ZED ROS2 Wrapper Debugging

Build with Debug Symbols

Go to the root of your ROS2 workspace.

Clean the previous build if they do not contain debug symbols:

rm -rf install
rm -rf build
rm -rf logs

Build the ZED ROS2 wrapper with debug symbols:

colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args=-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug --parallel-workers $(nproc)

or use RelWithDebInfo build type for optimized builds with debug symbols (normally required by the ZED SDK):

colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args=-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo --parallel-workers $(nproc)

Debug with VSCode

It’s possible to debug the ZED ROS2 nodes using VSCode and the ros2 launch command with a gdbserver prefix.

Setup VSCode launch configuration

1) Open VSCode on your workspace. 2) Go to your side bar, ‘Run and Debug’ section. 3) Add a new configuration by clicking on ‘create a launch.json file’. 4) Select ‘C++ (GDB/LLDB)’. 5) Replace the content of the generated launch.json file with the following:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "C++ Debugger",
            "request": "launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "miDebuggerServerAddress": "localhost:3000",
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "program": "install/zed_debug/lib/zed_debug/zed_debug_proc",
            "stopAtEntry": true
        }
    ]
}

with "stopAtEntry": true the node will stop at the beginning of the main function. This allows you to set breakpoints before the execution continues.

Learn more about VSCode debugging configuration:

• Debug C++ in Visual Studio Code
• Configure C/C++ debugging

Start the node with gdbserver

The zed_camera_debug.launch.py launch file has been modified to accept a cmd_prefix argument that allows you to add a prefix to the node executable.

Run the launch file with the gdbserver prefix:

ros2 launch zed_debug zed_camera_debug.launch.py camera_model:=<your_camera_model> cmd_prefix:='gdbserver localhost:3000'

Debug with GDB

You can also debug the ZED ROS2 nodes using gdb directly from the command line.

ros2 launch zed_debug zed_camera_debug.launch.py camera_model:=<your_camera_model> cmd_prefix:='gdb --args'

You can modify gdb --args to add any other gdb options you may need.

Debug with Valgrind

You can also run the ZED ROS2 nodes with valgrind to check for memory leaks and other memory-related issues.

Run the launch file with the valgrind prefix:

ros2 launch zed_debug zed_camera_debug.launch.py camera_model:=<your_camera_model> cmd_prefix:='valgrind --leak-check=full --track-origins=yes'

You can modify valgrind --leak-check=full --track-origins=yes to add any other valgrind options you may need.

Known Issues

When the isaac_ros_managed_nitros package is installed and the ZED Camera Components are linked against Isaac ROS libraries, you may experience issues when trying to start the zed_debug executable. This appears to be an issue with the Isaac ROS libraries when used with static ROS 2 Composition instead of dynamic composition (using launch files). We are working with NVIDIA to resolve this issue. In the meantime, if you encounter this problem and want to debug the ZED Components, please uninstall the isaac_ros_managed_nitros package from your system and rebuild.