Docker is a very convenient and easy to use container tool. I recently figured out how it works and set up a ROS image with it. Now I can use ROS in the comfort of a familiar Mac OS setup!
Instructions
- Download and install Docker from Docker’s website
- Pull a ROS image, a list is here
$ docker pull ros:kinetic-robot-xenial - Run ROS container
$ docker run -it ros:kinetic-robot-xenialThis opens an interactive session with the running container. From here, we need to run
roscore. Now there is a problem - our terminal session is consumed byroscore! To solve this, open a new terminal session and:
$ docker ps -l
$ docker exec -it <CONTAINER-ID-FROM-ABOVE> bash
This allows us to open addition bash sessions within the same container. Don’t forget to source ROS’s setup after this:
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
- Stopping ROS containers
To stop the containers, simply stop the original processes run by the
docker runcommand. CTRL-C and then exit will do the trick.
References
Docker Website
Official Docker images repository
ROS Docker Tutorial
Where Are Docker Images Stored?
