meta: things todo before recommending a switch from cmi

[wjwwood]

This is a list of things we need to get done before we make the official switch to catkin build and move away from using catkin_make_isolated.

bugs

• Installed libraries reference devel space (Installed libraries reference devel space #70)
  • Related: build: install and develspace interplay #69
• catkin: should not fail if cmake is not available (catkin: should not fail if cmake is not available #61)
• leaf_sources out of bounds error (leaf_sources out of bounds error #45)

missing functionality or features

• build: support for arch-specific library folders (Catkin tools don't handle arch-specific library folders #154)
• build: test for compatibility with DESTDIR (build: test for compatibility with DESTDIR #31) (closed by Properly respect DESTDIR in the build env. #240)
• build: test for topological ordering with underlays (build: test for topological ordering with underlays #30)
• build: speed up setup.sh for non-merged devel spaces (build: speed up setup.sh for non-merged devel spaces #28)
  • This issue also applies to this in general: --cmake-args does not allow passing arguments with spaces #74
  • Also this: build: whitespace in folder names causes CMake failure #23
• Bash/Zsh completion (Add bash/zsh tab completion #15)
• Detect warnings like rosmake (build: detect and report on build warnings when not verbose #1)
• build: support invocation from within symlink folders (build: support invocation from within symlink folders #91) (catkin_make and friends fail to correctly resolve paths when invoked inside symlinked folders ros/catkin#638)

[jbohren]

I feel like there's a serious lack of unit tests, in general.

[dirk-thomas]

Please make sure that it works when using symlinked folders inside the source space (related to the catkin ticket ros/catkin#638).

[jbohren]

Please make sure that it works when using symlinked folders inside the source space (related to the catkin ticket ros/catkin#638).

@dirk-thomas Can you add a unit test for this? I'm not sure what pattern you guys want for those sort of tests. Is there a good example somewhere?

[dirk-thomas]

I am sorry, buy I won't have the time working on catkin_tools. The basic problem is that when you invoke the command within the source space where you have symlinked different repositories (instead of non-symlinked). The script must be very careful when interpreting relative paths. The commits referenced in the catkin ticket should give a good idea how it was addressed for catkin_make(_isolated).

[wjwwood]

I updated the list.

[jbohren]

@wjwwood Could you put together an example / template unit test for testing sequences of command-line actions?

[wjwwood]

@jbohren I put together a system for building workspaces (workspace factory) in order to test command line options, but it is in an unmerged branch, here is an example:

https://github.com/catkin/catkin_tools/blob/issue_23/tests/system/verbs/catkin_build/test_whitespace_in_paths.py

One thing to note is that in order for this test to work you must execute it like this: python setup.py nosetests

[dirk-thomas]

Since it has been announced on ros-users and likely more users will start using it / looking into it I think the still missing features compared to catkin_make(_isolated) should be listed clearly in the documentation.

[jbohren]

Yeah, I think that would be a helpful page to have. Dirk, do you have any time to start it?

[dirk-thomas]

I don't think I am aware enough about the progress of catkin_tools to know what is supported right now and what isn't. Basically because I am not using the tool myself.

I also don't have the time to check if the tool actually supports the features e.g. listed at the top of this ticket, sorry. Others might know this out of their heads?