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What is the manifest.xml convention for dependencies of launch files?

asked 2011-10-27 06:00:34 -0500

updated 2011-11-23 19:49:42 -0500

AHornung gravatar image

Often times packages will build libraries and executables that have certain dependencies, and then related launch files that often pull in more dependencies.

Depending on perspective, the launch file deps could be thought of as non-essential. With that perspective, one might seek to minimize dependencies and leave them out of the manifest.

This is not simply an academic question, since, for example, many python scripts call to roslib.load_manifest which will throw an exception if a package is missing even if it's not strictly necessary.

What is considered to be "best practice" in this situation?

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answered 2011-10-27 06:56:47 -0500

Patrick Mihelich gravatar image

You should include launch file dependencies in the manifest. In cases where this is undesirable, split the launch files out into a separate package. For example, openni_launch has more dependencies than the openni_camera driver package.

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answered 2011-10-27 06:03:02 -0500

bhaskara gravatar image

I'd leave the dependencies in, personally. It means 'rosmake my_package' will have the postcondition that all launch files can now be run, at the expense of a few extra entries in the include/import paths.

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Comments

The problem is that when there are long dependency chains, unnecessary deps along the chain can cause a big dependency mess.
Asomerville gravatar image Asomerville  ( 2011-10-27 06:27:39 -0500 )edit
A hierarchy of launch file packages may help give it some structure, but ultimately that mess has to be resolved somehow.
joq gravatar image joq  ( 2011-11-24 01:11:39 -0500 )edit
Very true. Unfortunate that aggregation, and fragmentation both itch.
Asomerville gravatar image Asomerville  ( 2011-12-02 06:39:10 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2011-10-27 06:00:34 -0500

Seen: 309 times

Last updated: Nov 23 '11