1. Linux installation from sources

The instructions for installing the eProsima Fast DDS Monitor application from sources and the required Qt installation are provided in this page. It is organized as follows:

1.1. Dependencies installation

Fast DDS Monitor depends on eProsima Fast DDS library, eProsima Fast DDS Statistics Backend library, Qt and certain Debian packages. This section describes the instructions for installing eProsima Fast DDS dependencies and requirements in a Linux environment from sources. The following packages will be installed:

  • foonathan_memory_vendor, an STL compatible C++ memory allocator library.

  • fastcdr, a C++ library that serializes according to the standard CDR serialization mechanism.

  • fastrtps, the core library of eProsima Fast DDS library.

  • fastdds_statistics_backend, a C++ library that provides a simple and easy-to-use API for interacting with data from Fast DDS statistics module

First of all, the Requirements and Dependencies detailed below need to be met. Afterwards, the user can choose whether to follow either the colcon or the CMake installation instructions.

1.1.1. Requirements

The installation of eProsima Fast DDS in a Linux environment from binaries requires the following tools to be installed in the system:

1.1.1.1. CMake, g++, pip, wget and git

These packages provide the tools required to install eProsima Fast DDS and its dependencies from command line. Install CMake, g++, pip, wget and git using the package manager of the appropriate Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu use the command:

sudo apt install cmake g++ pip wget git

1.1.1.2. Colcon

colcon is a command line tool based on CMake aimed at building sets of software packages. Install the ROS 2 development tools (colcon and vcstool) by executing the following command:

pip3 install -U colcon-common-extensions vcstool

Note

If this fails due to an Environment Error, add the --user flag to the pip3 installation command.

1.1.1.3. Gtest

Gtest is a unit testing library for C++. By default, eProsima Fast DDS Monitor does not compile tests. It is possible to activate them with the opportune CMake options when calling colcon or CMake. For more details, please refer to the CMake options section. For a detailed description of the Gtest installation process, please refer to the Gtest Installation Guide.

1.1.2. Dependencies

eProsima Fast DDS has the following dependencies, when installed from sources in a Linux environment:

1.1.2.1. Asio and TinyXML2 libraries

Asio is a cross-platform C++ library for network and low-level I/O programming, which provides a consistent asynchronous model. TinyXML2 is a simple, small and efficient C++ XML parser. Install these libraries using the package manager of the appropriate Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu use the command:

sudo apt install libasio-dev libtinyxml2-dev

1.1.2.2. OpenSSL

OpenSSL is a robust toolkit for the TLS and SSL protocols and a general-purpose cryptography library. Install OpenSSL using the package manager of the appropriate Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu use the command:

sudo apt install libssl-dev

1.1.2.3. eProsima dependencies

If it already exists in the system an installation of Fast DDS library with version greater than 2.3.0 and an installation of Fast DDS Statistics Backend, just source these libraries when building the Fast DDS Monitor by using the command:

source <fastdds-installation-path>/install/setup.bash

In other case, just download Fast DDS project from sources and build it together with Fast DDS Monitor using colcon as it is explained in section Colcon installation.

1.1.2.4. Qt 5.15

Qt 5.15 is needed in order to build Fast DDS Monitor. To install this Qt version, refer to Qt Downloads website.

Note

When going through the installation steps, make sure the box of component Qt Charts is checked.

1.2. Colcon installation

  1. Create a Fast-DDS-Monitor directory and download the .repos file that will be used to install eProsima Fast DDS Monitor and its dependencies:

    mkdir -p ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/src
cd ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS-monitor/main/fastdds_monitor.repos
vcs import src < fastdds_monitor.repos

    Note

    In case there is an already Fast DDS installation in the system it is not required to download and build every dependency in the .repos file. It is just needed to download and build the Fast DDS Monitor project having sourced its dependencies. Refer to section eProsima dependencies in order to check how to source Fast DDS and Fast DDS Statistics Backend libraries.

    In order to build the project, it must be specified the path to the Qt 5.15 gcc_64 installation path. Using the standard Qt installation, this path should be similar to /home/<user>/Qt/5.15.2/gcc_64.

  2. Build the packages:

    colcon build --cmake-args -DQT_PATH=<qt-installation-path>

Note

Being based on CMake, it is possible to pass the CMake configuration options to the colcon build command. For more information on the specific syntax, please refer to the CMake specific arguments page of the colcon manual.

1.3. CMake installation

This section explains how to compile eProsima Fast DDS Monitor with CMake, either locally or globally.

1.3.1. Local installation

  1. Create a Fast-DDS directory where to download and build eProsima Fast DDS Monitor and its dependencies:

    mkdir ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor

  2. Clone the following dependencies and compile them using CMake.

    • Foonathan memory

      cd ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor
git clone https://github.com/eProsima/foonathan_memory_vendor.git
mkdir foonathan_memory_vendor/build
cd foonathan_memory_vendor/build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON
cmake --build . --target install

    • Fast CDR

      cd ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor
git clone https://github.com/eProsima/Fast-CDR.git
mkdir Fast-CDR/build
cd Fast-CDR/build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install
cmake --build . --target install

    • Fast DDS

      cd ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor
git clone https://github.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS.git
mkdir Fast-DDS/build
cd Fast-DDS/build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install
cmake --build . --target install

    • Fast DDS Statistics Backend

      cd ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor
git clone https://github.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS-statistics-backend.git
mkdir Fast-DDS-statistics-backend/build
cd Fast-DDS-statistics-backend/build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install
cmake --build . --target install

  3. Once all dependencies are installed, install eProsima Fast DDS Monitor:

    cd ~/Fast-DDS-Monitor
git clone https://github.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS-monitor.git
mkdir Fast-DDS-monitor/build
cd Fast-DDS-monitor/build
cmake .. \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install \
    -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=~/Fast-DDS-Monitor/install \
    -DQT_PATH=<qt-installation-path>
cmake --build . --target install

Note

By default, eProsima Fast DDS Monitor does not compile tests. However, they can be activated by downloading and installing Gtest and building with CMake option -DBUILD_TESTS=ON.

1.3.2. Global installation

To install eProsima Fast DDS system-wide instead of locally, remove all the flags that appear in the configuration steps of Fast-CDR, Fast-DDS, Fast-DDS-Statistics-Backend, and Fast-DDS-Monitor, and change the first in the configuration step of foonathan_memory_vendor to the following:

-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local/ -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON

1.4. Run an application

To run the eProsima Fast DDS Monitor application, source the Fast DDS and Fast DDS Statistics Backend libraries and execute the executable file that has been installed in <install-path>/fastdds_monitor/bin/fastdds_monitor:

# If built has been done using colcon, all projects could be sourced as follows
source install/setup.bash
./<install-path>/fastdds_monitor/bin/fastdds_monitor

Be sure that this executable has execute permissions.