At 00:02 4/02/2004 +0000, Mark Jenkinson wrote:
>Several people have had problems getting FSL GUIs to run under
>SUSE linux, but we have now found a way to get all the FSL GUIs to run
<snip>
>http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslfaq/#general_suse
>
>Note that this might also be useful for other platforms where it is
>desirable or necessary to use the native tcl/tk installation.
Dear Mark,
Thanks for that. I find it of interest in a Debian GNU/Linux
context. For me, the FSL sources compile and run just fine but since we
use FSL and several other packages besides, there is developing a situation
where, seemingly, every such package comes replete with its own tcl/tk,
etc, etc and you wind up with a lot of redundancy on the system. You also
get to the stage where, for example, a security problem is discovered in an
application and you want to replace it with the latest fixed
package. Tcltk is probably a bad example, but that is the sort of thing I
have in mind. Perl is probably a better example as there has been a
recently discovered (and fixed!) perl compromise.
With natively-installed packages there is typically a mechanism to rapidly
replace the security-compromised packages with fresh ones. In a Debian
context this might be apt-get update; apt-get upgrade or the
RedHat/SuSE/... equivalent. What then happens is that all applications
dependant upon the natively installed packages then have the benefit of the
latest, secure versions. If we have sep. packages then we need to track
them down and fix them one by one.
For other brain analytical packages there is usually a configuration option
that allows one to specify whether to use the included packages or native
packages or whatever. Such things as
--with-tixwish=/usr/bin/wish (Fictitious example but you get my meaning,
I'm sure.) I have looked at the installation scripts for FSL and cannot
easily see how the freeware components can be eliminated from the
compilation and "native" or at least previously-installed components used,
instead. [1]
I appreciate that this is non-trivial since there will be many gotchas
involved in using tcltk version blah.blah with doxygen version fred.nurke
and so on, and make them all play together nicely. Again fictitious
examples but those of us who've compiled programmes from source will be
aware of the potential problems. May I propose therefore that some time
in the future, thought be given to having options for people to use
non-FSL-packaged freeware elements? It would of course be the users
responsibility if things turned pair-shaped and you could always continue
to provide the all-in-one package deal as at present.
Just my $0.02 worth,
Cheers from Oz,
Denis
[1] It was late at night so maybe I missed The Bleeding Obvious (tm) in
which case, apologies :-)
Denis Brown Ph: +61 8 9346 2973
Snr Electronics Technician Fx: +61 8 9346 3828
School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western
Australia
1st Floor D Block QE 2 Medical Centre, NEDLANDS 6009 WESTERN AUSTRALIA
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