Build System

To build targets, the build system needs information such as the locations of tool chain components (e.g. C++ compiler), source code locations, code dependencies, external dependencies, where those dependencies are located, which targets should be built, where targets should be built, and where they should be installed. This is typically expressed in some set of configuration files read by the build system. In an IDE, this information is typically stored as part of the workspace/project meta-information (e.g. Visual C++ project file). With CMake, it is specified in a file typically called ‘CMakeLists.txt’ and with GNU Make it is within a file typically called ‘Makefile’. The build system utilizes this information to process and build source code in the appropriate order to generate targets.

ROS utilizes a custom build system, catkin, that extends CMake to manage dependencies between packages