ROS Docker

A Python-based CLI tool to generate Docker environments for various ROS (Robot Operating System) distributions.

Easily create and configure containerized ROS environments with customizable settings.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed and configured:

• Docker
• NVIDIA Container Toolkit (required if using NVIDIA GPU)
• uv (optional and recommended)

Get Started

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/xiaosq2000/ros-docker.git
cd ros-docker

Note

If uv unavailable:

1. You need install first

   python -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install .

2. Replace uv run ros-docker with python -m ros-docker.main in all following commands

List Available ROS Distributions

To see all available ROS distributions that can be generated:

uv run ros-docker list

Take ROS1 Noetic as an example.

Generate Docker Files

Generate Docker files for a specific ROS distribution:

uv run ros-docker generate noetic

Tip

1. Preview the generated files without saving them:

   uv run ros-docker generate noetic --preview

2. Specify a custom output directory (default: './generated'):

   uv run ros-docker generate noetic --output-dir ./generated/noetic 

Build and Run

cd generated
docker compose -f docker-compose.noetic.yml up --build -d

Interact with the Container

docker exec -it ros-noetic-container bash

Customization

Base Docker Images

You can customize the Docker environment by editing the YAML configuration files in the configs directory. Each ROS distribution has its own configuration file, e.g., configs/ros_noetic.yaml.

Development Docker Images

The tool supports creating development environments with custom tooling and configurations through development profiles.

Create your own development profiles by adding YAML files to the configs/dev_profiles/ directory.

uv run ros-docker list-profiles
uv run ros-docker generate-dev <ros-distro> --profile <your-profile>