ros2 / ros2/launch

Launch "dry run" to render to commands without running any

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enhancement
Dominant language
Python
Stars
155
Forks
182
Avg merge
2d 14h
Merged PRs (30d)
6

Description

Description

Render/print a launchfile with as much detail as possible given the context, without starting any processes

See https://github.com/ijnek/launch_graph which is trying to do a visualization side of this same consideration

Really this may be an extension of ros2 launch --print that just gets some more information, perhaps makes some more assumptions

Motivation

It can be unclear what the total outcome of a launchfile will be, and the logs that go by are too detailed to see what all the running nodes are.

This would allow for detailed inspection of what exactly launching a launchfile would do, without having to do it.
It also has the side effect of checking for file correctness.

Design / Implementation Considerations

I think it's a reasonable expectation that this does as much as it can given the current context - if an included file can't be found then that's all the info we get for example. But in a real environment, the leafs of the launch tree (nodes, commands) would be printed exactly as they would be run.

Additional Information

No response

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the existing ros2 launch --print behavior and the launchfile rendering path; no specific files or tests are named in the issue. Compare the proposed output with launch_graph and determine how much of the launch tree can be resolved without starting processes. Done means a dry-run command renders the available leaf nodes and commands without running them, while handling missing included files as described.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
cli, tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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