Windows (source)

This page explains how to setup a development environment for ROS 2 on Windows.

System requirements 

Only Windows 10 is supported.

Language support 

Make sure you have a locale which supports UTF-8. For example, for a Chinese-language Windows 10 installation, you may need to install an English language pack.

Create a location for the ROS 2 installation 

This location will contain both the installed binary packages, plus the ROS 2 installation itself.

Start a powershell session (usually by clicking on the start menu, then typing powershell).

Then create a directory to store the installation. Because of Windows path-length limitations, this should be as short as possible. We’ll use C:\dev for the rest of these instructions.

md C:\dev

Increase the Windows maximum path length 

By default, Windows is restricted to a maximum path length (MAX_PATH) of 260 characters. The ROS 2 build will use significantly longer path lengths, so we will increase that. Using the powershell session you started above, run the following:

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force

You can read more about this limitation in Microsoft’s documentation.

Install prerequisites 

Install MSVC 

In order to compile the ROS 2 code, the MSVC compiler must be installed. Currently it is recommended to use MSVC 2019.

Continue using the previous powershell session, and run the following command to download it:

irm https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vs_buildtools.exe -OutFile vs_buildtools_2019.exe

Now install MSVC 2019:

.\vs_buildtools_2019.exe --quiet --wait --norestart --add Microsoft.Component.MSBuild --add Microsoft.Net.Component.4.6.1.TargetingPack --add Microsoft.Net.Component.4.8.SDK --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreBuildTools --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.Compiler --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TextTemplating --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CLI.Support --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreBuildTools --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreIde --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Redist.14.Latest --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.19041 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.NativeDesktop.Core --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.MSBuildTools --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools

Note

The installation of MSVC can take a long time, and there is no feedback while it is progressing.

Install pixi 

ROS 2 uses conda-forge as a backend for packages, with pixi as the frontend.

Continue using the previous powershell session, and use the instructions from https://pixi.sh/latest/ to install pixi. Once pixi has been installed, close the powershell session and start it again, which will ensure pixi is on the PATH.

Install dependencies 

Download the pixi configuration file in the existing powershell session:

cd C:\dev
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2/ros2/refs/heads/rolling/pixi.toml -OutFile pixi.toml

Install dependencies:

pixi install

You should now close the powershell session, as the rest of the instructions will use the Windows command prompt.

Build ROS 2 

Start a new Windows command prompt, which will be used for the build.

Source the MSVC compiler 

This is required in the command prompt you’ll use to compile ROS 2, but it is not required when running:

call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" x86_amd64

Source the pixi environment 

This is required in every command prompt you open to set up paths to the dependencies:

cd C:\dev
pixi shell

Get ROS 2 code 

Now that we have the development tools we can get the ROS 2 source code.

Setup a development folder, for example C:\dev\rolling:

md C:\dev\rolling\src
cd C:\dev\rolling

Get the ros2.repos file which defines the repositories to clone from:

vcs import --input https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2/ros2/rolling/ros2.repos src

Install additional RMW implementations (optional)

The default middleware that ROS 2 uses is Fast DDS, but the middleware (RMW) can be replaced at build or runtime. See the guide on how to work with multiple RMWs.

Build the code in the workspace 

To build the \rolling folder tree:

colcon build --merge-install

Note

We’re using --merge-install here to avoid a PATH variable that is too long at the end of the build. If you’re adapting these instructions to build a smaller workspace then you might be able to use the default behavior which is isolated install, i.e. where each package is installed to a different folder.

Setup environment 

Start a new Windows command prompt, which will be used in the examples.

Source the pixi environment 

This is required in every command prompt you open to set up paths to the dependencies:

cd C:\dev
pixi shell

Source the ROS 2 environment 

This is required in every command prompt you open to setup the ROS 2 workspace:

call C:\dev\rolling\install\local_setup.bat

This will automatically set up the environment for any DDS vendors that support was built for.

It is normal that the previous command, if nothing else went wrong, outputs The system cannot find the path specified. exactly once.

Try some examples 

Note that the first time you run any executable you will have to allow access to the network through a Windows Firewall popup.

You can run the tests using this command:

colcon test --merge-install

Note

--merge-install should only be used if it was also used in the build step.

Afterwards you can get a summary of the tests using this command:

colcon test-result

To run the examples, first open a clean new cmd.exe and set up the workspace by sourcing the local_setup.bat file. Then, run a C++ talker:

call install\local_setup.bat
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

In a separate command prompt you can do the same, but instead run a Python listener:

call install\local_setup.bat
ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

You should see the talker saying that it’s Publishing messages and the listener saying I heard those messages. This verifies both the C++ and Python APIs are working properly. Hooray!

Note

It is not recommended to build in the same cmd prompt that you’ve sourced the local_setup.bat.

If you installed your workspace with colcon as instructed above, “uninstalling” could be just a matter of opening a new terminal and not sourcing the workspace’s setup file. This way, your environment will behave as though there is no Rolling install on your system.
If you’re also trying to free up space, you can delete the entire workspace directory with:
```
rmdir /s /q C:\dev\ros2_rolling
```

Windows (source)

System requirements 

Language support 

Create a location for the ROS 2 installation 

Increase the Windows maximum path length 

Install prerequisites 

Install MSVC 

Install pixi 

Install dependencies 

Build ROS 2 

Source the MSVC compiler 

Source the pixi environment 

Get ROS 2 code 

Install additional RMW implementations (optional)

Build the code in the workspace 

Setup environment 

Source the pixi environment 

Source the ROS 2 environment 

Try some examples 

Next steps 

Stay up to date 

Troubleshoot 

Uninstall 