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I would like to know if rosdep init and rosdep update that we perform during ROS installation make any changes outside the ROS environment. Does it update or modify the Debian packages or any other non-ROS components?

I am using Ubuntu 16.04 with ARM architecture.

Eliah Kagan
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samhitha
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1 Answers1

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From the rosdep command reference:

rosdep init
  initialize rosdep sources in /etc/ros/rosdep.  May require sudo.

rosdep update
  update the local rosdep database based on the rosdep sources.

Since rosdep update is not run with sudo, it cannot affect apt's package management. rosdep init is run with sudo. However, from the description, it doesn't seem like it touches apt either.

Zanna
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muru
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  • Thank you for the response. However, " The rosdep command helps you install external dependencies in an OS-independent manner. For example, what Debian packages do you need in order to get the OpenGL headers on Ubuntu? How about OS X? Fedora? rosdep can answer this question for your platform and install the necessary package(s). " - From this, doesn't it look like it somehow works with debian packages also ? puts me in a dilemma. – samhitha Feb 21 '17 at 06:24
  • @samhitha sure, but that's not what `rosdep init` or `rosdep update` do. These commands are internal to `rosdep` - the first sets the sources where the distro-specific information is located, and the second loads them. The actual installation of packages will be done by other subcommands of `rosdep` (maybe `install`, maybe others). – muru Feb 21 '17 at 06:36
  • Yes, whatever you said makes sense. Since update just takes care of refreshing the package list and not actually installing the packages, rosdep update will only take care of updating the ros packages ( and no other non-ROS ones) , right?. But if it is rosdep install, will it effect the debian packages too ? or will it be just confined to ros packages just like above? – samhitha Feb 21 '17 at 07:36