How to build a subset of nodes in workspace?

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I've been looking into a way to specify a single target which can be specified like catkin_make --pkg <target> such that all of the packages required for a node on a specific end target are built.

catkin_make should allow you to do that, if you use the --only-pkg-with-deps option:

  --only-pkg-with-deps ONLY_PKG_WITH_DEPS [ONLY_PKG_WITH_DEPS ...]
                        Whitelist only the specified packages and their
                        dependencies by setting the CATKIN_WHITELIST_PACKAGES
                        variable. This variable is stored in CMakeCache.txt
                        and will persist between CMake calls unless explicitly
                        cleared; e.g. catkin_make
                        -DCATKIN_WHITELIST_PACKAGES="".

Alternatively, catkin_tools supports profiles, that in turn can be configured with specific white and blacklists of packages.

In addition you can ask it to build just a single package with all it's dependencies:

catkin build <pkg_name>

or even just a package without its dependencies:

catkin build <pkg_name> --no-deps

See catkin build – Build Packages for the documentation of the build verb and the Building Subsets of Packages section.