ros2_in_docker

A ready-to-go dev environment for using ROS2 in docker easily. Supports GUI tools, networking, almost like a standard ROS2 install.

This repo is essentially a ros2 version of ros_in_docker. I chose to install some of the "dotfile" dependencies(tmux, oh-my-zsh) from scratch to make the Dockerfile more understandable.

Usage

Dependencies

Works in WSL2 on Windows or Ubuntu. Assumes docker engine(recommended for Ubuntu) or docker desktop is installed. Note: Make is used here as a shortcut to typing out common commands, but it is not necessary

Quickstart

1. Setup
   • Clone any ros packages you want to use into ./src
   • If you have additional dependencies, add them to the Dockerfile in the # Install ROS2/Additional dependencies section
     • Note: By default, the Dockerfile will find all the package.xml files under src/ and install any dependencies listed in them using rosdep
   • Add any python requirements to requirements.txt
   • Any required rosbags can be placed in bags/
2. make docker
   • Re-run this command whenever you make any changes to your dependencies or the Dockerfile
   • If you just create new ROS2 packages under src/, you don't need to re-build the docker container
3. make
   • Builds the packages in src/ and this repo will become your colcon workspace in the container
4. A tmux window will open and you can use any commands to run ROS2 scripts, build with colcon, and pretty much do anything you can do in a normal terminal.
5. make exit to close the container

Other notes

• For a nice dev environment, use VSCode with the remote development/devcontainers extension and you can remote into the docker container directly
• If you want to change the rosbag directory path, just update the ROS_BAGS variable in the Makefile
• You can hold right-click in the tmux window and drag the cursor to a desired command if you don't want to use tmux keyboard shortcuts
• Scrolling will also work in tmux windows by default
• You can edit any zsh, tmuxinator, or tmux configs by editing the files in docker_settings