I'd also like to highlight the origin of this new tool. We always wanted to make a more `rosmake` like tool for catkin, `catkin_make` and `catkin_make_isolated` were developed in a hurry so they'd be available for the Groovy release. So when OSRF started working with Google on Project Tango, I jumped on the opportunity to developed a tool called `pcmi` or `parallel_catkin_make_isolated` for their build tools. Later I refactored it out of their fork of `catkin` and into `catkin_tools`. Since then the community has added a lot of features and use cases. I just wanted to give a shout out to the Project Tango group for helping us with the resources to start the tool and for play testing it. It has turned out to be a great contribution to our community.

On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 9:01 AM, Mike Purvis <mpurvis@clearpathrobotics.com> wrote:

I still use mostly catkin_make in my regular day-to-day workflow, but I really like catkin build for bootstrapping a ROS system without needing the awkward two-stage build which starts with a catkin_make_isolated underlay—I use catkin build to this effect on my Mac OS X installation instructions.

My thanks as well to all contributors here.

Mike

On 5 March 2015 at 11:56, Jonathan Bohren <jonathan.bohren@gmail.com> wrote:

All,

This is what they built: http://catkin-tools.readthedocs.org/

Quick summary:

- `catkin_tools` is an improved toolchain for building catkin workspaces

- this toolchain is ready for beta testing, and we want your feedback

- the CLI command is simply called `catkin`

- the build sub-command is `catkin build`

- it builds packages with isolated build directories (no CMake crosstalk)

- it builds packages in parallel

- it builds "pure" CMake packages that don't use Catkin macros

- it lets you build selected packages in a workspace

- it lets you build packages without cd'ing to the workspace root

- it needs to be tested more before being recommended over `catkin_make`

- the documentation for all the additional features can be found here: http://catkin-tools.readthedocs.org/

Install it now (from the ROS debian repos):

sudo apt-get install python-catkin-tools

Or install it now (from PIP):

sudo pip install -U catkin_tools

Take a look at the cheat sheet:

http://catkin-tools.readthedocs.org/en/latest/cheat_sheet.html

Give it a try and report issues or feature requests here:

https://github.com/catkin/catkin_tools/issues

For some background and the relationship to the current top-level `catkin_make` command:

http://catkin-tools.readthedocs.org/en/latest/mechanics.html#understanding-the-build-process

Many thanks to Contributors:

William Woodall

Jonathan Bohren

Nikolaus Demmel

Dave Coleman

Felix Ruess

Dirk Thomas

Kartik Mohta

Thibault Kruse

Ian McMahon

Kei Okada

Those of us who've put time into this project over the last year hope that `catkin build` makes your lives less stressful and helps you build robotic systems faster. 

best,

catkin_tools contributors

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