This page is targeted at those who wish to develop and build the freesurfer source code on their Linux platform. These instructions have been tested for CentOS6 x86_64 desktop edition.
1. Get the Source Code
If you have access within the Martinos Center firewall, follow the steps below to download the source code from CVS. Non-Martinos users can get readonly CVS access to the source code by following the directions on this page:
# Local: $> export CVSROOT=/space/repo/1/dev $> cvs checkout -P dev # Remote: $> export CVSROOT=:ext:USERNAME@door.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu:/space/repo/1/dev $> cvs checkout -P dev
2. Install System Libraries
The following system packages are required on CentOS6 systems before building. Equivalent or similar packages will be required on other linux distributions.
$> yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
$> yum install mesa-libGLU-devel \
freetype-devel.x86_64 \
libuuid-devel.x86_64 \
uuid-c++-devel.x86_64 \
libXmu-devel.x86_64 \
libXi-devel.x86_64 \
lapack-devel.x86_64 \
liblapack-devel.x86_64 \
libXaw-devel.x86_64 \
libpng-devel.x86_64
3. 3rd Party Depandancies
Download and install the prepackaged bundle of open-source libraries required for building Freesurfer:
$> wget ftp://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/pub/dist/fs_supportlibs/prebuilt/centos6_x86_64/centos6-x86_64-packages.tar.gz $> sudo mkdir -p /usr/pubsw/packages $> sudo tar -C /usr/pubsw/packages -xzvf centos6-x86_64-packages.tar.gz
It is theoretically possible to install the bundle in any location on your system, but that would require manually passing the location for each library when running the configure script. By installing in /usr/pubsw/packages the configure script will automatically find them.
4. Setup, Configure, Make
Determine the location you want Freesurfer to be installed. For example, in case case we will assume the user wants freesurfer to be installed in /home/USER/freesurfer. Type the following commands in the top-level Freesurfer directory (the directory that contains configure.in and all the mri_* and mris_* directories.)
$> ./setup_configure $> ./configure --prefix=/home/USER/freesurfer $> make -j4 $> make install
Done! Send your comments/questions/feedback to zkaufman@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu