catkin instead of colcon?

[Kyle0936]

Hey there, I was working on a complex ros1 package and was trying to build it with colcon as stated in the instructions. However, it seemed to cause some issues. May I use catkin to build the package and then continue to use this tool?

[raghaprasad]

Hi @kkkkkyle , In theory yes.
So long as you are able pass in the compiler flags via catkin (see the readme for the flags that we pass in while doing colcon build). The reminder of the steps should still be applicable.

Let us know if you were successful in getting it to work with catkin.

[knickels]

I was able to generate the compile_commands.json with catkin:

catkin build <package>  --cmake-args -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON

[JacobKan]

I am about to try this tool.
In my mind if I can build my ROS1 package with colcon build, then doesn't it means I can use it directly in ROS2?
I just upgrade ROS1 to ROS2 foxy, then simply try colcon build my ROS1 packages but failed.