problem of source devel/setup.bash generated by catkin build with --install configuration

[yuzhangbit]

System Info

• Operating System: Linux precision 4.4.0-64-generic build: add an internal GNU make job server, see #84 #85~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 20 12:10:54 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

• Python Version: Python 2.7.6

• Version of catkin_tools: catkin_tools 0.4.4 (C) 2014-2017 Open Source Robotics Foundation
  catkin_tools is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
  Using Python 2.7.6 (default, Oct 26 2016, 20:30:19) [GCC 4.8.4]

• ROS Distro: indigo

Build / Run Issue

• Works with catkin_make
• Works with catkin_make_isolated --merge
• Works with catkin build
• Works with catkin build -p1
• I did not read this

Expected Behavior

After catkin build and source catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash, I should be able to navigate to the target package folder using roscd target_package .

Actual Behavior

I configure the catkin workspace with following commands

cd /path/to/catkin_ws
catkin init
catkin config --extend /opt/ros/indigo
catkin config --install
catkin build
source /path/to/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
roscd target_package

The output is

roscd: No such package/stack 'target_package'

The target_package exits in catkin_ws/src folder and compiles fine.

If I source catkin_ws/install/setup.bash, I can use roscd target_package to find the folder in catkin_ws/install folder.

If I don't configure catkin_ws with catkin config --install, I can use roscd target_package as expected after catkin build and source catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash.

Steps to Reproduce the Issue

The reproduce commands:

cd /path/to/catkin_ws
catkin init
catkin config --extend /opt/ros/indigo
catkin config --install
catkin build
source /path/to/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
roscd target_package

[NikolausDemmel]

Shouldn't you source the install space's setup.vash if you configure with --install?

[yuzhangbit]

@NikolausDemmel I don't know. I should at least be able to rewrite all the ros environment variables with source catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash, right?

[NikolausDemmel]

I would say no, but I'm not sure. I feel like this has been discussed before, maybe you can have a look in the existing issues (also closed).

[wjwwood]

I think this is (effectively) a duplicate of #404, to which there was a proposed pull request that was supposed to fix it, but as I comment there I don't think this is a use case we want to support:

#403 (comment)

It makes much more sense to use the source catkin_ws/install/setup.bash when you're using the catkin config --install option.

[yuzhangbit]

Thank you! @NikolausDemmel @wjwwood

[wjwwood]

@yuzhangbit I'm going to close this, but feel free to continue discussion on the linked issue: #403 (comment)