Trouble installing Dlib for python on Mac OSX 10.10

[Rohan B]

I'm trying to install dlib-18.16 for python on my computer (running Mac OSX 10.10). I have boost python installed as well as X11, but I've been running into trouble when running ./compile_dlib_python_module.bat as instructed to after downloading the files.

The errors I get are numerous, but look something like this

[ 1%] Building CXX object dlib_build/CMakeFiles/dlib.dir/gui_widgets/fonts.o
In file included from /Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/fonts.cpp:14:
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:313:21: error: use
of undeclared identifier 'XAllocColor'
XAllocColor(d, cmap, &xcol);
This continues for a while and ends with

/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:400:21: error: use
of undeclared identifier 'XFillRectangle'
XFillRectangle(d, pix, gc, 0, 0, width, height);
^
fatal error: too many errors emitted, stopping now [-ferror-limit=]
20 errors generated.
make[2]: [dlib_build/CMakeFiles/dlib.dir/gui_widgets/fonts.o] Error 1
make[1]: [dlib_build/CMakeFiles/dlib.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2

I've checked for some of the missing functions like XFillRectangle, and found them declared in some .h files in the anaconda install of python (when looking at the dlib_build files, the installer seems to have located the anaconda install). Does anyone have any ideas as to how to fix this?

[Davis]

Those are X11 symbols. If you are getting those errors then X11 isn't
installed correctly. Did you install XQuartz?

[Rohan B]

yes I did, it's there in my /usr/ folder

[Davis]

Do the C++ example programs compile or is it just python?

[Rohan B]

I haven't been able to build the c++ version either, I get the same errors

[Davis]

Huh. How did you install XQuartz?

[Rohan B]

I downloaded it from here:

http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/

[Davis]

What exactly did you type to compile the c++ examples and what was the
output?

[Rohan B]

I typed the following from the dlib directory.

cd examples
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build . --config Release

After the last command, I get the following

[ 1%] Building CXX object dlib_build/CMakeFiles/dlib.dir/gui_widgets/fonts.o
In file included from /Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/fonts.cpp:14:
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:313:21: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XAllocColor'
XAllocColor(d, cmap, &xcol);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:319:36: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XmbTextExtents'; did you mean
'XTextExtents'?
return XmbTextExtents(fs, str, len, ink, logical);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XTextExtents
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:318:43: note:
'XTextExtents' declared here
inline static int XTextExtents (XFontSet fs, cha...
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:322:36: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XwcTextExtents'; did you mean
'XTextExtents'?
return XwcTextExtents(fs, str, len, ink, logical);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XTextExtents
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:321:43: note:
'XTextExtents' declared here
inline static int XTextExtents (XFontSet fs, wch...
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:325:29: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XmbDrawString'; did you mean 'XDrawString'?
XmbDrawString(d, w, fs, gc, x, y, str, num_bytes);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~
XDrawString
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:324:44: note:
'XDrawString' declared here
inline static void XDrawString(Display d, Windo...
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:328:29: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XwcDrawString'; did you mean 'XDrawString'?
XwcDrawString(d, w, fs, gc, x, y, str, num_bytes);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~
XDrawString
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:327:44: note:
'XDrawString' declared here
inline static void XDrawString(Display d, Windo...
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:334:29: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XOpenDisplay'
d = XOpenDisplay(NULL);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:337:33: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XOpenDisplay'
d = XOpenDisplay(":0.0");
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:369:29: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XFreeFontSet'
XFreeFontSet(d, fs);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:371:30: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XCreateFontSet'
fs = XCreateFontSet(d, fontset, &mlist, &mcount...
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:376:34: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XExtentsOfFontSet'
extent = XExtentsOfFontSet(fs);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:379:25: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XFreeStringList'; did you mean
'XwcFreeStringList'?
XFreeStringList(mlist);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XwcFreeStringList
/Users/xxx/anaconda/include/X11/Xutil.h:777:13: note: 'XwcFreeStringList'
declared here
extern void XwcFreeStringList(
^
In file included from /Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/fonts.cpp:14:
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:379:41: error:
cannot initialize a parameter of type 'wchar_t ' with an lvalue of type
'char '
XFreeStringList(mlist);
^~~~~
/Users/xxx/anaconda/include/X11/Xutil.h:781:1: note: passing argument to
parameter here
);
^
In file included from /Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/fonts.cpp:14:
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:388:29: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XFreeGC'
XFreeGC(d, gc);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:389:29: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XFreePixmap'
XFreePixmap(d, pix);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:393:103: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XDefaultDepth'
...DefaultRootWindow(d), pix_width_prev, pix_height_prev, XDefaultDepth(d, ...
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:394:30: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XCreateGC'
gc = XCreateGC(d, pix, 0, NULL);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:398:21: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XSetForeground'
XSetForeground(d, gc, backcolor);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:399:21: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XSetBackground'
XSetBackground(d, gc, backcolor);
^
/Users/xxx/Downloads/dlib-18.16/dlib/gui_widgets/nativefont.h:400:21: error:
use of undeclared identifier 'XFillRectangle'
XFillRectangle(d, pix, gc, 0, 0, width, height);
^
fatal error: too many errors emitted, stopping now [-ferror-limit=]
20 errors generated.
make[2]: [dlib_build/CMakeFiles/dlib.dir/gui_widgets/fonts.o] Error 1
make[1]: [dlib_build/CMakeFiles/dlib.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2

[Davis]

XAllocColor is a function in the X11 API. It should exist. Look in the
folder that contains the X11 header files and see if any of them define
that function. If not then something is deeply wrong with your X11
install. It should be inside the X11/Xlib.h file.

[Rohan B]

I found this in /usr/X11/include/X11/Xlib.h

extern Status XAllocColor(
Display / display /,
Colormap / colormap /,
XColor / screen_in_out /
);

I'm assuming this is the declaration.

[Davis]

That's the one. Since you aren't getting a "I can't find X11/Xlib.h
include file error" there must be another X11/Xlib.h file on your computer
that is being #included instead and is missing that declaration. Search
your computer for that file and see if it exists. Either that or there is
some kind of preprocessor macro that is stripping it out.

Here is an even simpler test. What happens when you type?
cd examples
g++ -I.. gui_api_ex.cpp ../dlib/all/source.cpp -lX11 -lpthread

[Rohan B]

I found a lot of Xlib.h files on my computer, including one in dlib/gui_core actually.

I got the following error when running that command

ld: library not found for -lX11
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

[Davis]

Well, I don't have an OS X machine to test this out on. But I know lots of
people who regularly use dlib on OSX and normally it's not an issue. It
looks like something is wrong with your X11 install but I can't tell you
what that is. I would try looking into cmake to see what folder it thinks
Xlib.h is in and what X11 library it's trying to link to. Maybe it's not
the one you expect.

[Rohan B]

I'm looking into CMakeCache.txt and it looks like the xlib path is going through my anaconda install of python. To change that, should I edit the txt file or another file?

[Rohan B]

Actually it looks like the anaconda version of Xlib.h includes a file called tkIntXlibDecls.h which has the XAllocColor function declared, so I have no idea what's up...

[Davis]

Try rerunning cmake with an option like -DCMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/X11/include.
Maybe that will get it to find the right file.

[Rohan B]

I'm confused, what should be the command exactly?

Do you mean
cmake .. - DCMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/X11/include

[Davis]

Yeah, except without the space after the hyphen. You will also probably
need to delete the contents of the build folder before doing it.

[Rohan B]

I tried your suggestion, and it compiled the C version. I had to run cmake without the '..' but with the DCMAKE flag. But I'm having trouble with the python version, still getting the same error

Just for reference, here's what I'm running in the python_examples directory.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../../tools/python -DCMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/X11/include
cmake --build . --config Release --target install

[Rohan B]

I realized that I had to go into the CMakeCache.txt file and manually change the X11 path from anaconda to usr/X11. It works now, thank you for all your help!

[Davis]

No problem.

Out of curiosity, if you change this (near line 149 in dlib/CMakeLists.txt)

        find_path(xlib_path Xlib.h
           PATHS
           /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/X11R6/include
           PATH_SUFFIXES X11
           )

to

        find_path(xlib_path Xlib.h
           PATHS
           /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/X11R6/include
           /usr/wherever/you/found/the/right/one
           PATH_SUFFIXES X11
           )

Does it make it so it compiles without needing to modify the CMakeCache.txt
file?

[Rohan B]

It did not work for python unfortunately

[Davis]

When you look at what happened, did xlib_path end up with the right path or
still get the anaconda one?