OpenDDS

OpenDDS is an open-source C++ implementation of the Object Management Group's specification "Data Distribution Service for Real-time Systems" (DDS), as well as some other related specifications. These standards define a set of interfaces and protocols for developing distributed applications based on the publish-subscribe and distributed cache models. Although OpenDDS is itself developed in C++, Java and JMS bindings are provided so that Java applications can use OpenDDS. OpenDDS also includes support for the DDS Security and XTypes specifications.

OpenDDS is built on the ACE abstraction layer to provide platform portability. OpenDDS also leverages capabilities of TAO, such as its IDL compiler and as the basis of the OpenDDS DCPS Information Repository (DCPSInfoRepo).

The primary development of OpenDDS was done by Object Computing, Incorporated in St. Louis and Phoenix. It is released under generous license terms similar to ACE, TAO and MPC. See the LICENSE file for details.

Table of Contents:

• Documentation
• Support
• Features
• Dependencies
  • ACE/TAO
  • Perl
  • Optional Dependencies
• Supported Platforms
  • Operating Systems
  • Compilers
• Building and Installing
• Quick Start with Docker

Documentation

• The OpenDDS Developer's Guide is freely downloadable at: http://download.objectcomputing.com/OpenDDS/

• A Doxygen for the latest release is available at http://download.opendds.org/doxygen/.

• For developers wanting to contribute to OpenDDS, please take the time to read the development guidelines.

Other documentation can be found in docs directory.

Support

For commercial support, please see https://opendds.org/support.html.

Questions concerning OpenDDS should be directed to GitHub Discussions or the mailing list.

If you wish to file a bug report:

1. Fork OpenDDS on GitHub.
2. Add a minimum working example that demonstrates the problem.
3. Create a pull request.
4. Fill out the PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM and attach it to the pull request.

How to make a minimum working example

1. Create a directory tests/DCPS/MyExample (MyExample is a placeholder.)
2. Add the IDL, code, and configuration files for the example programs. Be sure to exclude any proprietary information as the submitted example will be public.
3. Add an MPC file that builds the test programs.
4. Add a launcher script run_test.pl. Be sure to document the options. See tests/DCPS/HelloWorld/run_test.pl for inspiration.
5. Add a README.rst file that gives a high-level overview of the example and the problem that it illustrates.

It should be possible to build and run the example using run_test.pl as in the quickstarts for Windows and Linux. If the problem lies in the example, then GitHub's Pull Request interface will allow people to discuss, comment on, and propose changes to get the example working. If the problem lies in OpenDDS, then the example is a new test case.

Features

This release of OpenDDS is based on the DDS Specification formal/2015-04-10 (version 1.4). It features the following transport protocols:

• TCP/IP
• UDP/IP
• IP multicast
• RTPS over UDP/IP (unicast and multicast)
• Shared memory

RTPS (Interoperability) features are based on the DDS-RTPS Specification formal/2019-04-03 (version 2.3). See the OpenDDS Developer's Guide and the file docs/design/RTPS for more details on RTPS.

See the Developer's Guide for information on OpenDDS compliance with the DDS specification. If you would like to contribute a feature or sponsor the developers to add a feature please see the Support section above for contact information.

Dependencies

For a complete detailed list of dependencies, see docs/dependencies.md.

ACE/TAO

OpenDDS requires TAO for both IDL compilation as well as interaction with the DCPSInfoRepo. ACE is also required, but it is always included with TAO. If you will be using the configure script for OpenDDS (see the INSTALL.md file for details), you do not need to download TAO first -- the configure script will download it for you.

There are three distributions of ACE/TAO that can be used with OpenDDS:

• OCI ACE/TAO 2.2a patch 23 or later
  • This will be automatically downloaded by default when using the configure script.
  • Can be manually downloaded from:
    • http://download.objectcomputing.com/TAO-2.2a_patches/
• DOC Group ACE 6.5.16 / TAO 2.5.16 or later in the ACE 6.x / TAO 2.x series
  • When using the configure script, DOC Group ACE/TAO can be downloaded using one of these arguments:
    • --doc-group for the latest release
    • --ace-github-latest to use the ace6tao2 branch of ACE/TAO as is. This also downloads the master branch of MPC as is.
  • Can be manually downloaded from:
    • https://github.com/DOCGroup/ACE_TAO/releases/tag/ACE%2BTAO-6_5_16
• DOC Group ACE 7.0.5 / TAO 3.0.5 or later in the ACE 7.x / TAO 3.x series. This distribution requires a C++11 capable compiler
  • When using the configure script, DOC Group ACE/TAO can be downloaded using:
    • --doc-group3 for the latest release
  • Can be manually downloaded from:
    • https://github.com/DOCGroup/ACE_TAO/releases/tag/ACE%2BTAO-7_0_5

The TAO Developer's Guide book can be requested for free from https://objectcomputing.com/products/tao/tao-developers-guide and the CORBA Programmers Guide can be downloaded for free from https://www.remedy.nl/opensource/corbapg.html.

Perl

Perl is used for the configure script, running the automated tests and examples included in this source tree, and generating Makefiles or Visual Studio project files.

On Windows we recommend the use of Strawberry Perl.

Optional Dependencies

• Google Test, for various tests.
  • Google Test is required for OpenDDS tests. If tests are not built, Google Test is not needed.
• CMake, for building Google Test and the OpenDDS CMake module.
• Java, for Java bindings.
• Qt, for Monitor application and ishapes demo.
• Wireshark, for the OpenDDS DCPS Wireshark dissector.
• RapidJSON, for optional dissector sample dissection support and JSON typesupport.
• Xerces-C++, for XML QoS and DDS Security.
• OpenSSL, for DDS Security.

Supported Platforms

Operating Systems

This release of OpenDDS has been tested under the following platforms:

Linux family:

• Red Hat EL and CentOS 6.6, 6.8, 6.9 (x86_64)
• Red Hat EL and CentOS 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 (x86_64)
• Red Hat EL 8.0 (x86_64)
• Fedora 24 and 33 (x86_64)
• Debian 9.4 (i686)
• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (x86_64)
• openSUSE 42.1 (x86_64)

Windows family:

• Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
• Windows 10 (64-bit)

Others:

• macOS 10.15.2 (Catalina)

Embedded/Mobile/IoT:

• LynxOS-178 (OpenDDS Safety Profile)
• VxWorks 6.9 and 7 (see below)
• Linux on Raspberry Pi
• Android 9.0 "Pie" (API Level 28) NDK r18b

We have built OpenDDS for VxWorks 6.9 and 7 and have run basic system and performance tests (but not the entire regression test suite). Please contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information on support for ACE, TAO, and OpenDDS on VxWorks. OCI's packages for ACE, TAO, and OpenDDS can be obtained on the Wind River Marketplace.

Compilers

This release of OpenDDS has been tested using the following compilers:

• Microsoft Visual C++ 9 with SP1 (Visual Studio 2008)
• Microsoft Visual C++ 10 with SP1 (Visual Studio 2010)
• Microsoft Visual C++ 11 (Visual Studio 2012) - Update 4
• Microsoft Visual C++ 12 (Visual Studio 2013) - Update 5
• Microsoft Visual C++ 14 (Visual Studio 2015) - Update 3
• Microsoft Visual C++ 14.1 (Visual Studio 2017) cl 19.16.27045
• Microsoft Visual C++ 14.2 (Visual Studio 2019) cl 19.29.30133
• gcc 4.4.7, 4.8.5
• gcc 6.3
• gcc 7.2
• gcc 11.2
• Clang 13.0.1 (llvm.org) and 11.0.3 (Apple)

Building and Installing

For building and installation instructions see the INSTALL.md file in this directory.

Quick Start with Docker

See docs/docker.md for how to use the pre-built docker image.