Learning a ROS (Kinetic create ROS workspace)

Create a ROS Workspace

Here we begin to create a catkin workspace :

$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src

Even if the workspace is empty (not in the 'src' directory in any package, only a CMakeLists.txt linked file), you can still compile it:

$ cd ~/catkin_ws/
$ catkin_make

catkin_make command catkin work space is a very handy tool. If you look at the current directory should be able to see the 'build' and 'devel' two folders. In the 'devel' folder inside you can see a few setup. * Sh files. source of these files can be any one of the current workspace is set at the top level of ROS work environment, want to know more, please refer catkin documentation. Next First source at the new generation of setup * sh file:

$ source devel/setup.bash

To ensure the work space has been configured correctly make sure ROS_PACKAGE_PATH environment variable contains the directory of your workspace, view the following command:

$ echo $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH
/home/<youruser>/catkin_ws/src:/opt/ros/indigo/share:/opt/ros/indigo/stacks