Working with IMC

Working With IMC

DUNE uses the IMC Specification for communication between tasks and other software. Several LSTS software projects such as Neptus, IMC Java, and ACCU also use IMC, and therefore it is important to use the same IMC version on all software projects that are intended to work together.

The IMC specification contains two XML documents that are used by DUNE to generate source code, namelly, IMC.xml and IMC_Addresses.xml. The former contains the full set of IMC messages, and the latter the list of registered IMC addresses. DUNE does not need these files at run-time, only at compile-time.

If you need to update the IMC version, or test new IMC messages, you should have the IMC specification in the build folder of DUNE.

To tell the build system the IMC git branch, tag, or commit you are interested in using, use the CMake option IMC_TAG. For example, if you wish to use IMC v5.4.0, and dune sources are located in the relative path ../dune, issue the following command:

cmake -DIMC_TAG=imc-5.4.0 ../dune

If you do not set the CMake variable IMC_TAG, then the HEAD of the IMC branch master will be used. Additionally you can use the CMake variable IMC_URL to set the URL of the IMC repository (e.g., you are using a fork of IMC).

To clone the IMC repository issue the following command.

make imc_download

This command will clone IMC to the subfolder IMC of your build folder.

You can change the IMC specification at will and generate the source code by issuing the following command:

make imc

The generated source code shall only be pushed upstream if you are using an IMC release. When your changes are ready for production you should send a patch or pull request to the IMC Project.

After your commits are accepted, the DUNE maintainers will take care of updating all LSTS software to use those changes.

Note: If seems not to work, please check on your terminal if 'python' command exists. If not please install Python, or if is already installed as 'python2' or 'python3' commands, to fix this in Ubuntu install 'sudo apt install python-is-python3'