`version_info.yaml` is written into the source tree for `ament_python` packages

[george-pippos-rumata]

version_info.yaml is written into the source tree for ament_python packages

Summary

For ament_python packages, GenerateVersionInfoCommand writes version_info.yaml into the source directory (<source>/build/version_info.yaml) instead of the colcon build space. Every colcon build therefore creates/updates files inside the checked-out repo, leaving the working tree (and, when consumed as a git submodule, the parent repo) permanently dirty.

Affected packages

The ament_python packages whose setup.py uses GenerateVersionInfoCommand, e.g.:

• isaac_ros_test → isaac_ros_test/build/version_info.yaml
• isaac_ros_launch_utils → isaac_ros_launch_utils/build/version_info.yaml
• isaac_common_py

CMake packages are not affected — their generate_version_info() macro writes to CMAKE_BINARY_DIR, which is correctly out-of-source.

Root cause

isaac_ros_common/scripts/isaac_ros_common-version-info.py, in generate_version_info():

build_dir = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'build')
os.makedirs(build_dir, exist_ok=True)
output_path = os.path.join(build_dir, 'version_info.yaml')

When colcon builds an ament_python package it invokes setup.py with cwd = the package source directory, so os.getcwd()/build resolves inside the source tree. The output path ignores the build base that setuptools already provides.

Expected behavior

version_info.yaml should be generated in the build directory (as the CMake path already does) and not modify the source tree.

Suggested fix

GenerateVersionInfoCommand subclasses setuptools' build_py, which already exposes the correct out-of-source build directory as self.build_lib. Thread it through:

# GenerateVersionInfoCommand.run()
output_path, install_destination = generate_version_info(
    project_name, project_path, build_dir=self.build_lib)

# generate_version_info(...)
def generate_version_info(project_name, source_dir, build_dir=None):
    ...
    if build_dir is None:                       # keep old behavior as fallback
        build_dir = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'build')
    os.makedirs(build_dir, exist_ok=True)
    output_path = os.path.join(build_dir, 'version_info.yaml')

The file still gets installed to share/<package> via data_files, but is no longer written into the source tree.

Steps to reproduce

1. Clone isaac_ros_common into a colcon workspace.
2. colcon build --packages-select isaac_ros_test isaac_ros_launch_utils
3. git status in the source tree → untracked isaac_ros_test/build/version_info.yaml and isaac_ros_launch_utils/build/version_info.yaml.

Environment

• Isaac ROS version: 4.2.0 (commit 0eb5434c695cc649a501428876380c3e371dbc00, release-4.2)
• Build tool: colcon (ament_python build type)