Overview

This repo contains a template for a ros2 project using Docker. The repo contains a Dockerfile, the scripts to build and run the image and the source code. The result will be a container in which a workspace is built, and the src folder of workspace is binded to the one in the repo. In this way the modifications done inside the container in src folder are reflected into the src folder of the repo, and viceversa.

Prerequisites

Before setting up the project, you have to install docker. If you already installed docker, go to the next session

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

# Install the Docker packages
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Add docker user
sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Then log out and log in.

Compilation and execution

1. Clone the repo (complete the command)

git clone https://github.com/

2. Open a terminal in the repo and source the build file

source docker_build.sh <IMAGE_NAME>

where <IMAGE_NAME> is a name for the image you want to build.

3. In the terminal in the repo, source the run file

source docker_run.sh <IMAGE_NAME> <CONTAINER_NAME>

where <IMAGE_NAME> is the name of the image you have just built, while <CONTAINER_NAME> is a name for the container hosting the image.

Notes

1. The container's root password is "user" by default.

2. The container will be automatically destroyed once exited (--rm flag). If you want to attach additional terminals to the container you need to keep it running (docker_run.sh script). You can attach a new terminal by running the following command

docker exec -it $(docker ps -aqf "name=<CONTAINER_NAME>") bash

3. All apt-get performed inside the container will be removed one che container is closed. Please add all new dependacies to the Dockerfile and rebuild the image.

Run example code

To run the ros2 example code (talker), just execute the following command

ros2 run cpp_pubsub talker

Development

Once the container is running, you can develop from inside it using VsCode. Open VsCode from your host machine, install the extension Dev Containers, and in command bar select attach to running container. Open the folder /home/user/ros2_ws/src, which is the binded folder.