Working with Rust

Working with Rust

Working with Rust is a set of examples that cover common programming functions, tasks, and problems. It assumes a base programming knowledge and looking for the proper syntax and solution written in Rust.

I use this resource primarily for myself, collecting up little solutions as I go for reference later. Since I don't use Rust day-to-day, and new to it overall, a quick reference is quite useful to me.

I'm learning Rust by going through the Project Euler problems, you can follow along on my screencast series.

Install Rust

Rust is available on most platforms. The easiest way to install and manage is using the Rustup installer tool. The following will install Rustup on Linux, Mac, and WSL2.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

See the Rust install page for more details and if you need an alternative downloads; for example, the rustup-init.exe for a native Windows 10.

Start a Project

The Rust installer includes several tools:

• rustc: the rust compiler,
• cargo: the build tool and package manager,
• rustup: the version and install manager

Cargo is a multi-purpose tool that allows for starting, building, and managing dependencies.

Create project:

cargo init my-project

This creates a new directory my-project and includes a Cargo.toml project file to specify project settings and dependencies. It also creates a stub rust file: src/main.rs

Running Rust

Use cargo to build, test, and run.

# build (creates binary in target/)
cargo build
 
# run
cargo run
 
# test
cargo test

Development Environment

Rust is supported in most editors. I personally use Vim and the official rust.vim plugin. Visual Studio Code, Sublime, and others all have rust packages available.

I have a minimal setup, just three lines in my vim. A couple of shortcuts to run and test, and a line to autoformat on save.

" rust
autocmd FuleType rust nmap <Leader>b :terminal cargo run <CR>
autocmd FuleType rust nmap <Leader>t :terminal cargo test<CR>
let g:rustfmt_autosave: 1

I love language wide standard for formatting, use the rustfmt tool and don't worry about it. You can install using:

rustup component add rustfmt

Resources

The Rust Playground is a useful test site to run Rust code in your browser. I use it often to test little bits of logic.

Two great learning resources are The Rust Book and Rust by Example.