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ROS provides three tools for this process: rosinstall_generator, wstool and rosdep

rosinstall_generator and wstool work together to manage a source checkout of multiple packages. wstool uses a workspace file with a list of package directories and remote repository URLs to check out each package into the specified directory, and eep the source checkout up to date. rosinstall_generator can create a workspace file that satisfies all of the dependencies for a specific package or set of packages.

rosdep fills the gaps between ROS packages and the system, by using your system's package manager to install dependencies on system packages.

The typical workflow for these three tools is something like:

• Source your existing ROS environment; cd into your workspace directory.

• For the new package that you want to install, add that package and any missing dependencies to your workspace file:

  rosinstall_generator rviz --deps --exclude RPP | wstool merge -t src - (change rviz to whichever package you want to install)

• Update your workspace from the updated workspace file:

  wstool update -t src (add -jN to run N downloads in parallel)

• Install any missing system dependencies:

  rosdep install --from-paths src -i

• Build your workspace:

  catkin_make