Redundant test dependencies in package.xml of unitree_ros

[Plumezz]

Hello, after building and testing this project with branch main, I found something unexpected.

I noticed the package.xml file in the package unitree_ros contains the following content which means a format check.

  <test_depend>ament_lint_auto</test_depend>
  <test_depend>ament_lint_common</test_depend>

But there are no test section in CMakeLists.txt resulting in no testing programs to run actually.

So I think if we want the ament_lint tools to do a format check, maybe need add the testing section in the CMakeLists.txt like following:

if(BUILD_TESTING)
  find_package(ament_lint_auto REQUIRED)
  ament_lint_auto_find_test_dependencies()
endif()

After adding the content, amen_lint_tools like ament_copyright, ament_lint_cmake, ament_xmllint, can be executed correctly when I use colcon test command.

But there are some format errors after testing. Here is the result file:

unitree_ros.log 1:copyright 3:cpplint 4:flake8 5:lint_cmake 6:pep257 7:uncrustify

If we do not need the ament_lint_tools, I think the test_depend might be a redundant dependency that could be removed to reduce the burden of project maintenance.

I would appreciate it if you could tell me how do you think of this?

Thanks!

[PedroS235]

Dear @Plumezz,

Thank you for raising this issue. Yes, these packages listed on the package.xml are redundant and are not used at all.

Now, adding them is not a bad idea, as to it can improve the package quality itself, specially the copyright notice.

When looking through the logs, almost all, if not all are actually related to third-party libraries like it's the case with the unitree_legged_sdk to which we don't necessary have control. Perhaps there is a way to ignore those. I have never done this myself, so I cannot tell.