Skip to content

rosdistro Binary Release (bloom) — Runbook

Goal: sudo apt install ros-humble-lidarslam (and the Jazzy equivalent) installs the four core packages from the ROS buildfarm.

This page records the dependency analysis and the exact release procedure. The repository-side prep (versions, SPDX license tags, per-package CHANGELOG.rst) landed with v0.5.0 and are maintained through v0.6.0; what remains is the bloom/rosdistro procedure itself, which requires the maintainer's GitHub account.

Released package set

Package Version Notes
lidarslam_msgs 0.6.0 messages only
scanmatcher 0.6.0 NDT frontend (FastGICP / SmallGICP optional, off on the farm)
graph_based_slam 0.6.0 backend + /map_save Autoware bundle
lidarslam 0.6.0 launch + param presets

These are the only package.xml files in the repository outside Thirdparty/, so bloom's package discovery picks up exactly this set. Thirdparty/ consists of git submodules, which git archive (and therefore bloom's upstream import) excludes — intended.

Dependency readiness

Dependency rosdep key state Action
rclcpp, rclcpp_components, tf2*, *_msgs, pcl_conversions, std_srvs released ROS packages none
libg2o released (ros-<distro>-libg2o; verified 2026-06-11: rosdep resolve libg2o → ros-humble-libg2o on jammy, ros-jazzy-libg2o on noble) none
libpcl-all-dev standard rosdep key (system PCL) none
ndt_omp_ros2 not in rosdistro bloom-release it first (see below)
rko_lio not in rosdistro, and not a package.xml dependency not a blocker; see below

ndt_omp_ros2 must be released first

scanmatcher and graph_based_slam declare <depend>ndt_omp_ros2</depend>. The dependency is consumed as the submodule https://github.com/rsasaki0109/ndt_omp_ros2 (branch humble) — a fork maintained by the same owner, BSD licensed, with a unique name in rosdistro. Before the first lidarslam release, in the fork repo:

  1. Bump package.xml <version> from 0.0.0 to 0.1.0, set the SPDX license string (BSD-2-Clause), and add/confirm a reachable <maintainer> (rosdistro review requires one).
  2. Tag and bloom-release it into humble and jazzy (same procedure as below, separate release repo ndt_omp_ros2-release).
  3. Wait for the rosdistro PR to merge; the lidarslam release can be submitted as soon as the key exists in the distribution file (it does not need to be built yet).

rko_lio is not a blocker

The RKO-LIO flagship launch (rko_lio_slam.launch.py) uses the rko_lio package at runtime, but no core package declares it in package.xml, so the binary release neither pulls it in nor needs it to build. Consequences for apt users, to keep documented honestly:

  • lidarslam.launch.py (scanmatcher frontend) works out of the box.
  • The RKO-LIO frontend needs a source workspace (or the ghcr Docker image) until rko_lio itself is released by its upstream — that decision is not ours to make.

Distro targets

Humble (Ubuntu 22.04) and Jazzy (Ubuntu 24.04). Both are already exercised by the CI matrix on every push, including the ndt_omp_ros2 submodule build, so no new build risk is expected on the farm. All ament tests run on synthetic fixtures (no datasets, no network, no GPU), which matches buildfarm constraints.

Release procedure (maintainer)

One-time setup:

pip3 install -U bloom catkin_pkg
# a GitHub token with repo scope, configured for bloom:
#   https://bloom.readthedocs.io/ -> "Automated PR opening"

Per release:

# 0. ensure develop is green and this repo's release prep is merged
# 1. tag the release commit (release.yml publishes the GitHub release)
git tag v0.5.0 && git push origin v0.5.0

# 2. create an empty release repo once (first release only):
#    https://github.com/rsasaki0109/lidar_slam_ros2-release

# 3. release into each distro (first run is interactive; answers below)
bloom-release --rosdistro humble lidarslam_ros2
bloom-release --rosdistro jazzy lidarslam_ros2

First-run interactive answers:

Prompt Answer
repository name lidarslam_ros2
upstream repository https://github.com/rsasaki0109/lidar_slam_ros2.git
upstream type git
upstream branch develop
version :{auto} (reads package.xml)
release tag v:{version} (upstream tags are v-prefixed: v0.5.0; matches the v* trigger in release.yml)
release repository https://github.com/rsasaki0109/lidar_slam_ros2-release.git

bloom ends by offering to open the ros/rosdistro PR with the configured GitHub token — submit it, answer review comments (license string, maintainer email, description quality are the usual ones), and wait for the buildfarm. Binaries appear in the ROS testing repo first, then sync to main with the next distro sync (typically 2–6 weeks).

After the first sync

  • README: add the sudo apt install ros-humble-lidarslam install path next to the source build.
  • Subsequent releases: update each package's CHANGELOG.rst, bump all four package.xml versions together with VERSION (see RELEASING.md), tag, and re-run bloom-release (non-interactive after the first time).

Known caveats

  • lidarslam/images/ demo media (~25 MB of GIF/mp4/png) ships inside the source package because the README references those paths. Acceptable for now; moving demo media out of the package directory is a possible later cleanup to slim the source deb.
  • The repository-level CHANGELOG.md is the human-facing project changelog; the per-package CHANGELOG.rst files are what bloom turns into deb changelogs (REP-132). Both need updating per release.
  • git archive drops submodules, so the upstream tarball bloom imports contains no Thirdparty/ sources. Do not move release-relevant code into Thirdparty/.