.. _chapter-building:
=======================
Building & Installation
=======================
Getting the source code
=======================
.. _section-source:
You can start with the `latest stable release
<http://ceres-solver.org/ceres-solver-1.9.0.tar.gz>`_ . Or if you want
the latest version, you can clone the git repository
.. code-block:: bash
git clone https://ceres-solver.googlesource.com/ceres-solver
.. _section-dependencies:
Dependencies
============
Ceres relies on a number of open source libraries, some of which are
optional. For details on customizing the build process, see
:ref:`section-customizing` .
- `Eigen <http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page>`_
3.2.1 or later. **Required**
.. NOTE ::
Ceres can also use Eigen as a sparse linear algebra
library. Please see the documentation for ``-DEIGENSPARSE`` for
more details.
- `CMake <http://www.cmake.org>`_ 2.8.0 or later.
**Required on all platforms except for Android.**
- `Google Log <http://code.google.com/p/google-glog>`_ 0.3.1 or
later. **Recommended**
.. NOTE::
Ceres has a minimal replacement of ``glog`` called ``miniglog``
that can be enabled with the ``MINIGLOG`` build
option. ``miniglog`` is needed on Android as ``glog`` currently
does not build using the NDK. It can however be used on other
platforms too.
**We do not advise using** ``miniglog`` **on platforms other than
Android due to the various performance and functionality
compromises in** ``miniglog``.
- `Google Flags <http://code.google.com/p/gflags>`_. Needed to build
examples and tests.
- `SuiteSparse
<http://www.cise.ufl.edu/research/sparse/SuiteSparse/>`_. Needed for
solving large sparse linear systems. **Optional; strongly recomended
for large scale bundle adjustment**
- `CXSparse <http://www.cise.ufl.edu/research/sparse/CXSparse/>`_.
Similar to ``SuiteSparse`` but simpler and slower. CXSparse has
no dependencies on ``LAPACK`` and ``BLAS``. This makes for a simpler
build process and a smaller binary. **Optional**
- `BLAS <http://www.netlib.org/blas/>`_ and `LAPACK
<http://www.netlib.org/lapack/>`_ routines are needed by
``SuiteSparse``, and optionally used by Ceres directly for some
operations.
On ``UNIX`` OSes other than Mac OS X we recommend `ATLAS
<http://math-atlas.sourceforge.net/>`_, which includes ``BLAS`` and
``LAPACK`` routines. It is also possible to use `OpenBLAS
<https://github.com/xianyi/OpenBLAS>`_ . However, one needs to be
careful to `turn off the threading
<https://github.com/xianyi/OpenBLAS/wiki/faq#wiki-multi-threaded>`_
inside ``OpenBLAS`` as it conflicts with use of threads in Ceres.
MAC OS X ships with an optimized ``LAPACK`` and ``BLAS``
implementation as part of the ``Accelerate`` framework. The Ceres
build system will automatically detect and use it.
For Windows things are much more complicated. `LAPACK For
Windows <http://icl.cs.utk.edu/lapack-for-windows/lapack/>`_
has detailed instructions..
**Optional but required for** ``SuiteSparse``.
.. _section-linux:
Linux
=====
We will use `Ubuntu <http://www.ubuntu.com>`_ as our example linux
distribution.
.. NOTE::
Up to at least Ubuntu 13.10, the SuiteSparse package in the official
package repository (built from SuiteSparse v3.4.0) **cannot** be used
to build Ceres as a *shared* library. Thus if you want to build
Ceres as a shared library using SuiteSparse, you must perform a
source install of SuiteSparse. It is recommended that you use the
current version of SuiteSparse (4.2.1 at the time of writing).
Start by installing all the dependencies.
.. code-block:: bash
# CMake
sudo apt-get install cmake
# gflags
tar -xvzf gflags-2.0.tar.gz
cd gflags-2.0
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install.
# google-glog must be configured to use the previously installed gflags
tar -xvzf glog-0.3.2.tar.gz
cd glog-0.3.2
./configure --with-gflags=/usr/local/
make
sudo make install
# BLAS & LAPACK
sudo apt-get install libatlas-base-dev
# Eigen3
sudo apt-get install libeigen3-dev
# SuiteSparse and CXSparse (optional)
# - If you want to build Ceres as a *static* library (the default)
# you can use the SuiteSparse package in the main Ubuntu package
# repository:
sudo apt-get install libsuitesparse-dev
# - However, if you want to build Ceres as a *shared* library, you must
# perform a source install of SuiteSparse (and uninstall the Ubuntu
# package if it is currently installed.
We are now ready to build, test, and install Ceres.
.. code-block:: bash
tar zxf ceres-solver-1.9.0.tar.gz
mkdir ceres-bin
cd ceres-bin
cmake ../ceres-solver-1.9.0
make -j3
make test
make install
You can also try running the command line bundling application with one of the
included problems, which comes from the University of Washington's BAL
dataset [Agarwal]_.
.. code-block:: bash
bin/simple_bundle_adjuster ../ceres-solver-1.9.0/data/problem-16-22106-pre.txt
This runs Ceres for a maximum of 10 iterations using the
``DENSE_SCHUR`` linear solver. The output should look something like
this.
.. code-block:: bash
iter cost cost_change |gradient| |step| tr_ratio tr_radius ls_iter iter_time total_time
0 4.185660e+06 0.00e+00 1.09e+08 0.00e+00 0.00e+00 1.00e+04 0 7.59e-02 3.37e-01
1 1.062590e+05 4.08e+06 8.99e+06 5.36e+02 9.82e-01 3.00e+04 1 1.65e-01 5.03e-01
2 4.992817e+04 5.63e+04 8.32e+06 3.19e+02 6.52e-01 3.09e+04 1 1.45e-01 6.48e-01
3 1.899774e+04 3.09e+04 1.60e+06 1.24e+02 9.77e-01 9.26e+04 1 1.43e-01 7.92e-01
4 1.808729e+04 9.10e+02 3.97e+05 6.39e+01 9.51e-01 2.78e+05 1 1.45e-01 9.36e-01
5 1.803399e+04 5.33e+01 1.48e+04 1.23e+01 9.99e-01 8.33e+05 1 1.45e-01 1.08e+00
6 1.803390e+04 9.02e-02 6.35e+01 8.00e-01 1.00e+00 2.50e+06 1 1.50e-01 1.23e+00
Ceres Solver v1.10.0 Solve Report
----------------------------------
Original Reduced
Parameter blocks 22122 22122
Parameters 66462 66462
Residual blocks 83718 83718
Residual 167436 167436
Minimizer TRUST_REGION
Dense linear algebra library EIGEN
Trust region strategy LEVENBERG_MARQUARDT
Given Used
Linear solver DENSE_SCHUR DENSE_SCHUR
Threads 1 1
Linear solver threads 1 1
Linear solver ordering AUTOMATIC 22106, 16
Cost:
Initial 4.185660e+06
Final 1.803390e+04
Change 4.167626e+06
Minimizer iterations 6
Successful steps 6
Unsuccessful steps 0
Time (in seconds):
Preprocessor 0.261
Residual evaluation 0.082
Jacobian evaluation 0.412
Linear solver 0.442
Minimizer 1.051
Postprocessor 0.002
Total 1.357
Termination: CONVERGENCE (Function tolerance reached. |cost_change|/cost: 1.769766e-09 <= 1.000000e-06)
.. section-osx:
Mac OS X
========
.. NOTE::
Ceres will not compile using Xcode 4.5.x (Clang version 4.1) due to a bug in that version of
Clang. If you are running Xcode 4.5.x, please update to Xcode >= 4.6.x before attempting to
build Ceres.
On OS X, we recommend using the `homebrew
<http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/>`_ package manager to install Ceres.
.. code-block:: bash
brew install ceres-solver
will install the latest stable version along with all the required
dependencies and
.. code-block:: bash
brew install ceres-solver --HEAD
will install the latest version in the git repo.
You can also install each of the dependencies by hand using `homebrew
<http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/>`_. There is no need to install
``BLAS`` or ``LAPACK`` separately as OS X ships with optimized
``BLAS`` and ``LAPACK`` routines as part of the `vecLib
<https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Performance/Conceptual/vecLib/Reference/reference.html>`_
framework.
.. code-block:: bash
# CMake
brew install cmake
# google-glog and gflags
brew install glog
# Eigen3
brew install eigen
# SuiteSparse and CXSparse
brew install suite-sparse
We are now ready to build, test, and install Ceres.
.. code-block:: bash
tar zxf ceres-solver-1.9.0.tar.gz
mkdir ceres-bin
cd ceres-bin
cmake ../ceres-solver-1.9.0
make -j3
make test
make install
Like the Linux build, you should now be able to run
``bin/simple_bundle_adjuster``.
.. _section-windows:
Windows
=======
On Windows, we support building with Visual Studio 2010 or newer. Note
that the Windows port is less featureful and less tested than the
Linux or Mac OS X versions due to the lack of an officially supported
way of building SuiteSparse and CXSparse. There are however a number
of unofficial ways of building these libraries. Building on Windows
also a bit more involved since there is no automated way to install
dependencies.
.. NOTE:: Using ``google-glog`` & ``miniglog`` with windows.h.
The windows.h header if used with GDI (Graphics Device Interface)
defines ``ERROR``, which conflicts with the definition of ``ERROR``
as a LogSeverity level in ``google-glog`` and ``miniglog``. There
are at least two possible fixes to this problem:
#. Use ``google-glog`` and define ``GLOG_NO_ABBREVIATED_SEVERITIES``
when building Ceres and your own project, as documented
`here <http://google-glog.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/doc/glog.html>`__.
Note that this fix will not work for ``miniglog``,
but use of ``miniglog`` is strongly discouraged on any platform for which
``google-glog`` is available (which includes Windows).
#. If you do not require GDI, then define ``NOGDI`` **before** including
windows.h. This solution should work for both ``google-glog`` and
``miniglog`` and is documented for ``google-glog``
`here <https://code.google.com/p/google-glog/issues/detail?id=33>`__.
#. Make a toplevel directory for deps & build & src somewhere: ``ceres/``
#. Get dependencies; unpack them as subdirectories in ``ceres/``
(``ceres/eigen``, ``ceres/glog``, etc)
#. ``Eigen`` 3.1 (needed on Windows; 3.0.x will not work). There is
no need to build anything; just unpack the source tarball.
#. ``google-glog`` Open up the Visual Studio solution and build it.
#. ``gflags`` Open up the Visual Studio solution and build it.
#. (Experimental) ``SuiteSparse`` Previously SuiteSparse was not available
on Windows, recently it has become possible to build it on Windows using
the `suitesparse-metis-for-windows <https://github.com/jlblancoc/suitesparse-metis-for-windows>`_
project. If you wish to use ``SuiteSparse``, follow their instructions
for obtaining and building it.
#. (Experimental) ``CXSparse`` Previously CXSparse was not available on
Windows, there are now several ports that enable it to be, including:
`[1] <https://github.com/PetterS/CXSparse>`_ and
`[2] <https://github.com/TheFrenchLeaf/CXSparse>`_. If you wish to use
``CXSparse``, follow their instructions for obtaining and building it.
#. Unpack the Ceres tarball into ``ceres``. For the tarball, you
should get a directory inside ``ceres`` similar to
``ceres-solver-1.3.0``. Alternately, checkout Ceres via ``git`` to
get ``ceres-solver.git`` inside ``ceres``.
#. Install ``CMake``,
#. Make a dir ``ceres/ceres-bin`` (for an out-of-tree build)
#. Run ``CMake``; select the ``ceres-solver-X.Y.Z`` or
``ceres-solver.git`` directory for the CMake file. Then select the
``ceres-bin`` for the build dir.
#. Try running ``Configure``. It won't work. It'll show a bunch of options.
You'll need to set:
#. ``EIGEN_INCLUDE_DIR_HINTS``
#. ``GLOG_INCLUDE_DIR_HINTS``
#. ``GLOG_LIBRARY_DIR_HINTS``
#. ``GFLAGS_INCLUDE_DIR_HINTS``
#. ``GFLAGS_LIBRARY_DIR_HINTS``
#. (Optional) ``SUITESPARSE_INCLUDE_DIR_HINTS``
#. (Optional) ``SUITESPARSE_LIBRARY_DIR_HINTS``
#. (Optional) ``CXSPARSE_INCLUDE_DIR_HINTS``
#. (Optional) ``CXSPARSE_LIBRARY_DIR_HINTS``
to the appropriate directories where you unpacked/built them. If any of
the variables are not visible in the ``CMake`` GUI, create a new entry
for them. We recommend using the ``<NAME>_(INCLUDE/LIBRARY)_DIR_HINTS``
variables rather than setting the ``<NAME>_INCLUDE_DIR`` &
``<NAME>_LIBRARY`` variables directly to keep all of the validity
checking, and to avoid having to specify the library files manually.
#. You may have to tweak some more settings to generate a MSVC
project. After each adjustment, try pressing Configure & Generate
until it generates successfully.
#. Open the solution and build it in MSVC
To run the tests, select the ``RUN_TESTS`` target and hit **Build
RUN_TESTS** from the build menu.
Like the Linux build, you should now be able to run
``bin/simple_bundle_adjuster``.
Notes:
#. The default build is Debug; consider switching it to release mode.
#. Currently ``system_test`` is not working properly.
#. CMake puts the resulting test binaries in ``ceres-bin/examples/Debug``
by default.
#. The solvers supported on Windows are ``DENSE_QR``, ``DENSE_SCHUR``,
``CGNR``, and ``ITERATIVE_SCHUR``.
#. We're looking for someone to work with upstream ``SuiteSparse`` to
port their build system to something sane like ``CMake``, and get a
fully supported Windows port.
.. _section-android:
Android
=======
Download the ``Android NDK`` version ``r9d`` or later. Run
``ndk-build`` from inside the ``jni`` directory. Use the
``libceres.a`` that gets created.
.. _section-ios:
iOS
===
.. NOTE::
You need iOS version 6.0 or higher to build Ceres Solver.
To build Ceres for iOS, we need to force ``CMake`` to find the toolchains from
the iOS SDK instead of using the standard ones. For example:
.. code-block:: bash
cmake ../ceres-solver \
-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../ceres-solver/cmake/iOS.cmake \
-DEIGEN_INCLUDE_DIR=/path/to/eigen/header \
-DIOS_PLATFORM=<PLATFORM>
``PLATFORM`` can be one of ``OS``, ``SIMULATOR`` and ``SIMULATOR64``. You can
build for ``OS`` (``armv7``, ``armv7s``, ``arm64``), ``SIMULATOR`` (``i386``) or
``SIMULATOR64`` (``x86_64``) separately and use ``LIPO`` to merge them into
one static library. See ``cmake/iOS.cmake`` for more options.
After building, you will get a ``libceres.a`` library, which you will need to
add to your Xcode project.
The default CMake configuration builds a bare bones version of Ceres
Solver that only depends on Eigen (``MINIGLOG`` is compiled into Ceres if it is
used), this should be sufficient for solving small to moderate sized problems
(No ``SPARSE_SCHUR``, ``SPARSE_NORMAL_CHOLESKY`` linear solvers and no
``CLUSTER_JACOBI`` and ``CLUSTER_TRIDIAGONAL`` preconditioners).
If you decide to use ``LAPACK`` and ``BLAS``, then you also need to add
``Accelerate.framework`` to your XCode project's linking dependency.
.. _section-customizing:
Customizing the build
=====================
It is possible to reduce the libraries needed to build Ceres and
customize the build process by setting the appropriate options in
``CMake``. These options can either be set in the ``CMake`` GUI,
or via ``-D<OPTION>=<ON/OFF>`` when running ``CMake`` from the
command line. In general, you should only modify these options from
their defaults if you know what you are doing.
.. NOTE::
If you are setting variables via ``-D<VARIABLE>=<VALUE>`` when calling
``CMake``, it is important to understand that this forcibly **overwrites** the
variable ``<VARIABLE>`` in the ``CMake`` cache at the start of *every configure*.
This can lead to confusion if you are invoking the ``CMake``
`curses <http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html>`_ terminal GUI
(via ``ccmake``, e.g. ```ccmake -D<VARIABLE>=<VALUE> <PATH_TO_SRC>``).
In this case, even if you change the value of ``<VARIABLE>`` in the ``CMake``
GUI, your changes will be **overwritten** with the value passed via
``-D<VARIABLE>=<VALUE>`` (if one exists) at the start of each configure.
As such, it is generally easier not to pass values to ``CMake`` via ``-D``
and instead interactively experiment with their values in the ``CMake`` GUI.
If they are not present in the *Standard View*, toggle to the *Advanced View*
with ``<t>``.
Options controlling Ceres configuration
---------------------------------------
#. ``LAPACK [Default: ON]``: By default Ceres will use ``LAPACK`` (&
``BLAS``) if they are found. Turn this ``OFF`` to build Ceres
without ``LAPACK``. Turning this ``OFF`` also disables
``SUITESPARSE`` as it depends on ``LAPACK``.
#. ``SUITESPARSE [Default: ON]``: By default, Ceres will link to
``SuiteSparse`` if it and all of its dependencies are present. Turn
this ``OFF`` to build Ceres without ``SuiteSparse``. Note that
``LAPACK`` must be ``ON`` in order to build with ``SuiteSparse``.
#. ``CXSPARSE [Default: ON]``: By default, Ceres will link to
``CXSparse`` if all its dependencies are present. Turn this ``OFF``
to build Ceres without ``CXSparse``.
#. ``EIGENSPARSE [Default: OFF]``: By default, Ceres will not use
Eigen's sparse Cholesky factorization. The is because this part of
the code is licensed under the ``LGPL`` and since ``Eigen`` is a
header only library, including this code will result in an ``LGPL``
licensed version of Ceres.
#. ``GFLAGS [Default: ON]``: Turn this ``OFF`` to build Ceres without
``gflags``. This will also prevent some of the example code from
building.
#. ``MINIGLOG [Default: OFF]``: Ceres includes a stripped-down,
minimal implementation of ``glog`` which can optionally be used as
a substitute for ``glog``, thus removing ``glog`` as a required
dependency. Turn this ``ON`` to use this minimal ``glog``
implementation.
#. ``SCHUR_SPECIALIZATIONS [Default: ON]``: If you are concerned about
binary size/compilation time over some small (10-20%) performance
gains in the ``SPARSE_SCHUR`` solver, you can disable some of the
template specializations by turning this ``OFF``.
#. ``OPENMP [Default: ON]``: On certain platforms like Android,
multi-threading with ``OpenMP`` is not supported. Turn this ``OFF``
to disable multithreading.
#. ``BUILD_SHARED_LIBS [Default: OFF]``: By default Ceres is built as
a static library, turn this ``ON`` to instead build Ceres as a
shared library.
#. ``BUILD_DOCUMENTATION [Default: OFF]``: Use this to enable building
the documentation, requires `Sphinx <http://sphinx-doc.org/>`_ and the
`sphinx_rtd_theme <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/sphinx_rtd_theme>`_
package available from the Python package index. In addition,
``make ceres_docs`` can be used to build only the documentation.
#. ``MSVC_USE_STATIC_CRT [Default: OFF]`` *Windows Only*: By default
Ceres will use the Visual Studio default, *shared* C-Run Time (CRT) library.
Turn this ``ON`` to use the *static* C-Run Time library instead.
Options controlling Ceres dependency locations
----------------------------------------------
Ceres uses the ``CMake``
`find_package <http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/v2.8.12/cmake.html#command:find_package>`_
function to find all of its dependencies using
``Find<DEPENDENCY_NAME>.cmake`` scripts which are either included in Ceres
(for most dependencies) or are shipped as standard with ``CMake``
(for ``LAPACK`` & ``BLAS``). These scripts will search all of the "standard"
install locations for various OSs for each dependency. However, particularly
for Windows, they may fail to find the library, in this case you will have to
manually specify its installed location. The ``Find<DEPENDENCY_NAME>.cmake``
scripts shipped with Ceres support two ways for you to do this:
#. Set the *hints* variables specifying the *directories* to search in
preference, but in addition, to the search directories in the
``Find<DEPENDENCY_NAME>.cmake`` script:
- ``<DEPENDENCY_NAME (CAPS)>_INCLUDE_DIR_HINTS``
- ``<DEPENDENCY_NAME (CAPS)>_LIBRARY_DIR_HINTS``
These variables should be set via ``-D<VAR>=<VALUE>``
``CMake`` arguments as they are not visible in the GUI.
#. Set the variables specifying the *explicit* include directory
and library file to use:
- ``<DEPENDENCY_NAME (CAPS)>_INCLUDE_DIR``
- ``<DEPENDENCY_NAME (CAPS)>_LIBRARY``
This bypasses *all* searching in the
``Find<DEPENDENCY_NAME>.cmake`` script, but validation is still
performed.
These variables are available to set in the ``CMake`` GUI. They
are visible in the *Standard View* if the library has not been
found (but the current Ceres configuration requires it), but
are always visible in the *Advanced View*. They can also be
set directly via ``-D<VAR>=<VALUE>`` arguments to ``CMake``.
Building using custom BLAS & LAPACK installs
----------------------------------------------
If the standard find package scripts for ``BLAS`` & ``LAPACK`` which ship with
``CMake`` fail to find the desired libraries on your system, try setting
``CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH`` to the path(s) to the directories containing the
``BLAS`` & ``LAPACK`` libraries when invoking ``CMake`` to build Ceres via
``-D<VAR>=<VALUE>``. This should result in the libraries being found for any
common variant of each.
If you are building on an exotic system, or setting ``CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH``
does not work, or is not appropriate for some other reason, one option would be
to write your own custom versions of ``FindBLAS.cmake`` &
``FindLAPACK.cmake`` specific to your environment. In this case you must set
``CMAKE_MODULE_PATH`` to the directory containing these custom scripts when
invoking ``CMake`` to build Ceres and they will be used in preference to the
default versions. However, in order for this to work, your scripts must provide
the full set of variables provided by the default scripts. Also, if you are
building Ceres with ``SuiteSparse``, the versions of ``BLAS`` & ``LAPACK``
used by ``SuiteSparse`` and Ceres should be the same.
.. _section-using-ceres:
Using Ceres with CMake
======================
Once the library is installed with ``make install``, it is possible to
use CMake with `FIND_PACKAGE()
<http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/v2.8.10/cmake.html#command:find_package>`_
in order to compile **user code** against Ceres. For example, for
`examples/helloworld.cc
<https://ceres-solver.googlesource.com/ceres-solver/+/master/examples/helloworld.cc>`_
the following CMakeList.txt can be used:
.. code-block:: cmake
CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 2.8)
PROJECT(helloworld)
FIND_PACKAGE(Ceres REQUIRED)
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(${CERES_INCLUDE_DIRS})
# helloworld
ADD_EXECUTABLE(helloworld helloworld.cc)
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(helloworld ${CERES_LIBRARIES})
Specify Ceres version
---------------------
Additionally, when CMake has found Ceres it can check the package
version, if it has been specified in the `FIND_PACKAGE()
<http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/v2.8.10/cmake.html#command:find_package>`_
call. For example:
.. code-block:: cmake
FIND_PACKAGE(Ceres 1.2.3 REQUIRED)
The version is an optional argument.
Local installations
-------------------
If Ceres was installed in a non-standard path by specifying
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/some/where/local", then the user should add
the **PATHS** option to the ``FIND_PACKAGE()`` command. e.g.,
.. code-block:: cmake
FIND_PACKAGE(Ceres REQUIRED PATHS "/some/where/local/")
Note that this can be used to have multiple versions of Ceres
installed.