ROS (1 & 2) and systemd, current status for Kinetic/Noetic and the future

asked 2021-02-23 11:15:21 -0500

Thiago Martins gravatar image

updated 2021-02-23 11:15:48 -0500

Hey guys,

At the beginning of the time, I wasn't a big fan of systemd... However, today, I surrendered to it! It's actually cool! lol

In my research about ROS and systemd, I found that back in Kinetic's era, the systemd wasn't recommended! As follows:

"Non-Endorsement / Rant

While Systemd is the default for platforms targeted by the Kinetic and Melodic releases, and can be useful for some applications, we do not endorse the use of Systemd.

http://docs.ros.org/en/kinetic/api/ro..."

Is this still true today?!

In my Xenial/Kinetic, I installed (but not using yet) a package called ros-kinetic-robot-systemd (which is also compatible with ros-kinetic-network-autoconfig), however, it doesn't exist (ros-noetic-robot-systemd) for Noetic, which makes me think that ROS and systemd aren't a good mix (is that correct???)

The thing is, systemd is solidified these days, so, why not fully embrace it? Maybe even replacing things like roslaunch with systemd (yes, I'm new to ROS and I don't fully understand it)?

More info about ROS and systemd:

1- https://github.com/LucidOne/network_a...

2- https://github.com/magazino/systemd_ros

3- https://github.com/magazino/robot-sys...

4- https://answers.ros.org/question/3679...

5- https://blog.roverrobotics.com/how-to...

Big time systemd issue?

1- https://github.com/systemd/systemd/is...

So, at the end of the day, if ROS and systemd isn't a good mix, why not use a systemd-free Debian-based distribution like Devuan?

Back to my initial question... What is the future looks like with ROS and systemd? If it's bad, is Devuan an answer?

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Comments

1

I believe you're taking a comment from the documentation of a single package (namely robot_systemd, developed by code AT hxr DOT io and hosted at github.com/LucidOne/robot_systemd) to represent the collective opinion of the developers of all ROS packages, or at least as some sort of "official standpoint".

I believe I can speak for the "collective developers of all ROS packages" when I say: that's not the case.

The URL to the page you link to does have ros.org in it, but that's just because you're looking at automatically generated (Sphinx) API documentation for that particular package.

Those auto-generated docs are hosted on docs.ros.org, hence the URL.

There is no "ROS wide" standpoint or opinion on systemd.

Edit: that does not mean there aren't any problems with it or hurdles to take to get things to work smoothly.

I just ...(more)

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2021-02-23 11:31:23 -0500 )edit

Oh, that's awesome! Good to know.

And yes, I understand that those pages that I posted aren't from ros.org domains. I thought that it worth posting it here because it was a bit interesting (from my point of view)...

You're right, I should look for a better source of information. Honestly, I googled about it a few times but, I couldn't find it!

So, where can I find docs (or maybe experimental code?) about the current state of ROS with systemd?

Thanks!

Thiago Martins gravatar image Thiago Martins  ( 2021-02-23 20:56:18 -0500 )edit
1

So, where can I find docs (or maybe experimental code?) about the current state of ROS with systemd?

I doubt you can find any, as I don't believe there is a "current state of ROS with systemd".

At the moment it would come down to the packages you use.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2021-02-24 02:07:07 -0500 )edit

Ok, thanks!

Thiago Martins gravatar image Thiago Martins  ( 2021-02-24 20:03:41 -0500 )edit
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