ITK v6 Migration Guide¶

This guide documents the changes required to migrate a code base which uses ITK v5 to use ITK v6. The migration guide for transition from v4 to v5 can be found here.

Require modern C++ language feature use¶

Many backward compatible/ forward enabling compiler features are now required to be used.

Replace ITKv5_CONST with const

Remove support for ITKv4 interfaces¶

ITKV4_COMPATIBILITY is no longer a supported option. Previously this option was off by default. Previously when enabled, the ITK API was modified to provide support for ITKV4 functions.

Remove support for ITKv5¶

All contents of the Deprecated module were removed. This includes TreeContainer and related classes; atomic primitives, mutexes and related classes which are now part of C++ standard; specialized Vector filters - specialized versions are no longer needed, as regular filters can work with vector images. For details, see ITKv5 Migration Guide.

Prefer standard CXX language features rather than ITK macros¶

Replace ITK aliases (left column) with CXX standard feature (right column)

ITK_FALLTHROUGH                   [[fallthrough]]
ITK_DELETE_FUNCTION               = delete
ITK_CONSTEXPR_FUNC                constexpr
ITK_CONSTEXPR_VAR                 constexpr

ITK_ALIGNAS(X)                    alignas(X)
ITK_ALIGNOF(X)                    alignof(X)
ITK_DEPRECATED                    [[deprecated]]
ITK_DEPRECATED_MSG(MSG)           [[deprecated(MSG)]]
ITK_CONSTEXPR                     constexpr
ITK_DELETED_FUNCTION              = delete
ITK_EXTERN_TEMPLATE               extern
ITK_FINAL                         final
ITK_NOEXCEPT                      noexcept
ITK_NOEXCEPT_EXPR(X)              noexcept(X)
ITK_NULLPTR                       nullptr
ITK_OVERRIDE                      override
ITK_STATIC_ASSERT(X)              static_assert(X, #X)
ITK_STATIC_ASSERT_MSG(X, MSG)     static_assert(X, MSG)
ITK_THREAD_LOCAL                  thread_local

Removed ITKv5 migration/maintenance scripts¶

The following scripts used for migrating to ITKv5 were removed from the ITKv6.

  CheckForOutdatedDefines.sh
  EnumPrintFunction.py
  Move_DISALLOW_COPY_to_public_section.cpp
  ReplaceITK_NULLPTRMacroNames.sh
  ReplaceITK_OVERRIDEMacroNames.sh
  ReplaceitkGetObjectMacro.sh
  UpdateAllC++Headers.sh
  UseNativeC++Syntax.sh
  misc-unused-parameters.sh
  modernize-loop-convert.sh
  modernize-pass-by-value.sh
  modernize-return-braced-init-list.sh
  modernize-use-auto.sh
  modernize-use-bool-literals.sh
  modernize-use-default-member-init.sh
  modernize-use-emplace.sh
  modernize-use-equals-default.sh
  modernize-use-equals-delete.sh
  modernize-use-nullptr.sh
  modernize-use-override.sh
  performance-general.sh
  prefer-type-alias-over-typedef.sh
  prefer_constexpr_for_const_literals.sh
  readability-container-size-empty.sh
  replaceClassWithTypename.py
  replace_itkStaticConstMacro.sh
  replace_vnl_math_XXX.sh

Accessing outdated ITKv5 migration scripts¶

git worktree add .../ITKv5.4 v5.4.0
ls ../ITKv5/Utilities/ITKv5Preparation

Class changes¶

The Clone() member function of itk::PointSet now does a “deep copy” of its data, creating a new instance that has a copy of the points, the point data and the region information properties of the original PointSet object. With previous ITK versions, PointSet::Clone() did not copy any data. (It previously just created a default-constructed PointSet object, like PointSet::CreateAnother() does.)