mkdir -p $VISP_WS

Getting ViSP source code

There are different ways to get ViSP source code:

You can download the latest release as a zip or a tarball. Once downloaded, uncompress the file using either
$ tar xvzf visp-x.y.z.tar.gz -C $VISP_WS
or
$ unzip visp-x.y.z.zip -d $VISP_WS
You can also download a daily snapshot. Once downloaded, uncompress the file using
$ tar xvzf visp-snapshot-yyyy-mm-dd.tar.gz -C $VISP_WS
Or you get the cutting-edge ViSP from GitHub repository using the following command
$ cd $VISP_WS
$ git clone https://github.com/lagadic/visp.git

We suppose now that ViSP source is in the directory $VISP_WS/visp. The following should be adapted if you downloaded ViSP from a zip or tarball. In that case, the source is rather in something like $VISP_WS/visp-x.y.z.

Configuring ViSP from source

In the worspace, create first a directory named visp-build that will contain all the build material; generated Makefiles, object files, output libraries and binaries.
$ mkdir $VISP_WS/visp-build
Enter the visp-build folder and configure the build:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ cmake ../visp
A more versatile way to configure the build is to use ccmake, the CMake GUI:
$ ccmake ../visp
The following image shows that this command allows to configure (just by pressing [c] key) the build in a more advanced way where some options could be easily turned ON/OFF. It allows also to see which are the 3rd parties that will be used. To generate the makefiles, just press [g] key in the ccmake gui.

Snapshot of the ccmake ../visp command used to configure ViSP.

Building ViSP libraries

To build ViSP libraries proceed with:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ make -j4

Note: Installing ViSP is optional, since ViSP could be used as a 3rd party without installation. To proceed with the installation run:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ sudo make install; The default install location is set to /usr/local. This location could be changed modifying CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX var:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ cmake ../visp -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
$ sudo make install

Building ViSP documentation

To build ViSP documentation, you have first to install Doxygen package:
$ sudo yum install doxygen graphviz
Then you can proceed with:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ cmake ../visp
$ make -j4 visp_doc
The generated documentation is then available in $VISP_WS/visp-build/doc/html/index.html
It is also possible to generate a more complete documentation that includes also all the internal classes. This could be achieved setting CMake var ENABLE_FULL_DOC to ON like:
$ cmake ../visp -DENABLE_FULL_DOC=ON
$ make -j4 visp_doc

Install ViSP dataset

Some ViSP examples and tests require data (images, video, models) that are not part of ViSP source code but available in a separate archive named ViSP-images-x.y.z.zip. This archive could be downloaded from http://visp.inria.fr/download page. We provide here after the way to install these data if you want to run ViSP examples.
$ unzip ViSP-images-3.1.0.zip -d $VISP_WS
We suppose now that the data are located in $VISP_WS/ViSP-images-3.1.0.
$ ls $VISP_WS/ViSP-images
AprilTag circle ellipse iv LICENSE.txt mbt mire-2 video
calibration cube ellipse-1 Klimt line mire README.md
Set VISP_INPUT_IMAGE_PATH environment variable to help ViSP examples and tests to find the location of the data set. It is more convenient if this environment variables is automatically added to your bash session every time a new shell is launched:
$ echo "export VISP_WS=$HOME/visp-ws" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "export VISP_INPUT_IMAGE_PATH=$VISP_WS/ViSP-images-3.1.0" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
From now, you can try to run ViSP examples and tests. For example you can run displayX example that should open a windows with Klimt painting image and some overlay drawings:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ ./example/device/display/displayX
A click to close the windows...
A click to display a cross...
Cross position: 201, 441
A click to exit the program...
Bye

Tips and tricks

How to uninstall ViSP

After ViSP installation, you can remove installed material using:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ sudo make uninstall

How to build only ViSP libraries

If you want to build only ViSP modules libraries, nor the examples, tutorials and tests:
$ make -j4 visp_modules

How to build a ViSP specific module

If you want to build a given module and all the dependencies:
$ cd $VISP_WS/visp-build
$ make -j4 visp_<module_name>
For example to build the model-based tracker module named mbt, run:
$ make -j4 visp_mbt

Which are the targets that could be run with make ?

To know which are the target available with make:
$ make help | grep visp
... visp_demos
... visp_examples
... visp_modules
... visp_tests
... visp_tutorials
... visp_clipper
... visp_apriltag
... visp_core
... visp_gui
... visp_io
... visp_klt
... visp_me
... visp_sensor
... visp_ar
... visp_blob
... visp_robot
... visp_visual_features
... visp_vs
... visp_vision
... visp_detection
... visp_mbt
... visp_tt
... visp_tt_mi

Which are the 3rd party libraries that are used in ViSP ?

To see which are the optional 3rd parties that are found during the configuration stage and that will be used by ViSP during the build you can have a look to the text file named ViSP-third-party.txt and located in $VISP_WS/visp-build. We provide hereafter an example of a possible content of this file that contains also build info.
==========================================================
General configuration information for ViSP 3.1.0
Version control: 3.0.1-343-gdd1bc6e
Platform:
Timestamp: 2017-09-27T08:04:07Z
Host: Linux 3.10.0-514.6.1.el7.x86_64 x86_64
CMake: 2.8.12.2
CMake generator: Unix Makefiles
CMake build tool: /usr/bin/gmake
Configuration: Release
C/C++:
Built as dynamic libs?: yes
C++ Compiler: /usr/bin/c++ (ver 4.8.5)
C++ flags (Release): -Wall -Wextra -fopenmp -fvisibility=hidden -msse2 -msse3 -mssse3 -fPIC -O3 -DNDEBUG
C++ flags (Debug): -Wall -Wextra -fopenmp -fvisibility=hidden -msse2 -msse3 -mssse3 -fPIC -g
C Compiler: /usr/bin/cc
C flags (Release): -Wall -Wextra -fopenmp -fvisibility=hidden -msse2 -msse3 -mssse3 -fPIC -O3 -DNDEBUG
C flags (Debug): -Wall -Wextra -fopenmp -fvisibility=hidden -msse2 -msse3 -mssse3 -fPIC -g
Linker flags (Release):
Linker flags (Debug):
ViSP modules:
To be built: core gui io klt me sensor ar blob robot visual_features vs vision detection mbt tt tt_mi
Disabled: -
Disabled by dependency: -
Unavailable: -
Build options:
Build deprecated: yes
Build with moment combine: no
Mathematics:
Use Lapack/blas: yes (ver n/a)
Use Lapack (built-in): no
Use Eigen3: no
Use OpenCV: yes (ver 2.4.5)
Use GSL: yes (ver 1.15)
Simulator:
Ogre simulator:
\- Use Ogre3D: no
\- Use OIS: no
Coin simulator:
\- Use Coin3D: no
\- Use SoWin: no
\- Use SoXt: no
\- Use SoQt: no
\- Use Qt4: no
\- Use Qt3: no
Media I/O:
Use JPEG: yes (ver 62)
Use PNG: yes (ver 1.5.13)
\- Use ZLIB: yes (ver 1.2.7)
Use OpenCV: yes (ver 2.4.5)
Real robots:
Use Afma4: no
Use Afma6: no
Use Viper650: no
Use Viper850: no
Use aria (Pioneer): no
Use PTU46: no
Use Biclops PT: no
GUI:
Use X11: yes
Use GTK: no
Use OpenCV: yes (ver 2.4.5)
Use GDI: no
Use Direct3D: no
Cameras:
Use DC1394-2.x: no
Use CMU 1394: no
Use V4L2: yes (ver 0.9.5)
Use directshow: no
Use OpenCV: yes (ver 2.4.5)
Use Flycapture: no
Use Pylon: no
RGB-D sensors:
Use Realsense: no
\- Use PCL: no
\- Use VTK: no
Use Kinect: no
\- Use libfreenect: no
\- Use libusb-1: no
\- Use pthread: yes
F/T sensors:
Use atidaq (built-in): no
Use comedi: no
Detection:
Use zbar: no
Use dmtx: no
Use AprilTag (built-in): yes (ver 0.9.8)
Misc:
Use Clipper (built-in): yes (ver 6.4.2)
Use XML2: yes (ver 2.9.1)
Optimization:
Use OpenMP: yes
Use pthread: yes
Use pthread (built-in): no
Use cxx11: no
Documentation:
Use doxygen: no
Tests and samples:
Tests: yes
Demos: yes
Examples: yes
Tutorials: yes
Install path: /usr/local
==========================================================

Known issues

libpthread may be hidden by files in //lib64

On CentOS 7.0 with cmake 2.8.11, during cmake configuration you may encounter the following issue:
CMake Warning at src/CMakeLists.txt:80 (add_library):
Cannot generate a safe runtime search path for target visp because files in
some directories may conflict with libraries in implicit directories:
runtime library [libpthread.so] in /usr/lib64 may be hidden by files in:
//lib64
Some of these libraries may not be found correctly.
The problem was that libpthread.so exists in /usr/lib64 and in //lib64. In //lib64 it should be a symbolic link to /usr/lib64.
$ ls -als //lib64
0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 9 Feb 4 12:16 //lib64 -> usr/lib64
$ ls -als //lib64/libpthread*
140 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 141616 Jan 27 15:13 //lib64/libpthread-2.17.so
4 -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 222 Jan 27 14:42 //lib64/libpthread.so
0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 18 Feb 4 12:34 //lib64/libpthread.so.0 -> libpthread-2.17.so
The fix consists in removing //lib64/libpthread.so and creating a new symbolic link
$ cd //lib64
$ sudo rm libpthread.so
$ sudo ln -s libpthread-2.17.so libpthread.so
$ ls -als libpthread*
140 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 141616 Jan 27 15:13 libpthread-2.17.so
0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 18 Feb 4 16:09 libpthread.so -> libpthread-2.17.so
0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 18 Feb 4 12:34 libpthread.so.0 -> libpthread-2.17.so

vpVideoReader is not able to read mpeg videos

On CentOS 7.0, vpVideoReader uses OpenCV to read and decode videos. Some examples or tutorials provided in ViSP hang during cv::Capture::open() call. The reason is that OpenCV 2.4.5 cv::Capture seams buggy. This is for example the case if you run:
$ ./example/video/videoReader
A work arround consists in installing a more recent OpenCV version from source.

Next tutorial

You are now ready to see the next Tutorial: How to create and build a CMake project that uses ViSP on Unix or Windows that will show you how to use ViSP as a 3rd party to build your own project.

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