Where is the source code of installed packages?

asked 2016-10-30 06:17:55 -0600

danyloM
43 ●3 ●5 ●8

I have installed ROS Kinetic and it sits is the /opt/ros/kinetic/ folder which has the following structure:

.
├── bin
├── env.sh
├── etc
├── include
├── lib
├── setup.bash
├── setup.sh
├── _setup_util.py
├── setup.zsh
└── share

Now suppose I want to view the source code which makes rosrun turtlesim turtle_teleop_key possible. It is a node of the turtlesim package, so I navigate to this package using roscd turtlesim. This puts me into the directory /opt/ros/kinetic/share/turtlesim, which has the following files:

.
├── cmake
├── images
├── msg
├── package.xml
└── srv

The actual .cpp source files are nowhere to be found! How can I view the source files for a given package? turtlesim is just an example, there are of course other packages whose source I'm interested in looking at.

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answered 2016-10-30 10:38:57 -0600

abrzozowski

290 ●6 ●11 ●12

updated 2016-10-30 14:27:44 -0600

You can retrive path to sources of specific package by typing roslocate uri <package_name>, for more information about roslocate see reference.

Getting the sources for turtlesim can be done by: git clone $(roslocate uri turtlesim 2> /dev/null | awk '/https/')

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Thanks, this worked for me!

danyloM ( 2016-10-30 12:18:07 -0600 )edit

This works, but note that you don't necessarily get the sources that were used to build the (debian) pkg that you installed. git clone <url> checks out whatever the repository has configured as the default HEAD, while apt-get source $pkg downloads a tarball for a specific version.

gvdhoorn ( 2016-10-30 13:08:32 -0600 )edit

I agree with @gvdhoorn 100 percent. If you download sources by above command, you'll get devel (it means develop) branch (branch set as main for this specyfic repository e.g. kinetic-devel), not released sources (based on https://github.com/ros-gbp/ros_tutori... debian package).

abrzozowski ( 2016-10-30 14:17:57 -0600 )edit

So, if you choose this approach, you should check the branch of downloaded repository to make sure you are on right (for kinetic call: git checkout kinetic-devel).

abrzozowski ( 2016-10-30 14:18:11 -0600 )edit

If you really want the specific version of the sources used to build a pkg, checking out the 'devel branch' corresponding to your ROS distribution is not enough. You'd have to checkout the commit that was used to draft a release from. The repo should have been tagged. Use those.

gvdhoorn ( 2016-10-30 16:17:42 -0600 )edit

Yes, i understand. A release pkg is always behind or equal/on beginning/ to a 'devel branch'. If you want download the latest sources with 'fixes/features', using command based on a roslocate is appropriate. Otherwise, apt-get source $pkg_name is better solution.

abrzozowski ( 2016-10-30 17:34:16 -0600 )edit

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answered 2016-10-30 08:40:32 -0600

gvdhoorn
86574 ●283 ●1432 ●1054 http://cor.tudelft.nl/

If you've installed ROS Kinetic using the binary debian distribution, then the sources are not installed. Only the binaries (ie: the nodes) and any other related artefacts (launch files, urdf/xacros, etc). What is installed is down to the developers btw: they have to include CMake install(..) directives in their CMakeLists.txt for whatever they want to be included in the binary distribution(s).

Retrieving the sources for a particular package is relatively easy, using apt-get source $pkg_name. You have update your apt configuration slightly though.

See "apt-get source" for packages.ros.org? for how to do this.

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Where is the source code of installed packages?

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