cargo-mkdist 0.1.1

A Cargo subcommand to build native distribution packages (apt, pacman, etc) directly from Rust, without external tools.
cargo-mkdist-0.1.1 is not a library.

cargo mkdist

Build native packages for your Rust projects – without system packaging tools.

cargo mkdist is a Cargo subcommand that packages your Rust binary into .deb, .pkg.tar.zst, .tar.gz and more – directly from Rust code, with no dependency on dpkg-deb, rpmbuild, or pacman.

How it works

  1. Read your Cargo.toml and a simple dist.toml config.
  2. Build your project (or workspace package) for any Rust target triple.
  3. Copy binaries and extra files into a temporary staging directory.
  4. Generate metadata (control files, .PKGINFO, etc.) and pack everything into the target format using pure Rust libraries (ar, tar, flate2, zstd).

No external tools are called – the whole packaging pipeline runs in-process.

Why use it?

  • No extra dependencies – works on any system where Rust runs.
  • Cross‑platform – target any architecture with --target, package for Debian, Arch, or just a tarball.
  • Workspace‑aware – pick specific packages from a workspace.
  • Simple config – define targets with inheritance and format‑specific options in TOML.
  • Fast and reliable – leverages Cargo’s metadata and Rust’s safety.

Limitations (vs classic tools)

  • Fewer formats (currently deb, pkg.tar.zst, tgz – RPM, MSI, APK planned).
  • No built‑in repository signing or publishing (yet).
  • May not support every niche Debian/Arch policy field – but covers common cases.

Quick start

cargo install cargo-mkdist
cargo mkdist --list
cargo mkdist deb

See the documentation to get started.

License

Licensed under either of

at your option.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or pull requests.

Made with ❤️ for Rust community