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The build system is effectively almost required, though, because the documentation telling you how to do anything in ROS assumes you're using Catkin. I wouldn't

The build system is effectively almost required, though, because the documentation telling you how to do anything in ROS assumes you're using Catkin. I wouldn't know how to arrange files for ROS to use without going through the build system.

xaedes 8y ago
You actually can just cmake and that is all you need! [in any folder out of source] mkdir build cd build cmake [source folder] make source devel/setup.bash roslaunch your_fancy_package demonstrator_nodelet_or_whatever.launch That works, but you can't mix it with catkin_make or other build tools (rosbuild). I.e. you can't just invoke catkin_make there, this won't work afaik. The source folder must contain a main CMakeLists.txt symlink which points to `/opt/ros/[distribution e.g. kinetic]/share/catkin/cmake/toplevel.cmake`. This symlink will be created when calling "catkin_init_workspace". You can also just put a copy of that file there to commit it in git. I do this and even modify it to include my own cmake modules and debugging stuff. You can now layout your folders any way you want. That means the packages don't need to all be in the same folder, but can be grouped as necessary. Example project layout: project ├── cmake | └── FindSomePackage.cmake ├── doc | └── index.md ├── project_msgs | ├── msg | | ├── Foo.msg | | └── Bar.msg | ├── CMakeLists.txt | └── package.xml ├── project_utils | ├── include | | └── project_utils | | └── foo.h | ├── launch | | └── ... | ├── scripts | | └── do_stuff.py | ├── src | | └── foo.cpp | ├── CMakeLists.txt | └── package.xml ├── components | ├── heisenberg_compensator | | ├── include | | | └── ... | | ├── src | | | └── ... | | ├── CMakeLists.txt | | └── package.xml | ├── warp_controller | | ├── include | | | └── ... | | ├── src | | | └── ... | | ├── CMakeLists.txt | | └── package.xml | ├── ... | ├── .gitignore ├── readme.md └── CMakeLists.txt -> /opt/ros/[distribution e.g. kinetic]/share/catkin/cmake/toplevel.cmake should contain set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake) You can put software components/packages in folders that are structured similar to project_utils / project_msg on any sublevel, I don't know what happens when you directly nest them though.. I wouldn't do that.
wjwwood 8y ago
It's not required if you know CMake and know what you're doing. There's even resources, if you search for them, e.g.: https://github.com/gerkey/ros1_external_use https://github.com/gerkey/ros1_external_use But if you're looking for good documentation and tutorials, then yes catkin is basically required, but I don't think that's unreasonable.

xaedes 8y ago

You actually can just cmake and that is all you need! [in any folder out of source] mkdir build cd build cmake [source folder] make source devel/setup.bash roslaunch your_fancy_package demonstrator_nodelet_or_whatever.launch That works, but you can't mix it with catkin_make or other build tools (rosbuild). I.e. you can't just invoke catkin_make there, this won't work afaik. The source folder must contain a main CMakeLists.txt symlink which points to `/opt/ros/[distribution e.g. kinetic]/share/catkin/cmake/toplevel.cmake`. This symlink will be created when calling "catkin_init_workspace". You can also just put a copy of that file there to commit it in git. I do this and even modify it to include my own cmake modules and debugging stuff. You can now layout your folders any way you want. That means the packages don't need to all be in the same folder, but can be grouped as necessary. Example project layout: project ├── cmake | └── FindSomePackage.cmake ├── doc | └── index.md ├── project_msgs | ├── msg | | ├── Foo.msg | | └── Bar.msg | ├── CMakeLists.txt | └── package.xml ├── project_utils | ├── include | | └── project_utils | | └── foo.h | ├── launch | | └── ... | ├── scripts | | └── do_stuff.py | ├── src | | └── foo.cpp | ├── CMakeLists.txt | └── package.xml ├── components | ├── heisenberg_compensator | | ├── include | | | └── ... | | ├── src | | | └── ... | | ├── CMakeLists.txt | | └── package.xml | ├── warp_controller | | ├── include | | | └── ... | | ├── src | | | └── ... | | ├── CMakeLists.txt | | └── package.xml | ├── ... | ├── .gitignore ├── readme.md └── CMakeLists.txt -> /opt/ros/[distribution e.g. kinetic]/share/catkin/cmake/toplevel.cmake should contain set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake) You can put software components/packages in folders that are structured similar to project_utils / project_msg on any sublevel, I don't know what happens when you directly nest them though.. I wouldn't do that.

wjwwood 8y ago

It's not required if you know CMake and know what you're doing. There's even resources, if you search for them, e.g.: https://github.com/gerkey/ros1_external_use https://github.com/gerkey/ros1_external_use But if you're looking for good documentation and tutorials, then yes catkin is basically required, but I don't think that's unreasonable.