colcon-ros

What it is and what it does

colcon-ros is a plugin that teaches colcon (a cross-platform build tool) how to recognize and build ROS packages. When you run `colcon build` in a workspace containing ROS packages, this extension handles ROS-specific metadata, package discovery, and build conventions so that ROS packages are built alongside other colcon-managed packages.

The package depends on six runtime components: colcon-core (the plugin framework), colcon-cmake and colcon-python-setup-py (build system handlers), colcon-pkg-config (system dependency resolution), catkin-pkg (ROS package metadata parsing), and colcon-recursive-crawl (workspace discovery). It is intended for developers working with ROS on macOS, Windows, or POSIX systems.

Use it for:

• Build a mixed ROS and non-ROS workspace using a single colcon command without switching tools.
• Integrate ROS package builds into a CI/CD pipeline that already uses colcon for other projects.
• Develop ROS packages on Windows or macOS where native ROS build tools may have limited support.
• Manage multi-package ROS projects with automatic dependency resolution and parallel builds.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Extends colcon to recognize and build ROS packages as part of a workspace build, integrating ROS package metadata and build conventions into colcon's cross-platform build orchestration.

Yes, if you are actively developing ROS packages and already use colcon. The low install friction and permissive license make it a straightforward addition. However, the aging maintenance status (no release in 781 days, last commit 2026-01-13) warrants checking compatibility with your ROS distribution and colcon version before relying on it for production workflows.

Install

colcon-ros on PyPI

pip install colcon-ros

uv add colcon-ros

poetry add colcon-ros

Installing colcon-ros

Before you install

Low install friction; distributed as a wheel. Maintenance status is aging—last commit was 2026-01-13, and the package has not had a release in 781 days, though the repository remains active and not archived.

License in practice

Licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0 (permissive). No restrictions on commercial or private use; you may modify and redistribute under the same license terms.

Quickstart

pip install colcon-ros

colcon build

Requires colcon-core and its other runtime dependencies (colcon-cmake, colcon-pkg-config, colcon-python-setup-py, colcon-recursive-crawl, catkin-pkg) to be installed; typically managed automatically by pip. Requires Python >=3.6.

Verify before relying

• Whether the 781-day gap since last release indicates active maintenance or dormancy relative to ROS ecosystem changes.
• Compatibility with recent ROS 2 distributions and colcon-core versions.
• Whether Alpha status reflects feature completeness or ongoing instability.

Package facts

Evidence: colcon_ros-0.5.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: colcon

Tags

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