Unfortunately the best thing to do is to out-right copy the machine tag.

The alternative moving forward for ROS 1.2+ is to use the <arg> and
$(arg) syntax, which provides actual name reassignment without
duplication of configuration details. That syntax was specifically
introduced (along with if/unless) to provide much more powerful launch
file reuse with respect to multiple machine configurations (including
simulation).

HTH,
Ken

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Mike Purvis
<mpurvis@clearpathrobotics.com> wrote:
> Thanks for your help, Ken. Regarding this---
>>
>> Also, to clarify point #3 on that page, what it does allow you to do
>> is multiply define a <machine> tag, thus, "remapping" is achieved by
>> repeating the machine definition, but with the name you want to alias
>> it to.
>
> Imagining a scenario such as the following:
> <machine name="cpr-demo-01" address="cpr-demo-01" user="administrator"
> ros-root="~/ros/ros"
> ros-package-path="~/ros/stacks:~/ros-clearpath:~/umd-ros-pkg"
> default="never" timeout="5.0" />
> <machine name="robot_machine" address="cpr-demo-01" />
> Does the second tag inherit the other attributes (especially ros-root and
> ros-package-path) from the first one, or does it totally blow it away?
> Thanks again,
> Mike
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