1 - Installing ROpenCVLite

Simon Garnier

Installing ROpenCVLite should go smoothly on all major operating systems (Mac, Windows, and “Ubuntu-like” Linux). There are a few steps to follow before installing the package itself in order to prepare all the necessary external (i.e. non-R) dependencies for OpenCV.

All installation steps are described below.

1 - Before installing

1.1 - Windows

Before installing ROpenCVLite, you will need to install the latest versions of CMake and Rtools.

1.1.1 - Cmake

+ Option 1

Use the convenience function provided by the installr library:

if (!require("installr"))
  install.packages("installr")
  
installr::install.CMake()

During the installation process, make sure to tell the installer to add CMake to your “PATH”.

+ Option 2

Download the CMake installer for Windows at https://cmake.org/download/. Make sure to tell the installer to add CMake to your “PATH”.

1.1.2 - Rtools

+ Option 1

Use the convenience function provided by the installr library:

if (!require("installr"))
  install.packages("installr")
  
installr::install.Rtools()

During the installation process, make sure to tell the installer to add Rtools to your “PATH”.

+ Option 2

Download the latest “recommended” version of Rtools at https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/. Make sure to tell the installer to add Rtools to your “PATH”.

1.2 - Mac

Before installing ROpenCVLite, you will need to install the latest version of CMake.

+ Option 1

Go to https://cmake.org/download/. Scroll down until you reach the “Latest Release” section. Download the installer for Mac OS X (.dmg file). Once the download is complete, double-click on the installer and accept the license agreement. Drag and drop the Cmake app into your Applications folder.

To make Cmake accessible to R, open a terminal and type:

sudo "/Applications/CMake.app/Contents/bin/cmake-gui" --install

It will ask for your administrator password.

+ Option 2

If you have homebrew installed, run the following command in your terminal:

brew install cmake

+ Option 3

If you have MacPorts installed, run the following command in your terminal:

sudo port install cmake

1.3 - Linux

Before installing ROpenCVLite, you will need to install the latest version of CMake. Hereafter are two options to do this on Linux.

+ Option 1

Use your distribution’s package management system. For instance on Ubuntu-like systems, you can install Cmake by typing the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt install cmake

Other distributions will have different package managers. Refer to the documentation of your distribution for finding the proper way to install Cmake on your system.

+ Option 2

Download CMake for Linux at https://cmake.org/download/. However it is recommended that you install it using your distribution’s package management system.

1.4 - Mac, Linux and Windows

Before installing ROpenCVLite, you will need to install the devtools package in R.

install.package("devtools")

2 - Installing ROpenCVLite

You can install ROpenCVLite from CRAN as follows:

install.packages("ROpenCVLite")

Or you can install the latest latest development version (not recommended) as follows:

devtools::install_github("swarm-lab/ROpenCVLite")

This will not install OpenCV yet. You will be asked whether you want to install it the first time you load the package.

library(ROpenCVLite)

This step can take some time. Go make yourself a cup of coffee or two while ROpenCVLite downloads, compiles and installs OpenCV on your system.

In addition, you can also request the (re)installation of OpenCV at any time as follows:

ROpenCVLite::installOpenCV()

ROpenCVLite will also automatically detect when a new version of OpenCV is available and will offer to update it for you.