ament_auto_generate_code() doesn't generate interfaces

[nnmm]

When I set up my package with ament_cmake_auto like this:

ament_auto_find_build_dependencies()
ament_auto_generate_code()
ament_auto_package()

and build the package, the build succeeds but the install folder contains no header or source files. Here is a minimal example to reproduce it. Is there an option to one of these functions that I'm missing? I know there is no documentation, but in the case of ament_auto_generate_code I'm not even sure where the source code lives.

[hidmic]

@nnmm ament_auto_generate_code only executes ament extensions, but I see none registered for it anywhere. rosidl has changed significantly in the past few years, so I'll go ahead and assume this never picked up.

Long term, I'm tagging this ticket as a bug and changing the title to reflect the missing feature. Unfortunately, I cannot commit to a timeline for it to land.

Short term, rosidl_generate_interfaces() will get you close to where you want to be. Something like:

ament_auto_find_build_dependencies()
file(GLOB ${PROJECT_NAME}_interface_files msg/*)
rosidl_generate_interfaces(
   ${PROJECT_NAME}_interfaces
   ${${PROJECT_NAME}_interface_files}
   DEPENDENCIES ${${PROJECT_NAME}_FOUND_BUILD_DEPENDS})
ament_auto_package()

should do.

[sven-hoek]

For anyone trying to use the workaround from above, I had to have the file list use relative paths (and I added the srv folder):

find_package(ament_cmake_auto REQUIRED)
ament_auto_find_build_dependencies()

file(GLOB ${PROJECT_NAME}_msg_files RELATIVE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} msg/*)
file(GLOB ${PROJECT_NAME}_srv_files RELATIVE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} srv/*)
rosidl_generate_interfaces(
   ${PROJECT_NAME}
   ${${PROJECT_NAME}_msg_files}
   ${${PROJECT_NAME}_srv_files}
   DEPENDENCIES ${${PROJECT_NAME}_FOUND_BUILD_DEPENDS}
)

[HansRobo]

I started inplementing ament_auto_generate_code here!
#600