ROSE - Yet Another ROS Bag Filter Tool

A high-performance ROS bag filtering tool that allows you to extract specific topics from ROSv1 bag files. Built with C++ core and Python interface, it provides both command-line and TUI interfaces for efficient bag file processing.

inspired by rosbag_editor

Aesthetic

The cassette tape, a modest analog artifact, has evolved into a retro-futurism icon, demonstrating that technological advancement can coexist with human touch. Its tactile interface and physical limitations serve as poignant reminders of our technological heritage.

磁带盒不仅是一种技术遗物，更是复古未来主义的艺术品和精神图腾。简单的按钮、褪色的塑料外壳和有限的存储容量，既是怀旧的载体，也是对数字霸权的温柔反抗。它时刻提醒着我们：技术的突飞猛进不应该以牺牲人性为代价，克制的设计往往更能打动人心。

The TUI embraces the cassette futurism aesthetic - a design philosophy that reimagines future interfaces through the lens of 20th century technological fossils. This intentional retrofuturism features:

• Nostalgic minimalism: Low-resolution displays and monochromatic schemes that evoke 1980s computing
• Tactile authenticity: Visual metaphors of physical media like magnetic tapes and CRT textures
• Humanized technology: Warm color palettes and "imperfect" interfaces that resist digital sterility

More than mere retro styling, this approach serves as poetic resistance to digital hegemony. The cassette tape - our central metaphor - embodies this duality:

Key Features and Todos

• High-performance C++ processing core (Optional,ROS required)
• 🎉 ROS Environment independent. current rosbag and later to rosbags
• 🌟 Interactive TUI for easy operation
• 🌟 Command-line interface for automation
• Filter ROS bag files
  • 🌟 with whitelists
  • with manually selected topics
  • by time range (only TUI tested)
• 🌟 Fuzzy search topic in TUI
• 🌟 Multi-selection mode for batch processing in TUI (note:partially supported, rename and time range based filtering not supported yet)
  • 🌟 parallel processing for Multi-selection mode
• Docker support for cross-platform usage
• 🌟 cassette futurism theme for dark and light mode
• 🚧 Message view in TUI
• 🚧 Support dynamic file/whitelist refresh in TUI

Getting Started

Installation

1. Install rose-bag from pypi

pip install rose-bag

2. Install from the source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/hanxiaomax/rose.git
cd rose

# Run the installation script
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

To uninstall Rose, run the following command:

pip uninstall rose-bag

Terminal Setup

To ensure proper color display in your terminal, set the following environment variable:

# Add this to your bashrc or zshrc
export TERM=xterm-256color

No ROS bag file? No problem! Download webviz demo.bag and give it a try!

Note

Want to try C++ Parser instead of Python API(lib rosbag)?

Since Rose's C++ parser depends on ROS Noetic environment, you need to install it first.

Option 1: Install ROS Noetic (Ubuntu 20.04), refer to ROS Noetic Installation

Option 2: Use docker image

1. Build the Docker image:

   cd docker
   docker build -t rose .

2. Run the container:

   ./go_docker.sh

Once you have ros environment installed, you can build rosbag_io_py lib which is required by roseApp to operate.

1. Build the ROS project:

   cd ros
   ./build.sh

2. Set up environment which will make sure rosbag_io_py add to PYTHONPATH

   source setup.sh

You are all set! Now you can use RoseApp to filter ROS bag files.

Note: Rose's C++ parser is very simple and not support ROS2. It is slightly faster than Python API(lib rosbag) (Refer to benchmark). But I am not sure if it is worth the effort to maintain it.

Usage

Important

If you experience color display issues in your terminal, set the following environment variable:

export TERM=xterm-256color

This ensures proper color rendering in both CLI and TUI interfaces.

Command Line Interface

Rose provides several command-line tools for bag file operations:

1. Show basic bag information:

   # Show basic information about the bag file
   ./rose.py info input.bag

2. Analyze topics and create whitelist:

   # Show all topics in the bag file
   ./rose.py inspect input.bag
   
   # Filter topics by pattern and show
   ./rose.py inspect input.bag -p ".*gps.*"
   
   # Filter topics and save to whitelist
   ./rose.py inspect input.bag -p ".*sensor.*" -s sensor_whitelist.txt
   
   # Output in JSON format
   ./rose.py inspect input.bag --json

3. Filter bag file:

   # Filter using whitelist file
   ./rose.py filter input.bag output.bag -w whitelist.txt
   
   # Filter by specific topics
   ./rose.py filter input.bag output.bag --topics /topic1 --topics /topic2
   
   # Filter by time range
   ./rose.py filter input.bag output.bag -w whitelist.txt -t "23/01/01 00:00:00,23/01/01 00:10:00"
   
   # Dry run to preview changes
   ./rose.py filter input.bag output.bag -w whitelist.txt --dry-run

Common workflow example:

# 1. First inspect the bag file
./rose.py info demo.bag

# 2. Create a whitelist with GPS related topics
./rose.py inspect demo.bag -p ".*gps.*" -s gps_whitelist.txt

# 3. Filter the bag file using the whitelist
./rose.py filter demo.bag gps_only.bag -w gps_whitelist.txt

TUI Interface

To launch the TUI:

python3 rose.py tui

2. Some key bindings:
   • q: to quit
   • f: to filter bag files
   • w: to load whitelist
   • s: to save whitelist
   • a: to toggle select all topics

Configuration

Rose is configured with roseApp/config.json.

{
    "show_splash_screen": true,
    "theme": "cassette-walkman",
    "load_cpp_parser": false,
    "whitelists": {
        "demo": "./whitelists/demo.txt",
        "radar": "./whitelists/radar.txt",
        "invalid": "./whitelists/invalid.txt"
    }
}

• show_splash_screen: whether to show the splash screen, default is true
• theme: the theme of the TUI, default is cassette-walkman, check Theme for more details
• load_cpp_parser: whether to use C++ implementation for better performance, default is false
• whitelists: the whitelists of the TUI, default is empty, check Whitelist for more details

Note

The load_cpp_parser option is set to false by default to improve startup time. Enable it only if you need better performance and have the C++ implementation properly installed.

Theme

RoseApp TUI provides two built-in themes: cassette-walkman (default light theme) and cassette-dark. You can configure the theme in two ways:

cassette-walkman	cassette-dark

1. Modify config.json to specify your preferred theme:

{
    "theme": "cassette-dark",
}

2. Switch Theme in TUI with command palette(the buttom in bottom right corner or keybinding ^p)

Whitelist

You can filter bag files with pre-configured whitelist. To select pre-configured whitelists, press w in TUI. But before that, you need to create your own whitelist.

You can create your own whitelist in 3 ways:

1. Create topic whitelist from command line:

   ./rose.py inspect input.bag | awk '{print $1}' > whitelist/example.txt

2. Create topic whitelist with your favorite text editor and save it to whitelist/:

3. Create topic in TUI by press s to save current selected topics as whitelist file to whitelist/ directory:

After whitelist created, add it to config.json so RoseApp can find it:

{
    "whitelists": {
        "demo": "./whitelists/demo.txt",
        "radar": "./whitelists/radar.txt",
        "invalid": "./whitelists/invalid.txt"
    }
}

Development

Project Structure

project_root/
├── ros/            # ROS C++ core
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   ├── devel/      # ros development folder
│   ├── build/      # build folder
│   ├── src/        # source code folder
|   ├── setup.sh    # setup script
|   └── build_rosecode.sh # build script
├── roseApp/        # Python application
│   ├── rose.py     # main script
│   ├── themes/     
│   ├── components/ # components 
│   ├── core/       # data types and utils
|   |── tui.py      # main tui script
│   ├── whitelists/ # topic whitelist folder
│   ├── config.json # config file
│   └── style.tcss   # style sheet
├── docker/              # Docker support
│   └── Dockerfile
│   └── go_docker.sh
├── docs/         # documentation
├── requirements.txt # dependencies
├── README.md     

Tech stack

• Textual: A Python framework for building sophisticated TUI (Text User Interface) applications. Used for creating the interactive terminal interface.
• Click: A Python package for creating beautiful command line interfaces in a composable way. Used for building the CLI interface.
• Rich: A Python library for rich text and beautiful formatting in the terminal. Used for enhancing the visual presentation of both CLI and TUI.
• Pybind11: A lightweight header-only library that exposes C++ types in Python and vice versa. Used for wrapping ROS C++ interfaces to Python.

Rough ideas - data driven rendering

Tip

Before you start with Textual, there are some docs worth reading:

• Textual devtools on how to use textual run <your app> --dev to go into dev mode and how to handle logs
• Design a layout 、TextualCSS and CSS Types to understand how to design a layout and style your app with CSS. and more tips on Styles and its reference
• Event and Messages are also important ideas to understand how Textual works so you can handle actions
• Thanks to Workers, asynchronous operations never been so easy. it can supppot asyncio or threads.

Resources

• Demo bag file: webviz demo.bag
• ROS Noetic Installation