ros-noetic-catkin and install-layout

[wxmerkt]

I am locally using RoboStack to debug a catkin package which contains a catkin-type setup.py and uses catkin_python_setup(). Alas, it fails to install due to the --install-layout=deb option used in catkin (upstream issue describing the same problem: ros/catkin#863).

Have you tried compiling/installing catkin packages which include a Python package?

The SETUPTOOLS_DEB_LAYOUT option could potentially be a workaround unless it affects something else (dist-packages vs site-packages for instance). I saw the patch file for ros-noetic-catkin but no change that would potentially address this issue?

[Tobias-Fischer]

Hi @wxmerkt - indeed make use of the SETUPTOOLS_DEB_LAYOUT option - it is in the build template which is in a different repository (we should clean this up / make more clear how the repos interact):
https://github.com/RoboStack/vinca/blob/1f147e39aa7903bf3953ba22cef139980b2609de/vinca/templates/build_catkin.sh.in#L52

I created a fix in #99 which should be cleaner for our purposes and avoid problems like the ones you just encountered.

[wxmerkt]

Many thanks for the insights and the swift resolution :-) I'll amend locally using the option.