Builds prioritizing binaries instead of source

[jhdcs]

Description

When attempting to build a rosbag2 project involving an issue I was working on, it seemed that Colcon preferred to use the ROS2 Binary installation rosbag2 files as a source rather than the source code in the project, violating how overlays/underlays are supposed to work. Specifically, rosbag2_cpp was using the unmodified header files from /opt/ros/foxy rather than the modified files in rosbag2_storage.

Expected Behavior

The modified source files of the project would be used to build rosbag2_cpp, providing the newly-added constant.

Actual Behavior

The build would use the files from /opt/ros/foxy, which lacked the constant and caused the following error:

rosbag2_cpp/writers/sequential_writer.cpp: In constructor ‘rosbag2_cpp::writers::SequentialWriter::SequentialWriter(std::unique_ptr<rosbag2_storage::StorageFactoryInterface>, std::shared_ptr<rosbag2_cpp::SerializationFormatConverterFactoryInterface>, std::unique_ptr<rosbag2_storage::MetadataIo>)’: /home/jhassold/rosbag_ws/src/rosbag2/rosbag2_cpp/src/rosbag2_cpp/writers/sequential_writer.cpp:65:63: error: ‘MAX_BAGFILE_DURATION_NO_SPLIT’ is not a member of ‘rosbag2_storage::storage_interfaces’; did you mean ‘MAX_BAGFILE_SIZE_NO_SPLIT’? 65 | std::chrono::seconds(rosbag2_storage::storage_interfaces::MAX_BAGFILE_DURATION_NO_SPLIT)), | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | MAX_BAGFILE_SIZE_NO_SPLIT

To Reproduce

1. Install and source the binary installation of Foxy
2. In rosbag2_storage/storage_interfaces/base_io_interface.hpp, add a constant
3. In rosbag2_storage/storage_interfaces/base_io_interface.cpp, make sure the constant is set to something. 0 is a lovely number.
4. In rosbag2_cpp/writers/sequential_writer.cpp, create a dummy function that uses that constant.
5. Try running colcon build. You should get an error that the constant you defined is not a member of rosbag2_storage::storage_interfaces

System (please complete the following information)

• OS: Ubuntu Focal Fossa running on Docker
• ROS 2 Distro: Foxy

Additional context

My workaround for the problem was to use apt remove ros-foxy-rosbag2-storage. The project built fine after that

[emersonknapp]

This ROS Answers post is relevant https://answers.ros.org/question/358314/colcon-build-include-path-from-overlay-workspace/

We currently suspect this may be an issue trickling down from rcutils, but it needs to be confirmed.

Note: if rosbag2_cpp is moved above rcutils in https://github.com/ros2/rosbag2/blob/master/rosbag2_transport/CMakeLists.txt#L53 then it works - undetermined why

[dirk-thomas]

I can't reproduce the problem with the steps described in the original ticket.

This ROS Answers post is relevant https://answers.ros.org/question/358314/colcon-build-include-path-from-overlay-workspace/

This specific case is being resolved by #479 which just declares the necessary target dependencies.

[Karsten1987]

I am closing this as #479 addressed the issue. Please feel free to re-open this ticket in your case problem still persists.