ROS 1 message reuse

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.3)
find_package(sensor_msgs REQUIRED)
include_directories(${sensor_msgs_INCLUDE_DIRS})
link_directories(${sensor_msgs_LIBRARY_DIRS})
add_executable(foo foo.cpp)
target_link_libraries(foo ${sensor_msgs_LIBRARIES})

foo.cpp

#include <sensor_msgs/LaserScan.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int
main(void)
{
  sensor_msgs::LaserScan scan;
  for(int i=0; i<100; i++)
    scan.ranges.push_back(42.0*i);

  for(std::vector<float>::const_iterator it = scan.ranges.begin();
      it != scan.ranges.end();
      ++it)
    printf("%f\n", *it);
}

Install and build from debs

sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-sensor-msgs
# cd to directory with CMakeLists.txt and foo.cpp
export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/opt/ros/indigo:$CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

The link_directories line is probably unnecessary.

Thanks for the tip; it turns out that target_link_libraries can also be skipped, at least in my minimal testing.