ROS2 Template C++

Template repository for a ROS2 package with a publisher and a subscriber node.

Features

• Template Docker file for portability;
• DevContainer configuration for streamlined development in containers.

First Steps / Adapting

This repository contains two nodes:

• talker: Publishes the "Hello World" string message every second;
• listener: Subscribes the string message published by the publisher and logs the value.

These are the main steps for you to start developing:

1. In package.xml, change the name, description and maintainer.

<name>my_package</name>
<description>TODO: Package description</description>
<maintainer email="root@todo.todo">root</maintainer>

2. If you want to create a new node, you can one of the existing as base. These are the steps:
   1. Create a header file in include declaring the node constructor, member variables and methods. In this header file, be aware to use Doxygen-compatible comments for automatic documentation generation and autocomplete hints.
   2. Create a source file in src with the implementation of the constructor and member methods. This file also contains the main function, which starts the node.
   3. Add the node compilation declaration to CMakeLists.txt

   add_executable(my_node src/node.cpp)
   ament_target_dependencies(my_node rclcpp std_msgs)

Developing

If you want to develop barebones (with ROS and everything installed on your computer) you just need to create a ROS workspace and put this package in it in the src directory.

If you want to develop using Docker, which does not require installing ROS and may be faster to run, you have two ways:

1. Build the Dockerfile using docker build -t my_package . and be on your own.
2. Use the DevContainer.

The main advantage of using the DevContainer is that VSCode provides a streamlined experience which seems like you are just developing locally with everything installed on your own computer.

To start the DevContainer do the following:

1. Open the repository in VSCode;
   • Make sure you have the "Dev Containers" extension installed (the official from Microsoft).
2. Press the F1 key;
3. Select the option "Dev Containers: Build and Open in Container";
4. After waiting for a while, you should be inside the DevContainer in a VSCode environment which resembles a native one.

If you are willing to use the Dev Container, eventually you will need to configure it (adding/removing directory binds, adding/removing VSCode extensions, etc.). You will do that in the .devcontainer/devcontainer.json file.