Great that you've made it to this little Eclipse project! Let's get you started by providing a quick background tour, introducing the project scope and guide you through the examples.
So first off: What is iceoryx?
Iceoryx is an inter-process communication (IPC) middleware for POSIX based operating systems. It features shared memory capabilities that allow a true zero-copy data transfer. For more information have a look at the 1000 words iceoryx introduction in the eclipse newsletter.
Originating from the automotive domain, it is crucial to transfer a huge amount of data between multiple processes to realize driver assistance systems or automated driving applications. Moreover, the same efficient communication mechanism can be applied to a broader range of use cases, e.g. in the field of robotics or game development.
It's all about the API!
Don't get too frighten of the API when strolling through the codebase. Think of iceoryx's API as a "plumbing" one ("plumbing" as defined in Git, which means low-level). We're not using the "plumbing" API ourselves, but instead a typed API. An example for a "porcelain" API would be ROS2. Others are listed in the next section.
| Framework | Description |
|---|---|
| ROS2 | Eclipse iceoryx can be used inside the robot operating system with rmw_iceoryx |
| eCAL | Open-source middleware from Continental AG supporting pub/sub and various message protocols |
| RTA-VRTE | Adaptive AUTOSAR platform software framework for vehicle computer from ETAS GmbH |
| Cyclone DDS | Performant and robust open-source DDS implementation maintained by ADLINK Technology Inc. |
- Linux
- QNX
- macOS (initial support - please test and report bugs)
- Windows 10 (not yet - currently in progress)
Who can benefit of using iceoryx? What's in for those folks?
Andrew, the HAD developer Andrew is a software developer at a startup working on autonomous cars. Currently their project is using ROS, because it's easy to get the car driving. After some months, he's realizing that sending gigabytes around, leads to high runtime demands with ROS. A college mentions iceoryx during lunch, which might be interesting because it has a zero-copy mechanism and offers a ROS RMW implementation. Soon after giving iceoryx a try, Andrew is thrilled about it. He cannot only feel the runtime performance boost, but also still keep using his beloved ROS visualization tools!
Martha, the indie game developer Martha always had troubles with those silly game engines. Some are slow but free, others are fast but too expensive. It's a hard life if you're independent. When a friend who works in the automotive industry mentions he has just started using iceoryx, which offers fast shared memory communication she listens up. Iceoryx is solely passing pointers around and does avoid copies to the utmost? "I'll definitely try iceoryx in my new project and see if I can speed up the performance with my low cost engine" she thinks while wandering home at night after the meetup with her friend.
Robby, the lonely robot Robby is autonomous robot built during a research project at a university. He has a great set of features and can astonish the crowds by creating a detailed map of the university building in under an hour. However, they made him use that slow self-made IPC to communicate with his sensors because his parents wanted to get started fast. Though that makes it hard for him to react in real-time to dangerous incidents like flying coffee cups. When strolling through the interwebs on a lonely evening, he finds out about iceoryx: Free-to-use, high-performance data transfer with low runtime overhead, real-time support! Brilliant! Maybe even Robby's biggest wish for a network binding will come true, so he can stream his favorite video even faster!
iceoryx_utils and iceoryx_posh are deployed as independent cmake packages. Posh is using some functions from utils and is depending on it. You are able to build posh and utils and integrate in into existing cmake projects.
Before installing iceoryx you need a XCode installation, git and optional an installed ncurses library for the introspection client. To install ncurses locally into your build folder follow these steps
cd iceoryx
ICEORYX_DIR=$PWD
mkdir -p build
cd build
git clone https://github.com/mirror/ncurses.git
cd ncurses
git checkout v6.2
./configure --prefix=$ICEORYX_DIR/build/dependencies/ --exec-prefix=$ICEORYX_DIR/build/dependencies/ --with-termlib
make -j12
make install
If you would like to use our Cyclone DDS Gateway you have to install Cyclone DDS first, see https://github.com/eclipse-cyclonedds/cyclonedds.
Although we strive to be fully POSIX-compliant, we recommend using Ubuntu 18.04 and at least GCC 7.4.0 for development.
You will need to install the following packages:
sudo apt install cmake libacl1-dev libncurses5-dev pkg-config
Additionally, there is an optional dependency to the MIT licensed cpptoml library, which is used to parse a RouDi config file for the mempool config. cpptoml
NOTE: Requires CMake version 3.5 or higher.
The CMakeLists.txt from iceoryx_meta can be used to easily develop iceoryx with an IDE.
-
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/eclipse/iceoryx.git -
Generate the necessary build files
cd iceoryx cmake -Bbuild -Hiceoryx_meta -DTOML_CONFIG=ON # when you have installed external dependencies like ncurses you have to add them # to your prefix path cmake -Bbuild -Hiceoryx_meta -DTOML_CONFIG=ON -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$(PWD)/build/dependencies/
-
Compile the source code
cmake --build build
| switch | description |
|---|---|
dds_gateway |
builds the iceoryx dds gateway using the cyclonedds dds stack, cyclonedds will be fetched and built as part of the build, see cyclonedds for details |
examples |
builds all examples |
introspection |
the console introspection client which requires an installed ncurses library with terminfo support |
test |
enables module-, integration- and component-tests |
TOML_CONFIG |
activates config file support by using toml, if this is deactivated the central broker RouDi is not being build |
| switch | description |
|---|---|
IOX_MAX_PORT_NUMBER |
the maximum number of ports RouDi can distribute to the clients |
IOX_MAX_INTERFACE_NUMBER |
the maximum number for interface ports, which are used for e.g. gateways |
IOX_MAX_SUBSCRIBERS_PER_PUBLISHER |
the maximum number of subscriber a publisher can deliver chunks |
IOX_MAX_CHUNKS_ALLOCATE_PER_SENDER |
the maximum number of chunks a sender can hold at a given time |
IOX_MAX_HISTORY_CAPACITY_OF_CHUNK_DISTRIBUTOR |
the maximum number chunks available for the chunk history |
IOX_MAX_CHUNKS_HELD_PER_RECEIVER |
the maximum number of chunks a receiver can hold at a given time |
Have a look at iceoryx_posh/cmake/iceoryx_posh_deployment.cmake for the default values of this constants.
As an alternative we provide our build-test script which we use to integrate iceoryx into our infrastructure.
-
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/eclipse/iceoryx.git -
Build everything
cd iceoryx ./tools/iceoryx_build_test.sh
With the following arguments you can add additional features:
| switch | description |
|---|---|
clean |
Removes the build directory and performs a clean build. If you have installed ncurses locally into your build directory you have to reinstall it first. |
test |
Enables module-, integration- and component-tests. The Googletest-Framework will be automatically fetched from github and the test will be executed and the end of the script. |
Alternatively, iceoryx can be built with colcon to provide a smooth integration for ROS2 developers.
mkdir -p iceoryx_ws/src
cd $_
git clone https://github.com/eclipse/iceoryx.git
cd ..
colcon build
This build method makes the most sense in combination with rmw_iceoryx
Congrats! You've build all the necessary things to continue playing around with the examples.
If you want to avoid installing anything on your host machine but you have Docker installed, it is possible to use it to build and run iceoryx applications.
Please see the dedicated README.md for information on how to do this.
You can find our examples here.
| Name | Description | Technologies |
|---|---|---|
| Larry.Robotics | An iceoryx demonstrator for tinker, thinker and toddler | Demonstrator |
| iceoryx-rs | Experimental Rust wrapper for iceoryx | Rust |
| IceRay | An iceoryx instrospection client written in Rust | Rust |
Is something missing or you've got ideas for other nifty examples? Jump right away to the next section!
Please refer to the CONTRIBUTING.md for a quick read-up about what to consider if you want to contribute.
Get to know the upcoming features and the project scope in PLANNED_FEATURES.md.
- Michael Pöhnl (michael.poehnl@de.bosch.com)
- Christian Eltzschig (christian.eltzschig2@de.bosch.com)
- Dietrich Krönke (dietrich.kroenke2@de.bosch.com)
- Mathias Kraus (mathias.kraus2@de.bosch.com)
- Matthias Killat (matthias.killat2@de.bosch.com)
- Martin Hintz (martin.hintz@de.bosch.com)
- Simon Hoinkis (simon.hoinkis2@de.bosch.com)