The indicator gui seems like it will solve most of the problems with running ROS as user 'ros'. However, users connecting via ssh will need a command line tool to achieve similar results. For this we are looking at building on the work done for the PR2s 'robot' command line tool.
'robot claim' This command allows the user to gain control of the robot. Functionally, it warns the user if another user has control of the robot and it sends an email if the user steals control of the robot.
Do users need to claim the robot to use it? Should multiple users be able to claim the robot at the same time? Should we overlord the claim command to support specifying the user upstart should start ROS as? Should it warn/offer to restart ROS as the claimed user if it is running as another user?
So one option would be for ROS to be started by the user that claimed the robot and return startup to the 'ros' user after release but another approach would be to make robot claims non-exclusive or leave that open as an option for the future.
'robot autostart' If this is the case perhaps a new command 'robot autostart' could provide an interface. Examples
robot autostart enable Enable Upstart script used to start ROS as system user, implies --system robot autostart disable Disable Upstart script used to start ROS as system user, implies --system robot autostart --user turtlebot enable Enable Upstart script used to start ROS as user 'turtlebot' robot autostart --system enable Enable Upstart script used to start ROS as system user
Alternate names could include 'robot bootup'
'robot release'
Releases control of the robot
Do users want to be notified when the robot becomes available?
Should this be logged somewhere similar to wtmp used for the linux
command last?
Are usage logs a useful feature?
'robot watch' Watch the robot and notify (via email?) when the robot becomes available. Should this be able to notify when the robot is claimed and released?
'robot start' Initially this will run 'sudo initctl start ros' In the future we should probably look at moving towards using polkit instead of sudo
'robot stop' Like start, this is an alias for 'sudo initctl stop ros'
'robot users' Shows user associated with the robot. Specifically it will show the user who has claimed that robot, users logged into the robot, users watching the robot (may not be logged in), and users with active background processes.
'robot plist' I am unsure exactly what this command does or should do. Is it an alias for 'ps -ef' or 'rosnode list'? What is the use case?
'robot status; Display information about the state of the robot, include which user ROS is running as.