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ROS Deps Architecture

Goal​

Provide a package-oriented dependency API for xmake users:

add_ros_deps("rclcpp", "geometry_msgs")

without requiring manual add_includedirs()/add_linkdirs()/add_links() maintenance.

Design​

Uses an index architecture:

  • Source of truth: ROS CMake export metadata installed in each package
  • colcon phase: Generates a workspace-local Lua index file from AMENT_PREFIX_PATH
  • xmake phase: Consumes the generated index in add_ros_deps(...)

Why this approach?​

  • CMake exports already encode transitive dependencies and include/library hints
  • Index is generated at build time from current underlay/overlay
  • xmake only needs deterministic include/link/rpath application from normalized metadata

Components​

1. User API​

add_ros_deps(...) available from the ament_xmake.package rule.

2. Resolver backend​

colcon_xmake/task/xmake/build.py::_generate_ros_index_file(...):

  • Scans AMENT_PREFIX_PATH for package CMake extras
  • Outputs Lua table _AMENT_XMAKE_ROS_INDEX with include dirs, compile definitions, link flags, rpath dirs, dependencies

3. xmake integration​

xmake/rules/ament_xmake/package.lua -- add_ros_deps(...):

  • Normalizes package args
  • Recursively resolves dependencies
  • Applies include dirs / defines / ldflags / rpath to current target