Environment setup

It's convenient if the ROS environment variables are automatically added to your bash session every time a new shell is launched:

echo "source /opt/ros/fuerte/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
. ~/.bashrc

If you have more than one ROS distribution installed, ~/.bashrc must only source the setup.bash for the version you are currently using.

If you just want to change the environment of your current shell, you can type:

source /opt/ros/fuerte/setup.bash

Most users will want to develop their own packages. The best way to configure the environment for that is to create an overlay.