Library

Rust for C/C++ Programmers

Enough talk already: Show me some code

What you'll learn: Your first Rust program — fn main(), println!(), and how Rust macros differ fundamentally from C/C++ preprocessor macros. By the end you'll be able to write, compile, and run simple Rust programs.

fn main() {
    println!("Hello world from Rust");
}
  • The above syntax should be similar to anyone familiar with C-style languages
    • All functions in Rust begin with the fn keyword
    • The default entry point for executables is main()
    • The println! looks like a function, but is actually a macro. Macros in Rust are very different from C/C++ preprocessor macros \u2014 they are hygienic, type-safe, and operate on the syntax tree rather than text substitution
  • Two great ways to quickly try out Rust snippets:
    • Online: Rust Playground — paste code, hit Run, share results. No install needed
    • Local REPL: Install evcxr_repl for an interactive Rust REPL (like Python's REPL, but for Rust):
cargo install --locked evcxr_replevcxr   # Start the REPL, type Rust expressions interactively

Rust Local installation

  • Rust can be locally installed using the following methods
  • The Rust ecosystem is composed of the following components
    • rustc is the standalone compiler, but it's seldom used directly
    • The preferred tool, cargo is the Swiss Army knife and is used for dependency management, building, testing, formatting, linting, etc.
    • The Rust toolchain comes in the stable, beta and nightly (experimental) channels, but we'll stick with stable. Use the rustup update command to upgrade the stable installation that's released every six weeks
  • We'll also install the rust-analyzer plug-in for VSCode

Rust packages (crates)

  • Rust binaries are created using packages (hereby called crates)
    • A crate may either be standalone, or may have dependency on other crates. The crates for the dependencies can be local or remote. Third-party crates are typically downloaded from a centralized repository called crates.io.
    • The cargo tool automatically handles the downloading of crates and their dependencies. This is conceptually equivalent to linking to C-libraries
    • Crate dependencies are expressed in a file called Cargo.toml. It also defines the target type for the crate: standalone executable, static library, dynamic library (uncommon)
    • Reference: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/cargo-targets.html

Cargo vs Traditional C Build Systems

Dependency Management Comparison

Cargo Project Structure

my_project
 ├── Cargo.toml  # Project configuration (like package.json)
 ├── Cargo.lock  # Exact dependency versions (auto-generated)
 ├─┬ src
 │ ├── main.rs  # Main entry point for binary
 │ ├── lib.rs  # Library root (if creating a library)
 │ └── bin  # Additional binary targets
 ├── tests  # Integration tests
 ├── examples  # Example code
 ├── benches  # Benchmarks
 └─┬ target
   ├── debug  # Debug builds (fast compile, slow runtime)
   └── release  # Release builds (slow compile, fast runtime)

Common Cargo Commands

Example: cargo and crates

  • In this example, we have a standalone executable crate with no other dependencies
  • Use the following commands to create a new crate called helloworld
cargo new helloworldcd helloworldcat Cargo.toml
  • By default, cargo run will compile and run the debug (unoptimized) version of the crate. To execute the release version, use cargo run --release
  • Note that actual binary file resides under the target folder under the debug or release folder
  • We might have also noticed a file called Cargo.lock in the same folder as the source. It is automatically generated and should not be modified by hand
    • We will revisit the specific purpose of Cargo.lock later