REP 126¶

The rosinstall file format was changed in [REP126].

Format¶

The rosinstall file format is a yaml document. It is a list of top level dictionaries. Each top level dictionary is expected to have one of the vcs type keys and no other keys.

Inside every top level dictionary there is one required key, local-name this represents the path where to install files. It will support both workspace relative paths as well as absolute paths.

Each of the vcs type keys requires a uri key, and optionally takes a version key.

Additional experimental keys exist, which may be changed or go out of support anygiventime: Inofficial file format.

Top Level Keys¶

The valid keys are svn, hg, git, bzr, other, setup-file.

Each key represents a form of version control system to use. These are supported from the vcstools module.

The other key is used to add a path to the workspace without associating a version control system.

In [REP126] the key setup-file was added to support the Fuerte release.

Example rosinstall syntax:¶

Below is an example rosinstall syntax with examples of most of the possible permutations:

- svn: {local-name: some/local/path2, uri: /some/local/uri}
- hg: {local-name: some/local/path3, uri: http://some/uri, version: 123}
- git: {local-name: /some/local/aboslute/path, uri: http://some/uri, version: 123}
- bzr: {local-name: some/local/path4, uri: http://some/uri, version: 123}
- setup-file:
    local-name: /opt/ros/fuerte/setup.sh
- other:
    local-name: /opt/ros/fuerte/share/ros

Things to note are:

• VCS keys require uri, but version is optional though recommended.
• Absolute or relative paths are valid for local-name
• setup-file and other do not take any keys besides local-name
• uri can be a local file path to a repository.

See also¶