eCAL
- Software
- Middleware
- Framework
eCAL is a brokerless middleware for fast interprocess communication on one computer or across a network, offering publish-subscribe and server-client patterns with little configuration.
Made by Eclipse Foundation.
Source on GitHub: github.com/eclipse-ecal/ecal (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 29ad9f0 (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- Apache-2.0 (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE.txt (opens in a new tab) (Apache-2.0) at commit 29ad9f0 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Chooses shared memory for local links and UDP or TCP for network links, automatically.
- Provides publish-subscribe and server-client communication patterns.
- Requires almost no configuration and is zero-conf.
- Is message protocol agnostic, so protobuf, Cap'n Proto or FlatBuffers can be used.
- Offers C++ and C interfaces, with bindings for other languages such as Python, C# and Rust.
- Includes tools for recording, replaying and monitoring data flows, using the HDF5 format.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 29ad9f0.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Hardware it needs, as the project states it
- Runs on Windows (stable), Linux (stable), QNX, macOS and FreeBSD (experimental); supports Intel and ARM platforms. The Windows installer supports 64-bit Windows 10 and 11, and Ubuntu 18.04 through 24.04 on amd64, armhf and arm64 are supported.
- How to start
- The project's website (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Active: a commit in the last 90 days
- Newest commit
- 15 Oct 2026 on master
- Latest release
- v6.1.1 (2 Apr 2026)
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots on Robotheca that use it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.