[drake_bazel_installed] Compile Error when using a stable Drake installed from APT (focal:0.35.0-1)

[pvmilk]

I compiled drake_bazel_installed by setting INSTALLED_DRAKE_DIR="/opt/drake/" in drake_bazel_installed/WORKSPACE.

Drake was installed from apt-get install in Ubuntu-focal. The version is as follows: https://drake-apt.csail.mit.edu/focal focal/main amd64 drake-dev amd64 0.35.0-1

Compile with the following command... and got the error below.

$ cd $ROOT/drake_bazel_installed
$ bazel build --jobs=3 //apps:all

Starting local Bazel server and connecting to it...
INFO: Analyzed 4 targets (30 packages loaded, 1890 targets configured).
INFO: Found 4 targets...
ERROR: /home/USER/ide-workspace/drake-external-examples/drake_bazel_installed/apps/BUILD.bazel:46:8: Middleman _middlemen/apps_Sfind_Uresource_Utest-runfiles failed: missing input file 'external/drake/examples/quadrotor/LICENSE', owner: '@drake//examples:quadrotor/LICENSE'
ERROR: /home/USER/ide-workspace/drake-external-examples/drake_bazel_installed/apps/BUILD.bazel:46:8 Middleman _middlemen/apps_Sfind_Uresource_Utest-runfiles failed: 10 input file(s) do not exist
INFO: Elapsed time: 7.751s, Critical Path: 0.15s
INFO: 11 processes: 11 internal.
FAILED: Build did NOT complete successfully

I tracked it down and found out the error is more to do with how the *.deb package was packages. I believed that some LICENSE files have been removed during stable release of the *.deb package, but the file /opt/drake/share/drake/repo.bzl has not been updated accordingly; hence the error.

P.S.

• I tried to compile by letting bazel install the nightly build (without setting INSTALLED_DRAKE_DIR). It works fine.
• Sorry, if the issue should be reported in the main repository.

[jwnimmer-tri]

Thanks for the report, it's fine to be here. (I'll move it to a Drake issue later if need be.)

When I wrote the drake_bazel_installed example, I only imagined that it would be used versus the binary release tarballs from https://drake.mit.edu/from_binary.html, not apt. If you want to try those for now, I think they would work.

However, the idea of using it vs apt releases is a good one. I'll see if we can make that work.

[jwnimmer-tri]

Per #286, the repo.bzl file is no longer used, so I don't think it can cause problems anymore.