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Installation/Windows-Development-Setup

Windows (source)

Table of Contents

This guide is about how to setup a development environment for ROS 2 on Windows.

System requirements

Only Windows 10 is supported.

Language support

Make sure you have a locale which supports UTF-8. For example, for a Chinese-language Windows 10 installation, you may need to install an English language pack.

Install additional prerequisites from Chocolatey

choco install -y cppcheck curl git winflexbison3

You will need to append the Git cmd folder C:\Program Files\Git\cmd to the PATH (you can do this by clicking the Windows icon, typing "Environment Variables", then clicking on "Edit the system environment variables". In the resulting dialog, click "Environment Variables", the click "Path" on the bottom pane, then click "Edit" and add the path).

Install Python prerequisites

Install additional Python dependencies:

pip install -U colcon-common-extensions coverage flake8 flake8-blind-except flake8-builtins flake8-class-newline flake8-comprehensions flake8-deprecated flake8-docstrings flake8-import-order flake8-quotes mock mypy==0.931 pep8 pydocstyle pytest pytest-mock vcstool

Build ROS 2

Get ROS 2 code

Now that we have the development tools we can get the ROS 2 source code.

First setup a development folder, for example C:\{DISTRO}:

Note

It is very important that the chosen path is short, due to the short default Windows path limits (260 characters). To allow longer paths, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=registry.

md \{DISTRO}\src
cd \{DISTRO}

Get the ros2.repos file which defines the repositories to clone from:

vcs import --input https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2/ros2/{REPOS_FILE_BRANCH}/ros2.repos src

Install additional RMW implementations (optional)

The default middleware that ROS 2 uses is Fast DDS, but the middleware (RMW) can be replaced at build or runtime. See the guide <../../How-To-Guides/Working-with-multiple-RMW-implementations> on how to work with multiple RMWs.

Build the code in the workspace

To build ROS 2 you will need a Visual Studio Command Prompt ("x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019") running as Administrator.

To build the \{DISTRO} folder tree:

colcon build --merge-install

Note

We're using --merge-install here to avoid a PATH variable that is too long at the end of the build. If you're adapting these instructions to build a smaller workspace then you might be able to use the default behavior which is isolated install, i.e. where each package is installed to a different folder.

Note

If you are doing a debug build use python_d path\to\colcon_executable colcon. See Extra stuff for debug mode for more info on running Python code in debug builds on Windows.

Setup environment

Start a command shell and source the ROS 2 setup file to set up the workspace:

call C:\{DISTRO}\install\local_setup.bat

This will automatically set up the environment for any DDS vendors that support was built for.

It is normal that the previous command, if nothing else went wrong, outputs "The system cannot find the path specified." exactly once.

Try some examples

Note that the first time you run any executable you will have to allow access to the network through a Windows Firewall popup.

You can run the tests using this command:

colcon test --merge-install

Note

--merge-install should only be used if it was also used in the build step.

Afterwards you can get a summary of the tests using this command:

colcon test-result

To run the examples, first open a clean new cmd.exe and set up the workspace by sourcing the local_setup.bat file. Then, run a C++ talker:

call install\local_setup.bat
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

In a separate shell you can do the same, but instead run a Python listener:

call install\local_setup.bat
ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

You should see the talker saying that it's Publishing messages and the listener saying I heard those messages. This verifies both the C++ and Python APIs are working properly. Hooray!

Note

It is not recommended to build in the same cmd prompt that you've sourced the local_setup.bat.

Next steps

Continue with the tutorials and demos <../../Tutorials> to configure your environment, create your own workspace and packages, and learn ROS 2 core concepts.

Extra stuff for Debug mode

If you want to be able to run all the tests in Debug mode, you'll need to install a few more things:

  • To be able to extract the Python source tarball, you can use PeaZip:
choco install -y peazip
  • You'll also need SVN, since some of the Python source-build dependencies are checked out via SVN:
choco install -y svn hg
  • You'll need to quit and restart the command prompt after installing the above.
  • Get and extract the Python 3.8.3 source from the tgz:
  • Now, build the Python source in debug mode from a Visual Studio command prompt:
cd C:\dev\Python-3.8.3\PCbuild
get_externals.bat
build.bat -p x64 -d
  • Finally, copy the build products into the Python38 installation directories, next to the Release-mode Python executable and DLL's:
cd C:\dev\Python-3.8.3\PCbuild\amd64
copy python_d.exe C:\Python38 /Y
copy python38_d.dll C:\Python38 /Y
copy python3_d.dll C:\Python38 /Y
copy python38_d.lib C:\Python38\libs /Y
copy python3_d.lib C:\Python38\libs /Y
copy sqlite3_d.dll C:\Python38\DLLs /Y
for %I in (*_d.pyd) do copy %I C:\Python38\DLLs /Y
  • Now, from a fresh command prompt, make sure that python_d works:
python_d -c "import _ctypes ; import coverage"
  • Once you have verified the operation of python_d, it is necessary to reinstall a few dependencies with the debug-enabled libraries:
python_d -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/ros2/ros2/releases/download/numpy-archives/numpy-1.18.4-cp38-cp38d-win_amd64.whl
python_d -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/ros2/ros2/releases/download/lxml-archives/lxml-4.5.1-cp38-cp38d-win_amd64.whl
  • To verify the installation of these dependencies:
python_d -c "from lxml import etree ; import numpy"
  • When you wish to return to building release binaries, it is necessary to uninstall the debug variants and use the release variants:
python -m pip uninstall numpy lxml
python -m pip install numpy lxml
  • To create executables python scripts(.exe), python_d should be used to invoke colcon
python_d path\to\colcon_executable build
  • Hooray, you're done!

Stay up to date

See ../Maintaining-a-Source-Checkout to periodically refresh your source installation.

Troubleshoot

Troubleshooting techniques can be found here <windows-troubleshooting>.

Uninstall

  1. If you installed your workspace with colcon as instructed above, "uninstalling" could be just a matter of opening a new terminal and not sourcing the workspace's setup file. This way, your environment will behave as though there is no {DISTRO_TITLE} install on your system.

  2. If you're also trying to free up space, you can delete the entire workspace directory with:

    rmdir /s /q \ros2_{DISTRO}