Using ROS 2 Rolling in Docker with VSCode

Prerequisites

Install docker and docker compose.

Setup

Clone this repo into your preferred workspace name and cd into it:

git clone git@github.com:henrygerardmoore/ros2_vscode_template.git ros2_workspace
cd ros2_workspace

Then, clone whichever ROS 2 repo you like into src:

git -C src/ clone git@github.com:moveit/moveit2.git

If necessary, you can set up your repo's source dependencies with vcstool, for example:

vcs import --input src/moveit2/moveit2.repos src

Next, export the requisite environment variables. For example, I use the following:

export GPG_DIR=~/.gnupg # if you want to use gpg in your container to sign your commits
export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=44 # see https://docs.ros.org/en/rolling/Concepts/Intermediate/About-Domain-ID.html

Then, run the build_and_set_up.bash script (optionally including a container name, which defaults to the name of the folder this repo is in):

CONTAINER_NAME=example_workspace ./src/.vscode/build_and_set_up.bash

Then, attach to the created docker container with vscode:

Then, open the src folder (which will be located in /home/ubuntu/overlay_ws/src) in vscode to utilize this repository's built-in tasks.

Once you have opened the src folder, use the update task before trying to build, as it will install necessary dependencies.

If you want, you can then remove this repo's .git folder to make your workspace's root no longer a git repo, along with other extraneous things:

rm -rf .git
rm .gitignore
rm README.md

Using VSCode tasks

This repository includes a template .vscode directory with the tasks you will need to build your code (in both release and debug mode) and use clangd. You can use ctrl+shift+B to see the tasks available. See here for further information and tips on using VSCode with ROS 2.

Using Git

This container should be set up to use your normal git configuration, optionally including GPG for signing commits.

Contributions

If you notice a mistake or opportunity for improvement, feel free to open an issue or a PR :)