Quick Start on Linux

This page explains how to install the Orocos Toolchain from the public repositories using a script. ROS-users might want to take a look at the orocos_toolchain stack and the rtt_ros_integration stack.

Installation: the easy way (Linux)

  1. Make sure that the Ruby interpreter (>=1.8.7) is installed on your machine ruby --version
  2. Create and "cd" into the directory in which you want to install the toolchain
  3. Save the Toolchain-2.6 bootstrap.sh script in the folder you just created
  4. In a console, run sh bootstrap.sh. This installs the toolchain-2.6 branch (latest fixes, stable).
  5. Important: as the build tool tells you, you **must** load the generated env.sh script at the end of the build !!!
    • source it in your current console (source ./env.sh)
    • also, add it to your .bashrc (append ". /path/to/the/directory/env.sh" -- without the quotes -- at the end of your .bashrc)

Summarized: 

cd $HOME
mkdir orocos
cd orocos
mkdir orocos-toolchain
cd orocos-toolchain
wget -O bootstrap-2.6.sh http://gitorious.org/orocos-toolchain/build/raw/toolchain-2.6:bootstrap.sh
sh bootstrap.sh
source env.sh

Tweaking build and install options can be done by modifying autoproj/config.yml. You must read the README and the Autoproj Manual in order to understand how to configure autoproj. See also the very short introduction on Using Autoproj.

Testing the installation

When the script finishes, try some Orocos toolchain commands (installed by default in 'install/bin'):

typegen
deployer-gnulinux
ctaskbrowser

Maintaining the Toolchain uptodate

After some time, you can get updates by going into the root folder and do

# Updates to latest fixes of release branch:
autoproj update
# Builds the toolchain
autoproj build

You might have to reload the env.sh script after that as well. Simply open a new console. See also Using Autoproj.

Installation: from zip/bz2/gz files

Download the archive from the toolchain homepage. Unpack it, it will create an orocos-toolchain-<version> directory. Next do: 

cd $HOME
mkdir orocos
cd orocos
tar -xjvf /path/to/orocos-toolchain-<version>.tar.bz2
cd orocos-toolchain-<version>
./bootstrap_toolchain
source ./env.sh
autoproj build

  • The first command, bootstrap_toolchain, is required to setup the autoproj environment.
  • The second command sets the environment for you
  • The third command builds the complete toolchain and installs it in the install/ directory. set the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to change this.