rosbag2 composable recorder

A composable recorder node for ROS2 to allow recording rosbags without inter process communication.

NOTE: If you are running on ROS2 Jazzy or later, do not use this repo. A composable recorder node is now part of the standard rosbag2 framework.

Supported platforms

Currently only tested under Ubuntu 20.04/22.04. Will require ROS2 Galactic or later.

How to build

Create a workspace (e.g. ros2_ws), clone this repo, and build:

mkdir -p ~/ros2_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_ws/src
git clone -b galactic https://github.com/ros2/rosbag2.git
git clone https://github.com/berndpfrommer/rosbag2_composable_recorder
cd ..
colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON
. install/setup.bash

How to run

This recorder node is meant to be used as a composable node together with other nodes that produce a large number of messages. The launch file recorder.launch.py can serve as a template. Make a copy, edit it to your liking, then launch it.

ros2 launch rosbag2_composable_recorder recorder.launch.py

Setting the parameter start_recording_immediately will cause the recording to start immediately. To start the recording later:

ros2 service call /start_recording std_srvs/srv/Trigger

Alternatively, use the python script:

ros2 run rosbag2_composable_recorder start_recording.py

To stop the recording, either kill (Ctrl-C) the recording driver or call the stop service:

ros2 service call /stop_recording std_srvs/srv/Trigger

Parameters

• bag_name: (default: empty) prefix of directory name used for bag. Note: if you stop the recording and restart, the recorder node will throw an exception and exit because the bag already exists. Use bag_prefix in this case.
• bag_prefix: (default: rosbag_2) prefix of directory name used for storage. A timestamp will be appended. This parameter is only used when no bag_name is specified.
• topics: (default: empty) array of strings that specifies the topics to record. Topic names are expanded against the recorder node namespace, so relative names (without leading /) are namespace-aware.
• record_all: (default: False) when this is set, all topics are recorded.
• disable_discovery: (default: False) disable discovery of topics that occured after recording was launched.
• storage_id: (default: sqlite3) storage container format.
• serialization_format: (default: cdr) serialization format.
• qos_profile_overrides_path: (default: empty) path to a YAML file containing per-topic QoS profiles. This matches rosbag2 behavior. Topic keys are expanded against the recorder node namespace, so relative topic names (without leading /) are namespace-aware.
• max_cache_size: (default: 100MB) size (in bytes) of cache before writing to disk. See ros2 bag record --help for more.
• max_bagfile_size: (default: 0MB) maximum size a bagfile can be before it is split. A value of 0 indicates that bagfile splitting will not be used. See ros2 bag record --help for more.
• max_bagfile_duration: (default: 0s) maximum duration a bagfile can be before it is split. A value of 0 indicates that bagfile splitting will not be used. See ros2 bag record --help for more.
• start_recording_immediately: (default: False) do not wait for service call before recording is started.

QoS override file example:

qos_profile_overrides_path: /absolute/path/to/qos_overrides.yaml

A sample override file is included in config/qos_overrides.yaml. The launch file does not apply it by default; pass this file explicitly if you want these overrides.

Example qos_overrides.yaml:

camera/image_raw:
    history: keep_last
    depth: 10
    reliability: best_effort
    durability: volatile

/tf_static:
    history: keep_last
    depth: 1
    reliability: reliable
    durability: transient_local

If you run the recorder under namespace /robot1, the example key camera/image_raw is resolved as /robot1/camera/image_raw.

License

This software is issued under the Apache License Version 2.0.