Install ROS2 build tool — Colcon!

Run the following command in a Terminal.

sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions

Enable Colcon Auto-complete feature.

gedit ~/.bashrc

In this file, append the following line.

source /usr/share/colcon_argcomplete/hook/colcon-argcomplete.bash

Create a ROS2 Workspace

cd

mkdir ros2_ws

cd ros2_ws/

mkdir src

All the packages that we create, will be inside the “src” or the source folder of that Workspace.

Now, as in the ros2 workspace directory

colcon build

You will see that we have a successfully build! Of course, we have 0 packages, as we have not put anything in the src directory.

Now, if we check what’s inside now (by ls) we will find three folders created inside the workspace root.

1. build: It contains the intermediate files of the compilation, as well as the tests, and temporary files.
2. install: It contains the compilation results, along with all the files necessary to execute them (specific configuration files, node startup scripts, maps ...). Building the workspace using the --symlink-install option, creates a symlink to their original locations (in src or build), instead of copying. This way, we save space and can modify certain configuration files directly in src.
3. log: Contains a log of the compilation or testing process.