Use actionlib across ROS releases?

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Actionlib is using topics under the hood, so all the problems with pub/sub from/to different ros releases apply here as well (ie: msg def changes will make things not work, etc) and the same holds for the multi-machine aspect here.

Upon further inspection, it appears to be a TCP port issue. The ports actionlib tries to use are not open on either machine. Is there a range of ports that actionlib attempts to use, so I know what to open? It looks like it varies widely, as I see it attempting ports in the 30000s on one machine and in the 50000-60000s on another.

No, there is no 'range of ports' for actionlib, as it's not a stand-alone communication library, but uses ROS infrastructure for everything. Client libraries typically do not support limiting ports used (I would actually say they all assume a completely wide open network for all involved hosts), but they also do not request specific ports in most cases. On Linux, the regular TCP/IP stack is used and that will attempt to use any port from the ephemeral range for a standard installation.