Glossary

This is a glossary of common jargon used in relation to catkin.

build system: A set of tools for building code. See: Make, CMake, and catkin.

catkin: A Build System based on CMake and extended with Python. It adds features for building distributed code bases and is the successor to rosbuild. See: catkin

catkinize: The act of converting a rosbuild, or otherwise non-catkin, package into a catkin package.

catkin package: A package that meets Catkin's requirement, minimum of which is to have satisfying 1) package.xml, 2) CMakeLists.txt. This means a package that has no dependency on ROS can still be a catkin package. More detail catkin/catkin_package.

dry: A 'dry' package is one that has not yet been catkinized. See wet for an explanation of the analogy.

in-source build: This indicates that the build folder and generated code are in sub folder of the source code, e.g. if the source code is in src and the build folder is src/build.

out-of-source build: This indicates that the build folder and generated code are outside of the source directory, e.g. if the source code is in src and the build folder is build.

rosbuild: A Build System which utilizes CMake, but is designed to be easier to use and to solve build problems specifically related to ROS. It is being replaced by catkin. See: rosbuild

target: This term refers to a build target, which is anything that can be created as a result of the build process, e.g. executables, libraries, generated code, etc...

wet: A 'wet' package is one that has been catkinized. The analogy is that the catkin 'tide' rises through the package dependency tree and they become 'wet' as they are catkinized. dry packages are rosbuild packages that have not been converted yet.