python3-vcstool python3-colcon-common-extensions python3-rosdep are from the ROS package repository

[rjoomen]

If ros-enabled is false, colcon-action@v7 fails because python3-vcstool, python3-colcon-common-extensions, and python3-rosdep cannot be found. See also tesseract-robotics/tesseract#1006

[marip8]

Is the issue here that the name ros-enabled is a bit misleading? I would be okay with renaming it something like add-ros-sources

[rjoomen]

No, the issue is that colcon-action currently will fail when ros-enabled is set to false.

[marip8]

I guess we should just get rid of that option since colcon itself can't be installed now unless you add the ROS sources

[rjoomen]

Seems logical. It's the ROS build tool after all, not to mention rosdep, which even has ROS in the name :)

[rjoomen]

@Levi-Armstrong do you agree? We'll be requiring ROS for the CI of the intentionally ROS-agnostic Tesseract framework.

[marip8]

FWIW, it seems like adding the ROS sources is equivalent to adding a PPA. It doesn't force us to embed ROS into our code or force us to link against ROS; it just gives us the ability to use ROS infrastructure tools that happen to be convenient for building our projects whether they depend on ROS or not

[johnwason]

You can install these packages using Python Pip without using APT packages. To deal with the pip root issue, you can either install using "user" install with the --user flag, or install the Python packages somewhere under /opt using the --target flag to install the packages to a non-system directory, and modify PYTHONPATH to point to that directory. There is no need to use ROS or any other package manager beyond the built in Python Pip.

[Levi-Armstrong]

If one of the option @johnwason proposed works I prefer that over adding the PPA.

[Levi-Armstrong]

Should be addressed by #14