Node name / parameter name sanitization

tokoro10g · April 23, 2024, 4:21am

Are there any helper functions for sanitizing names of nodes or parameters in the core of the ROS2 software stack?

A while ago, I opened this PR which prevents moveit2 rviz2 plugin from creating an invalid node name by sanitizing it, and DLu made a good point about where such sanitization functions should be implemented.
https://github.com/ros-planning/moveit2/pull/2386#issuecomment-1877401323

After some research, I found that there were some name validation functions in rmw:

github.com/ros2/rmw

rmw/src/validate_node_name.c

rolling

// Copyright 2017 Open Source Robotics Foundation, Inc.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

#include <rmw/validate_node_name.h>

#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>

#include "rcutils/isalnum_no_locale.h"

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However, I could not find any sanitization functions in rmw, rclcpp, etc.

Is there anyone who knows whether such functions are implemented in the core packages?
If not, what would be the best package to add these functions to?

P.S. during making the PR, I also found that there is no concrete specification about what characters should or should not be used in parameter names. Something has to be done for this issue too…

tomoyafujita · April 23, 2024, 5:38am

Is there anyone who knows whether such functions are implemented in the core packages?
If not, what would be the best package to add these functions to?

as you mentioned, rmw does have some functions, but not exposed to client layer.
probably we can have those aligned with rmw_validate_node_name, and bring those up to client layer via rcl as utility functions?

I also found that there is no concrete specification about what characters should or should not be used in parameter names. Something has to be done for this issue too…

true. this could be good enhancement as well.

probably this can be one of the topic in client wg meeting as well, ROS 2 Client Library Working Group [Update] - ROS General - Open Robotics Discourse

CC: @clalancette @wjwwood @alsora

tokoro10g · April 23, 2024, 11:01pm

Thanks Tomoya for your attention to this matter.

Yes, please do consider it as one of the topics in the working group.

The parameter name verification would be a separate issue, so I will open another thread once I gather the information out there to help discussion.

tomoyafujita · April 23, 2024, 11:43pm

@tokoro10g please feel free to jump in the meeting!

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Node name / parameter name sanitization

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