rosmake

Rosmake is a build tool used in the Robot Operating System (ROS), a flexible framework for writing robot software. It is part of the rosbuild build system, which was the primary build system for ROS before the introduction of catkin. Rosmake is responsible for compiling ROS packages and their dependencies, ensuring that all necessary components are correctly built and linked.

The primary function of rosmake is to process the CMakeLists.txt file within a ROS package. This file contains instructions for building the package, including specifying source files, dependencies, and other build options. Rosmake uses CMake, a cross-platform build system generator, to create platform-specific makefiles, which are then used by the make build automation tool to compile the code.

To use rosmake, a user typically navigates to the directory containing the ROS package and runs the command "rosmake package_name". This command instructs rosmake to build the specified package and any dependencies that have not already been built. Rosmake will recursively build all necessary dependencies, ensuring that the package is built in the correct order.

While rosmake was widely used in earlier versions of ROS, it has been largely deprecated in favor of catkin, which is based on CMake and provides a more modern and flexible build system. However, understanding rosmake is still valuable for working with older ROS packages and for gaining a deeper understanding of the ROS build process.