cargo-ros-new

A Cargo plugin for creating new Rust packages with ROS package.xml files.

Features

• Creates a standard Rust package using cargo new with all its features
• Generates a ROS-compatible package.xml file with:
  • Package name and version
  • Maintainer information (name and email)
  • License declaration
  • Description
  • Correct format specification
  • Ament build type declaration
• Supports all cargo new options:
  • Binary or library template (--bin/--lib)
  • Edition specification (--edition)
  • VCS initialization (--vcs)

Installation

Install from crates.io:

cargo install cargo-ros-new

Usage

Basic usage

cargo ros-new my_package

This will create:

• A new Rust package named my_package
• A package.xml file with default values

With options

cargo ros-new my_package \
  --maintainer "John Doe" \
  --mail "john@example.com" \
  --license "MIT" \
  --description "My awesome ROS package" \
  --edition 2024 \
  --vcs git

As a Cargo subcommand

You can also use it as a regular Cargo subcommand:

cargo new --ros my_package

Configuration

The following default values are used if not specified:

• Maintainer: "user"
• Email: "you@email.com"
• License: "TODO: License declaration"
• Description: "TODO: Package description"
• Format: "3" (ROS package format 3)

Building from source

With Nix

If you have Nix installed, you can build and enter a development environment with:

nix develop

Then build with:

cargo build

Without Nix

Standard Rust build process:

cargo build

License

Apache-2.0

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open issues or merge requests on our GitLab repository.

ROS Compatibility

The generated packages are compatible with ROS 2 and the Ament build system through the ament_cargo build type.