This repository contains scripts and configurations to generate ROS packages for Fedora.

If you just want to install ROS, please go to the ROS COPR.

The rosfed.py script works as follows:

1. It fetches package information about the upstream ROS package with the rosinstall_generator. This includes dependencies, license, sources, and the version.

   Note: It is important to have an updated rosdep database. You can update it by executing rosdep update.

2. With this information, it generates a SPEC file using the template in ./templates/. The generic template in ./templates/pkg.spec.j2 works for most packages. For some packages, the template needs to be modified, in which case you can find the per-package template in ./templates/$pkgname.spec.j2. Note that all package-specific templates extend the generic base template in ./templates/pkg.spec.j2.

3. Additional modifications can be done by adding a config file to cfg/$pkgname.yaml. This allows to add missing build and runtime dependencies, filter out some dependencies, add build flags, and make a package noarch.

4. Optionally, the package is built in a COPR. The module copr_build supports building dependency chains.

The rosfed.py script uses a default ROS distro, which usually is the latest one but it may be falling behind in some cases. To know the default ROS distro the ./rosfed.py --help command can be used.

A --distro option allows to choose a different ROS distro than the default.

In the simplest case, run ./rosfed.py $pkgname, or ./rosfed.py -r $pkgname if you want to generate SPEC files for all dependencies of the given package.

You may need to do the following modifications to the config in ./cfg/$pkgname.yaml:

• Make the package noarch by adding noarch: true.

• Add dependencies, e.g., a system build dependency to qt5-qtbase-devel:

  dependencies:
    build:
      system:
        - qt5-qtbase-devel
  

• Removing dependencies, e.g., opencv should not require ffmpeg:

  dependencies:
    exclude_run:
      system:
        - ffmpeg
        - ffmpeg-devel
  

• Add build flags by adding buildflags: <build_flags> to the config file. Example from opencv:

  build_flags: "--cmake-args -DENABLE_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS=OFF -DWITH_FFMPEG=OFF"
  

• To build a package with all its missing dependencies (i.e., the package is not updated if it already exists), run:

  $ ./rosfed.py -b --copr-owner thofmann --copr-project ros --chroot fedora-rawhide-x86_64 -c Initial package --only-new -r moveit
  

• To build a single package, run:

  $ ./rosfed.py -b --copr-owner thofmann --copr-project ros --chroot fedora-rawhide-x86_64 moveit_ros_manipulation
  

• To build the desktop_full stack, run:

  $ ./rosfed.py -b --copr-owner thofmann --copr-project ros --chroot fedora-rawhide-x86_64 -r desktop_full
  

Additionally, you may need to modify the template by providing a package-specific template in ./templates/$pkgname.spec.j2. Have a look at the existing templates for examples.

It should always be possible to regenerate the SPEC file. Thus, do not modify the generated SPEC file but instead modify the config and/or template as necessary. If you need to do a modification that is not possible, please file an issue.