catkin_tools config style

[agyoungs]

@DLu I just came across this tool and it's been really helpful!

I think I know the answer, but I just wanted to check to see if rosbuild was able to store a configuration similar to what we had with catkin_tools. Typical configurations could specify # of jobs, whether or not to have an install space, maybe even the niceness setting for each build thread, and most importantly the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE.

You could then run the catkin build command anywhere in the workspace. It appears that rosbuild handles the build anywhere component but maybe not the stored build configuration? Is that true or am I missing something. I'm happy to contribute if it's something you'd like to have as a part of this tool.

[DLu]

The good news is that there is support for configurations, including CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE. I'm not sure where they go in catkin_tools and its possible that we could leverage the existing configuration.

The bad news is that build type is the only one of the ones you mentioned that is implemented as a config, leaving

• Number of jobs (already part of the command line interface)
• Install space
• Build thread niceness

Happy to have contributions, but first, I gotta read a bit more about the catkin_tools functionality.

[agyoungs]

We've been using this tool to help with storing configurations:

https://github.com/hatchbed/hatch_colcon

It was developed as a nod towards catkin_tools but for colcon. However, what you have built here is a more comprehensive all-in-one (maybe eventually) ROS command toolkit. I like that it can be agnostic to the underlying implementations. I haven't had a ton of free time for this, but I might be able to contribute something for this...eventually...

I'm not as worried about trying to develop something for catkin_tools because I find myself developing in ROS1 less often than ROS2 since ROS1 is reaching EOL