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 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 the capabilities of TAO for IDL compilation and the OpenDDS DCPS Information Repository.

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 available at https://opendds.readthedocs.io/en/latest-release.

• For developers wanting to contribute to OpenDDS, please 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.

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

These are just the required dependencies. For a complete detailed list of dependencies, including optional ones, see https://opendds.readthedocs.io/en/latest-release/devguide/building/dependencies.html.

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, you do not need to download TAO first -- the configure script will download it for you.

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.

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 (x86_64)
• Red Hat EL 8.0 (x86_64)
• Fedora 24 and 31 (x86_64)
• Debian 9.4 (i686)
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (x86_64)
• openSUSE 42.1 (x86_64)
• Yocto 3.4.4 (ARMv8)

Windows family:

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

Embedded/Mobile/IoT:

• LynxOS-178 (OpenDDS Safety Profile)
• VxWorks 6.9, 7, 21.03 (see below)
• Linux on Raspberry Pi
• Android 9.0 "Pie" (API Level 28) NDK r18b

We have built OpenDDS for VxWorks 6.9, 7, and 21.03 and have run basic system and performance tests (but not the entire regression test suite). Please see the OpenDDS Support page for more information on support for ACE, TAO, and OpenDDS on VxWorks. Download VxWorks RPM packages for ACE, TAO, and OpenDDS here.

Compilers

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

• 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 19.16.27048
• Microsoft Visual C++ 14.2 (Visual Studio 2019) cl 19.29.30146
• gcc 4.4.7, 4.8.5
• gcc 6.2.1, 6.3.0
• gcc 7.2.0, 7.3.0, 7.5.0
• gcc 8.2.0, 8.2.1
• gcc 9.3.1
• gcc 12.2.0
• Ubuntu clang 14.0.6
• Ubuntu clang 15.0.0

Building and Installing

For building and installation instructions see https://opendds.readthedocs.io/en/latest-release/devguide/building/index.html

Quick Start with Docker

See the Docker Quick Start for how to use the pre-built docker image.