FS-license in fmriprep

1

Sorry for bombarding with fMRIPrep questions - just things in run into and can’t find answers…

I’m running:
docker run -ti --rm -v $BASE:/base nipreps/fmriprep:latest /base/BIDS /base participant --participant-label JnDo -t mytask --anat-derivatives /base/fmriprep --fs-subjects-dir /base/freesurfer --use-aroma

and getting in return a message about fMRIPrep not finding the fs-license file. I provided it and it seem to run properly. However, given I supply all the FS and anat-related fMRIPrep files, why do I need to provide the license too? Ideally, FS is not needed to be called…

Just to clarify - my question is not theoretical only - I though to not provide the license file as a sanity check to make sure that FS is not rerun and the hours are actually saved…

Thanks a lot!

2

Some post-recon-all functions may still use FreeSurfer software, such as bbregister, thus warranting the license.

I’m a bit confused, as you said earlier that it did not run without the license file. Regardless, yes it should not take as long to run if you are reusing anatomical derivatives.

3

Thanks, that makes sense. Eventually, everything went OK - I added the license file and it ran quickly (relatively…), but I was surprised that the license was required. Anyhow, you’ve provided a great answer for that