Package creation and building
When you start your new robotics project you will need to create nodes to run your sensors and actuators. You might need to make it in a large number. You will need to create and build ros packages first where you can put you node files and other libraries/tools.
Before creating a ros package you need to have a ros workspace. In our case a catkin workspace has been made. We can use the workspace to reside our packages. When you make a package it will give you a catkin complaint xml file and a cmake.txt file where the package information will be written. Let’s assume you have made a package named robo_package. If you command for file listing of the package instantly after creating it will show two files.
CMakeLists.txt package.xml
To create a package, go to you catkin workspace, source folder by commanding
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ catkin_create_pkg robo_package std_msgs rospy roscpp
The above command will make a package named beginner-tutorial which have dependencies over std_msg, rospy and roscpp.
We can check the direct and indirect dependencies of the package by commanding
$ rospack depends1 robo_package
And
$ rospack depends1 rospy
If all dependencies are installed you can build your package
- In a catkin workspace
$ catkin_make $ catkin_make install --source my_src # (optionally)
