ROS Resources: Documentation | Support | Discussion Forum | Index | Service Status | ros @ Robotics Stack Exchange
Ask Your Question
0

Tool for introspection of launch files

asked 2017-07-27 19:13:42 -0500

jayess gravatar image

Is there a tool that allows for the introspection of a launch file? If not, is there a demand for one?

I have found that when reading through a new package I have to manually keep track of launch files that include other launch files that include other launch files, etc. Combine the nesting of launch files with the passing of args through the launch files and I start to become very lost.

So, I was wondering if there are tools to help me visualize launch files and perhaps give out some nicely formatted data such as rosrun tf view_frames and tells me what the nodes, params, args, and included files are for the launch file (and even going into the included files and doing the same).

I am aware of the following tools:

  • rqt_launch: this doesn't give out the information that I'm looking for, or if it does it makes it hard to find
  • rxdeveloper: this is for Ubuntu 10.04 and ROS Fuerte so this won't work either

I'm hoping for something to be as simple to run as rosrun introspection-tool inspect somefile.launch and to be given some analysis of somefile.launch.

edit retag flag offensive close merge delete

2 Answers

Sort by ยป oldest newest most voted
3

answered 2017-07-27 19:18:13 -0500

130s gravatar image

updated 2019-11-04 08:39:10 -0500

fivef gravatar image

For introspection purpose rqt_launchtree might give you some/all features you're looking for.

sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-rqt-launchtree

Afterwards, start rqt (you might need to pass --force-discover the first time) and select the plugin from the Plugins menu. You find it in the Configuration folder as Launch Tree.
Source: rqt_launchtree


UPDATE Given that there are multiple GUI packages for launch, including the one @jayess found, I've listed those packages here.

edit flag offensive delete link more

Comments

Excellent! This is pretty close to what I'm looking for, although the layout is a little overwhelming (at least at first). I'll take some time before accepting this seeing as you were so quick to answer.

jayess gravatar image jayess  ( 2017-07-27 19:32:02 -0500 )edit
2

answered 2017-07-31 13:54:11 -0500

jayess gravatar image

updated 2017-08-09 17:36:26 -0500

Although I believe that @130s's answer is the best that I've seen for my situation, another good visualization/introspection tool for launch files is roslaunch_to_dot. It does some really nice visualization of the different nodes, args, params, etc. of launch files (shown below) and you can specify what format you want (PDF, PNG, and SVG). However, it is command line based and I was looking for something with a GUI. Here's the output of the example given in the README:

example output from README

Note: this is ROS independent.

edit flag offensive delete link more

Question Tools

2 followers

Stats

Asked: 2017-07-27 19:13:42 -0500

Seen: 548 times

Last updated: Nov 04 '19