spm-runtime

Compiled Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) package that can be called from Python.

This package contains the compiled SPM runtime used by spm-python.

Installation

# Version built against the latest available MATLAB runtime
$ pip install spm-runtime
$ pip install spm-runtime==25.01
# Version built against a specific version of the MATLAB runtime
$ pip install spm-runtime-R2024b
$ pip install spm-runtime-R2024b==25.01

Supported Python versions

Different versions of the MATLAB runtime are compatible with a different range of python versions. To use the runtime with a python version that is not supported by the latest MATLAB runtime, you can choose to install a package specifically compiled against another MATLAB runtime. The python versions supported by each MATLAB runtime is provided in the table below:

SPM standalone

On installation, spm-runtime exposes the SPM standalone, which can be executed in a terminal by calling spm.

$ spm --help

SPM - Statistical Parametric Mapping
https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/

Usage: spm [ fmri | eeg | pet ]
       spm COMMAND [arg...]
       spm [ -h | --help | -v | --version ]

Commands:
    batch          Run a batch job
    script         Execute a script
    function       Execute a function
    eval           Evaluate a MATLAB expression
    [NODE]         Run a specified batch node

Options:
    -h, --help     Print usage statement
    -v, --version  Print version information

Run 'spm [NODE] help' for more information on a command.

Python runtime

This package ships a compiled version of SPM that can be called from Python:

import spm_runtime

spm_runtime.endpoint("spm_standalone", nargout=0)

All MATLAB functions from the SPM package can be called. However, the inputs and outputs of these bindings are not very user-friendly. For pythonic bindings, use the spm-python package (which uses spm-runtime under the hood).