ROS2 CI

A small how-to for triggering the ROS2 CI with a custom iceoryx branch.

The steps from this article should be performed every time the ros2.repos file is changed in order to detect breakages early in the update cycle.

• go to ci.ros2.org and log in
  • only a few maintainer have the access rights
  • to get access open an issue in ros2-gbp/iceoryx-release similar to this
• the Jenkins dashboard shows all the available jobs
  • ci_launcher will be used to trigger all the jobs related to iceoryx
  • when logged in, the sidebar on the left should show a Build with parameter link when the ci_launcher page is loaded
• before the job can be started, a ros2.repos file with the custom iceoryx branch must be created
  • create a github gist (via the + button top right) and copy the content of ros2/master/ros2.repos to the gist
  • change the url and version to the repo and branch which shall be run in the CI
  • set the file name of the gist to ros2.repos
  • switch from Create secret gist to Create public gist and save the gist by clicking on the button
  • click on the Raw button on the new gist to get to the url of the raw file
  • copy the url for later use
• to start the job, navigate to the ci_launcher page which is linked from the dashboard
• use Build with parameter the configure the build
  • set CI_ROS2_REPOS_URL to the url of the raw gist file
  • append --packages-up-to rmw_cyclonedds_cpp to CI_BUILD_ARGS and CI_TEST_ARGS to reduce the build and test time
    • this should be sufficient for a quick check
    • for a thorough check, e.g. before a ROS2 release a full run of the CI should be performed although it make take a few hours
• when the build is started, the console output of the ci_launcher build will show links to the all the started jobs, e.g. Linux-aarch64
  • the lines containing ![Build Status] can be copied to a comment in an iceoryx PR to have a convenient access to the build