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Migrating YAML parameter files from ROS 1 to ROS 2

This guide describes how to adapt ROS 1 parameters files for ROS 2.

YAML file example

YAML is used to write parameters files in both ROS 1 and ROS 2. The main difference in ROS 2 is that node names must be used to address parameters. In addition to the fully qualified node name, we use the key “ros__parameters” to signal the start of parameters for the node.

For example, here is a parameters file in ROS 1:

lidar_name: foo
lidar_id: 10
ports: [11312, 11311, 21311]
debug: true

Let’s assume that the first two parameters are for a node named /lidar_ns/lidar_node_name, the second parameter is for a node named /imu, and the last parameter we want to set on both nodes.

We would construct our ROS 2 parameters file as follows:

/lidar_ns:
  lidar_node_name:
    ros__parameters:
      lidar_name: foo
      id: 10
imu:
  ros__parameters:
    ports: [2438, 2439, 2440]
/**:
  ros__parameters:
    debug: true

Note the use of wildcards (/**) to indicate that the parameter debug should be set on any node in any namespace.

Feature parity

Some features of ROS 1 parameters files do not exist in ROS 2:

  • Mixed types in a list is not supported yet (related issue)

  • deg and rad substitutions are not supported