The manifest.xml is an optional (but very recommended) file that lies in the root of every source package. This file describes both what the package is (i.e. short description, contact information), and dependency information (what should be installed for that package to be built successfully).

The general form of the file is:

<package>
 <description brief="one line of text">
   long description goes here,
   <em>XHTML is allowed</em>
 </description>
 <author>Alice/alice@somewhere.bar, Bob/bob@nowhere.foo</author>
 <license>BSD</license>
 <url>http://sites.google.com/site/rubyinmotion</url>
 <logo>http://sites.google.com/site/rubyinmotion</logo>

 <!-- add dependency to another autoproj-built
 package -->
 <depend package="pkgname"/>
 <depend package="common"/>


  <!-- add dependency to an OS-provided package -->
  <rosdep name="os-pkgname" />
</package>