Corrected with PR comments.

Signed-off-by: ivanpauno <ivanpauno@ekumenlabs.com>

rclcpp/include/rclcpp/publisher.hpp

@@ -128,10 +128,16 @@ class PublisherBase
   size_t
   get_intra_process_subscription_count() const;
 
-  /// Get actual qos settings
-  /** \return The number of subscriptions. */
+  /// Get the actual QoS settings, after the defaults have been determined.
+  /**
+   * The actual configuration applied when using RMW_QOS_POLICY_*_SYSTEM_DEFAULT
+   * can only be resolved after the creation of the publisher, and it
+   * depends on the underlying rmw implementation.
+   * If the underlying setting in use can't be represented in ROS terms,
+   * it will be set to RMW_QOS_POLICY_*_UNKNOWN.
+   * \return The actual qos settings. */
   RCLCPP_PUBLIC
-  std::shared_ptr<rmw_qos_profile_t>
+  rmw_qos_profile_t
   get_actual_qos() const;
 
   /// Compare this publisher to a gid.

rclcpp/src/rclcpp/publisher.cpp

@@ -197,24 +197,14 @@ PublisherBase::get_intra_process_subscription_count() const
   return ipm->get_subscription_count(intra_process_publisher_id_);
 }
 
-std::shared_ptr<rmw_qos_profile_t>
+rmw_qos_profile_t
 PublisherBase::get_actual_qos() const
 {
-  auto qos = std::make_shared<rmw_qos_profile_t>();
+  rmw_qos_profile_t qos;
 
   rcl_ret_t status = rcl_publisher_get_actual_qos(
     &publisher_handle_,
-    qos.get());
-  if (RCL_RET_PUBLISHER_INVALID == status) {
-    rcl_reset_error();  /* next call will reset error message if not context */
-    if (rcl_publisher_is_valid_except_context(&publisher_handle_)) {
-      rcl_context_t * context = rcl_publisher_get_context(&publisher_handle_);
-      if (nullptr != context && !rcl_context_is_valid(context)) {
-        /* publisher is invalid due to context being shutdown */
-        return 0;
-      }
-    }
-  }
+    &qos);
   if (RCL_RET_OK != status) {
     rclcpp::exceptions::throw_from_rcl_error(status, "failed to get qos settings");
   }