Rebuilding with Intel Compiler

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I haven't tried this, but you can probably configure it globally as a toolchain just as you would a cross-compiling toolchain. This involves setting the variables as described on the rosbuild page in $ROS_ROOT/rostoolchain.cmake and compile flags in $ROS_ROOT/rosconfig.cmake.

Eros can probably help you set this up. In particular, you might want to use eros' rostoolchain and rosplatform helper tools or just check out the format of some of the pre-existing cmake modules in the eros_toolchains and eros_platforms packages.

What you will run into trouble with though is rosdeps and some 3rd party packages. You won't have an easy way to install intel compiled rosdeps into the intel root. Also, 3rd party packages unfortunately are mostly hacked by Makefile and are consequently ignorant about ros' cmake configuration, so they'll need custom hacking of their own Makefiles.

Still, you should be able to get at least the core packages compiling if you can compile/install eros' toolchain bridge (installs apr, apr-util, log4cxx and boost into your toolchain root). You can then build around that. Not for the light hearted, but might be a useful approach for the high performance computing types.

Attempting to do this just illustrates how powerful the rosdeps concept is and how limited you can find yourself without it.