Development Manager for ROS 2

A terminal-based ROS 2 project workspace management and development framework. Designed to streamline workflows, reduce errors and mistakes, and accelerate development with smart and automated features. Compatible with any ROS 2 distro.

Why use this?

• You just got a new PC and want to start working on your ROS 2 project with minimal setup and configuration process.
• You have multiple ROS 2 projects but each using different package version or environment configuration and don't want to mix them up. But, you are lazy to go through setup and configuration process.
• You have a list of your favourite packages for your project but don't have a way to install them automatically.
• You keep forgetting to source your package after building.
• You build your package in the wrong directory and ended up wasting time debugging and have to clean up your workspace.
• You want a clean and organized workspace so that you can navigate your project easily.

Well... Give this tool a try. Most common multi-step processes has been consodilated into one smart push button (See useful aliases below)😃

Tested with

• ROS 2 Humble in Ubuntu 22.04 (x86 and ARM)
• ROS 2 Jazzy in Ubuntu 24.04 (x86 and ARM)

Tutorial

• Create New Project - If you are new, start here!
• Clone Project from Existing Remote Git Repository

Recommendation

If you want to use this manager with your private GitHub repo, I recommend using GitHub CLI so that this manager can clone your private GitHub repo without issue.

1. Install git and gh:

   sudo apt install git gh -y
   

2. Login to github account:

   gh auth login
   

Aliases

I have consolidated several common commands and processes into a few aliases which you can use. Adding or modifying aliases can be done in project repo under config folder.

Setup Operation.

Alias	Description
r2devp	To create a new project.
r2devg	To clone existing project from remote repo such as GitHub.
r2devw	To create a new workspace dir under project dir.

General

Alias	Description
r2dev	To open development manager menu.
r2pkg	To open package manager menu.
r2s	Source the setup.bash or local_setup.bash of ROS environment, currently initialized workspace, pkg directories and active workspace (eg: ws_robot) workspace.
r2sros	Source ROS environment.
r2info	Show information of current active project and workspace.
r2alias	Currently only show list of aliases that begins with r2.

Operation on workspace directory.

Alias	Description
r2b	Colcon build in the initialized ws_... workspace.
r2bf	Same as r2b but will run rosdep update and install first (Install dependencies). Recommended for first time setup so that all dependencies is installed before building the package.
r2del	Delete build, install and optional log directory from active ws_... workspace directory. Recommended to restart terminal to completely remove traces of sourced packages.
r2cdw	Change directory to active workspace directory (ws_...).
r2cdr	Change directory to active project directory (eg: project_dir).

Guideline Overview

Structure Guideline

You need to place this development manager within the same directory level as project directory as shown below:

PROJECTS_FOLDER
├── dev_manager (development manager directory)
|   ├── config
|   ├── scripts
|   ├── dev_init.bash
|   └── ...
├── project_dir_1 (project directory)
|   ├── config
|   ├── pkg
|   ├── ws_robot
|   ├── ws_my_stuff
|   └── ...
├── project_dir_2 (project directory)
|   ├── config
|   ├── pkg
|   ├── ws_robot
|   ├── ws_another_one
|   └── ...
└── project_dir_3 (project directory)
    ├── config
    ├── pkg
    ├── ws_robot
    └── ...

As shown above, you can manage multiple projects using this manager tool. You also can have multiple workspaces within the same project. Workspaces in the same project will share the same packages from pkg directory inside the project.

Project Repo Guideline

The project repo must follow the same structure as template as shown in temp/project_template directory. Inside the template contains pre-defined variables for development manager to consume.

Project's Workspace Initizalization Guideline

To initialize a workspace, just source the dev_init.bash using format as shown below:

source dev_init.bash <project dir> <ws dir>

Example:

source dev_init.bash /project_dir_1 /ws_robot

To make workspace initialization easier, you can just add it to .bashrc file.

Using alias to initialize project's workspace

If you are working on multiple workspaces/projects you can add alias .bashrc using format as shown below:

alias <alias>='source <dev_init_path> <project dir> <ws dir>'

where <project dir> directory is relative to PROJECTS_FOLDER directory and <ws dir> directory is relative to working project dir. Make sure the spaces and placement of / character is correct.

Example:

alias wsr1='source /PROJECTS_FOLDER/dev_manager/dev_init.bash /project_dir_1 /ws_robot'
alias wsr1ms='source /PROJECTS_FOLDER/dev_manager/dev_init.bash /project_dir_1 /ws_mystuff'
alias wsproject2='source /PROJECTS_FOLDER/dev_manager/dev_init.bash /project_dir /ws_robot'

You can test the alias and check the Project Path, Project Package Path and Active Workspace is correct. It should look like this for wsr1 alias:

[INFO] Project Path: /PROJECTS_FOLDER/project_dir_1
[INFO] Project Package Path: /PROJECTS_FOLDER/project_dir_1/pkg
[INFO] Active Workspace: /ws_robot

SUPPORT! 😃

Love this project? Consider buying me a coffee to fuel more late-night coding sessions! Your support helps keep the innovation going. 🙌

If you have a suggestion or an interesting idea that you want me to add into this tool, let me know! Feel free to contribute!

Planned features

1. Add Docker support.
2. Add Python environment support.
3. Substitute git repo in pkg with git submodule.
4. r2b selected package.
5. Automatic install and integration of the new Gazebo Sim.