I' m new to ROS, and running ROS kinetic on a raspberry pi 3B with ubuntu installed.
I have noticed that each time I open up a new terminal, I have to source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash and execute catkin_make though I have done so previously in other terminals.
I don' t know whether it is correct to source and catkin_make every time or something has gone wrong. Please help.
Originally posted by Seagull on ROS Answers with karma: 5 on 2018-03-25
Post score: 0
I have noticed that each time I open up a new terminal, I have to
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
yes, that is needed in every terminal (or really: bash instance)
and execute catkin_make
No, that should not be needed.
why do I have to source and execute catkin_make again?
This question has been posted and answered quite a few times already. See the following for related / duplicate questions: #q124131, #q239131, #q229365, #q188309 and #q200174.
And the following questions try to explain why this is needed: #q241528, #q251292 and #q252715.
In short: setup.bash configures your shell so that it can find ROS programs and lets those programs find the required ROS packages.
Originally posted by gvdhoorn with karma: 86574 on 2018-03-25
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Post score: 3
Comment by Seagull on 2018-03-25:
Thanks. That solves my problem.
If you want to avoid having to manually source your workspace you can add the line to your .bashrc file.
source <path to my workspace>/devel/setup.bash
Then this will automatically be executed every time you open a new terminal. As gvdhoorn has said, there is no reason you should have to re-catkin_make your workspace in every terminal. Try adding this line to your .bashrc file and let us know if this doesn't solve your problem.
Originally posted by PeteBlackerThe3rd with karma: 9529 on 2018-03-25
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Post score: 1
Comment by gvdhoorn on 2018-03-25:
This is explained in the Q&As that I linked. I didn't want to duplicate all of that again.