在安裝完成ROS indigo之后，需要查看環境變量是否設置正確，並通過創建一個簡單的實例來驗證ROS能否正常運行。
1 查看環境變量
在ROS的安裝過程中，我們執行了如下命令：(此命令就是向當前用戶添加ROS的環境變量)
echo "source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc
確認環境變量添加成功：printenv | grep ROS，結果如下，即說明環境變量設置成功：
ROS_ROOT=/opt/ros/indigo/share/ros ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=/opt/ros/indigo/share:/opt/ros/indigo/stacks ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311 ROSLISP_PACKAGE_DIRECTORIES= ROS_DISTRO=indigo ROS_ETC_DIR=/opt/ros/indigo/etc/ros
2 創建ROS工作空間
我這里用的是ROS indigo，同樣適用於ROS groovy及其以后的版本。
[1]創建並初始化一個catkin工作空間
$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws2/src $ cd ~/catkin_ws2/src $ catkin_init_workspace
catkin_init_workspace命令把當前目錄初始化為一個ROS工作空間。
可通過來ls -l查看一下初始化之后的工作空間的內容。發現：catkin_ws目錄下僅僅有一個剛才創建的src目錄，src目錄下只有一個指向一個cmake文件的符號連接文件。盡管現在catkin_ws目錄是空的，但是我們仍可以
[2]編譯該工作空間。
$ cd ~/catkin_ws2
$ catkin_make
終端結果：
Base path: /home/wj/catkin_ws2 Source space: /home/wj/catkin_ws2/src Build space: /home/wj/catkin_ws2/build Devel space: /home/wj/catkin_ws2/devel Install space: /home/wj/catkin_ws2/install #### #### Running command: "cmake /home/wj/catkin_ws2/src -DCATKIN_DEVEL_PREFIX=/home/wj/catkin_ws2/devel -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/wj/catkin_ws2/install -G Unix Makefiles" in "/home/wj/catkin_ws2/build" #### -- The C compiler identification is GNU 4.8.4 -- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 4.8.4 -- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- works -- Detecting C compiler ABI info -- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done -- Detecting C compile features -- Detecting C compile features - done -- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done -- Detecting CXX compile features -- Detecting CXX compile features - done -- Using CATKIN_DEVEL_PREFIX: /home/wj/catkin_ws2/devel -- Using CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH: /opt/ros/indigo -- This workspace overlays: /opt/ros/indigo -- Found PythonInterp: /usr/bin/python (found version "2.7.6") -- Using PYTHON_EXECUTABLE: /usr/bin/python -- Using Debian Python package layout -- Using empy: /usr/bin/empy -- Using CATKIN_ENABLE_TESTING: ON -- Call enable_testing() -- Using CATKIN_TEST_RESULTS_DIR: /home/wj/catkin_ws2/build/test_results -- Looking for include file pthread.h -- Looking for include file pthread.h - found -- Looking for pthread_create -- Looking for pthread_create - not found -- Looking for pthread_create in pthreads -- Looking for pthread_create in pthreads - not found -- Looking for pthread_create in pthread -- Looking for pthread_create in pthread - found -- Found Threads: TRUE -- Found gtest sources under '/usr/src/gtest': gtests will be built -- Using Python nosetests: /usr/bin/nosetests-2.7 -- catkin 0.6.18 -- BUILD_SHARED_LIBS is on -- Configuring done -- Generating done -- Build files have been written to: /home/wj/catkin_ws2/build #### #### Running command: "make -j4 -l4" in "/home/wj/catkin_ws2/build" ####
【catkin_make命令是catkin工作空間非常有力的一個工具。】
此時再查看catkin_ws目錄，發現多了兩個文件夾build，devel：
可以看到在devel目錄下，有很多setup.*sh文件，讀取這些文件中的任何一個都會將當前工作空間的環境變量置於所有環境變量的最上層。如果我們打開這些文件會發現，最終都是要讀取setup.sh文件，這個文件中
[3]定義了catkin_ws空間所需要的環境變量。
wj@wj-Inspiron-5437:~/catkin_ws2$ source devel/setup.sh //讀取setup.sh文件
[4]確認已經加載catkin工作空間環境變量：echo $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH
結果：/home/wj/catkin_ws2/src:/opt/ros/indigo/share:/opt/ros/indigo/stacks
這時ROS的環境變量已經創建好了。
3 總結
初始化ROS的catkin工作空間：catkin_init_workspace
編譯ROS的catkin工作空間：catkin_make
讀取當前catkin工作空間的環境變量：source devel/setup.sh
驗證ROS工作空間的環境變量加載成功：echo $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH