Add dh_python to rosdep/base.yaml

[frankkusters]

Please add the following dependency to the rosdep database.

Package name:

dh_python

Package Upstream Source:

https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/tools/dh-python

Purpose of using this:

dh-python is used when a Debian package is created from a ROS package using the scripts generated by bloom.

Links to Distribution Packages

• Debian: https://packages.debian.org/
  • https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/dh-python
• Ubuntu: https://packages.ubuntu.com/
  • https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/dh-python

This package is only applicable to distributions which are Debian-based.

[clalancette]

I'm not totally convinced that this is a good candidate for a rosdep key. As you say in your description, it is Debian-only, so it will never have equivalents on other platforms.

Could you explain a bit why you want to add it?

[frankkusters]

I'm not totally convinced that this is a good candidate for a rosdep key. As you say in your description, it is Debian-only, so it will never have equivalents on other platforms.

Could you explain a bit why you want to add it?

We package pretty much everything as ROS packages in our project. It makes setting up a new developer machine incredibly easy with apt install (binary) or rosdep install (from source).

We also have packages for our build scripts, which depend on bloom and dh-python. Hence the need for us to have them as rosdep keys.

In a sense we're solving the same problem as the ros-dev-tools package 1:

I’ve always been annoyed with the long list of dependencies that had to be installed in order to develop ROS software. Spurred by @mikeferguson 's tweet I finally tried to do something about it.
[..]
ros-dev-tools has the following dependencies:
[..]
The new variants are now part of the standard installation path in the documentation.

With the added benefit that if dh-python is added as a rosdep key, we can fully use ROS infrastructure for our dependencies, keeping the number of tools to a minimum.

[clalancette]

With the added benefit that if dh-python is added as a rosdep key, we can fully use ROS infrastructure for our dependencies, keeping the number of tools to a minimum.

Got it. Thanks for the explanation. I don't really have a strong objection, so I'll go ahead and approve this.