Repo Transfer Request: colcon-cache

[ruffsl]

Request Description

I've authored a colcon extension named colcon-cache to introduce a new cache verb to the colcon CLI:

An extension for colcon-core to cache the processing of packages. Enables caching of various colcon tasks, such as building or testing packages, by associating successful jobs with the respective state of package source files. In conjunction with colcon-package-selection, this extension can accelerate developer or continuous integration workflows by allowing users to finely cache valid workspace artifacts and skip processing of unaltered or unaffected packages during software development. For example, when pulling various changes into a local workspace to review pull requests, this extension can be used to track which packages need to be rebuilt or retested, maximizing the caching of the existing artifacts.

The repo and demo for this extension can be viewed here:

• https://github.com/ruffsl/colcon-cache
• https://gist.github.com/ruffsl/b2b567995810c69866221f659d52e71e
• https://vimeo.com/649647161/5b0c278e6c

Could this extension be transferred to the colcon org and be slated for release?

Additional Notes

This relates to some long standing tickets, including:

• Add selection conditions for packages with modified source trees colcon-package-selection#25
• workspace caching feature from circle ci learning (pipelineing ?) ros-industrial/industrial_ci#548
• [question] Incremental builds #417
• Add verb for tracking and staging source changes in workspace #428
• review prototype  ruffsl/colcon-cache#12

The extension's release was previously blocked in debian, but has since be resolved:

• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1002306
• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1002307

This extension is already being used in the wild:

• Update CI to use colcon cache ros-navigation/navigation2#2343

[ruffsl]

@cottsay , any remaining topics to review before releasing this extension?

• Fix declared target dependencies
• Port CI to colcon/ci
  • Fix extension for windows
• Max out code coverage

Should I now transfer ownership to the colcon github org?

[cottsay]

I haven't looked closely at this one yet - give me a bit to take a look from a does-no-harm point of view. Thanks for your patience thus far.

[ruffsl]

Hey @cottsay , think we could pick this back up? I've updated the repo to match the changes to colcon clean:

• Sync with colcon_clean ruffsl/colcon-cache#47

With pip raising the bar with extra scary install flags, I'd like to package this upstream via apt for Noble.

You can effectively diff the cache/clean repos using tools like meld. That's what I used to keep them in sync.