The gtest_ros_example package

This is just a simple bootstraped gtest example inspired by ysonggit to test if applications build with gtest.

Tested with Ubuntu 16.04 and ROS Kinetic.

Build gtest

First of all one as to build gtest, because installing libgtest-dev under Ubuntu only gives you the sources.

sudo apt-get install libgtest-dev
mkdir /tmp/gtest_build && cd /tmp/gtest_build
cmake /usr/src/gtest
make
#copy or symlink libgtest.a and ligtest_main.a to /usr/lib folder
sudo cp *.a /usr/lib

Optional: It could happen that you work on a system where you do not have the rights to copy stuff into system folders. In this case, just create your own library folder for example in your home:

mkdir ~/lib
cp *.a ~/lib

In this case, you have to specify some environment variables before running catkin_make, which is discussed below.

Build this package

First checkout this repository into some src folder of a catkin workspace. Then just build the common execuatbles (which also include a application) via:

catkin_make

Catkin now builds rostalker, roslistener, and simple_test. simple_test is just a gtest example w/o any catkin magic (c.f. CMakeLists.txt). rostalker and roslistener don't have any gtest dependencies at all, and should build out of the box.

To build the test for the talker's add member function, call catkin like this:

catkin_make tests

Catkin now builds talker-test and simple_test_catkin. simple_test_catkin is just a gtest example w/ catkin magic (c.f. CMakeLists.txt).

Running executables

One can run any executable like this (don't forget the roscore):

rosrun gtest_ros_example <the executable name>

Link gtest from non-standard library folders

If one has to install the gtest libraries in some other folder (e.g. into ~/lib/), catkin has to be called like this:

LIBRARY_PATH=~/lib GTEST_ROOT=~/lib catkin_make

LIBRARY_PATH tells the linker where to find the libraries, while GTEST_ROOT gives cmake the location hints for it's checks.