cargo-make

Rust task runner and build tool.

• Overview
• Installation
• Usage
  • Simple Example
  • Tasks, Dependencies and Aliases
  • Default Tasks and Extending
  • Ignoring Errors
  • Platform Override
  • Environment Variables
  • Continuous Integration
    • Travis
    • AppVeyor
  • Predefined Flows
  • Workspace Support
  • Init and End tasks
  • Cli Options
• Makefile Definition
• Task Naming conventions
• Badge
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• Release History
• License

Overview

The cargo-make task runner enables to define and configure sets of tasks and run them as a flow. A task is a command or a script to execute. Tasks can have dependencies which are also tasks that will be executed before the task itself. With a simple toml based configuration file, you can define a multi platform build script that can run build, test, documentation generation, bench tests execution, security validations and more and executed by running a single command.

Installation

In order to install, just run the following command

cargo install cargo-make

This will install cargo-make in your ~/.cargo/bin. Make sure to add ~/.cargo/bin directory to your PATH variable.

Usage

When using cargo-make, all tasks are defined and configured via toml files. Below are simple instructions to get you started off quickly.

Simple Example

In order to run a set of tasks, you first must define them in a toml file. For example, if we would like to have a script which:

• Formats the code
• Cleans old target directory
• Runs build
• Runs tests

We will create a toml file as follows:

[tasks.format]
install_crate = "rustfmt"
command = "cargo"
args = ["fmt", "--", "--write-mode=overwrite"]

[tasks.clean]
command = "cargo"
args = ["clean"]

[tasks.build]
command = "cargo"
args = ["build"]
dependencies = ["clean"]

[tasks.test]
command = "cargo"
args = ["test"]
dependencies = ["clean"]

[tasks.my-flow]
dependencies = [
    "format",
    "build",
    "test"
]

We would execute the flow with the following command:

cargo make --makefile simple-example.toml my-flow

The output would look something like this:

[cargo-make] info - Using Build File: simple-example.toml
[cargo-make] info - Task: my-flow
[cargo-make] info - Setting Up Env.
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: format
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "cargo" "fmt" "--" "--write-mode=overwrite"
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: clean
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "cargo" "clean"
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: build
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "cargo" "build"
   Compiling bitflags v0.9.1
   Compiling unicode-width v0.1.4
   Compiling quote v0.3.15
   Compiling unicode-segmentation v1.1.0
   Compiling strsim v0.6.0
   Compiling libc v0.2.24
   Compiling serde v1.0.8
   Compiling vec_map v0.8.0
   Compiling ansi_term v0.9.0
   Compiling unicode-xid v0.0.4
   Compiling synom v0.11.3
   Compiling rand v0.3.15
   Compiling term_size v0.3.0
   Compiling atty v0.2.2
   Compiling syn v0.11.11
   Compiling textwrap v0.6.0
   Compiling clap v2.25.0
   Compiling serde_derive_internals v0.15.1
   Compiling toml v0.4.2
   Compiling serde_derive v1.0.8
   Compiling cargo-make v0.1.2 (file:///home/ubuntu/workspace)
    Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 79.75 secs
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: test
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "cargo" "test"
   Compiling cargo-make v0.1.2 (file:///home/ubuntu/workspace)
    Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 5.1 secs
     Running target/debug/deps/cargo_make-d5f8d30d73043ede

running 10 tests
test log::tests::create_info ... ok
test log::tests::get_level_error ... ok
test log::tests::create_verbose ... ok
test log::tests::get_level_info ... ok
test log::tests::get_level_other ... ok
test log::tests::get_level_verbose ... ok
test installer::tests::is_crate_installed_false ... ok
test installer::tests::is_crate_installed_true ... ok
test command::tests::validate_exit_code_error ... ok
test log::tests::create_error ... ok

test result: ok. 10 passed; 0 failed; 0 ignored; 0 measured; 0 filtered out

[cargo-make] info - Running Task: my-flow
[cargo-make] info - Build done in 72 seconds.

We now created a build script that can run on any platform.

Tasks, Dependencies and Aliases

In many cases, certain tasks depend on other tasks. For example you would like to format the code before running build and run the build before running tests. Such flow can be defined as follows:

[tasks.format]
install_crate = "rustfmt"
command = "cargo"
args = ["fmt", "--", "--write-mode=overwrite"]

[tasks.build]
command = "cargo"
args = ["build"]
dependencies = ["format"]

[tasks.test]
command = "cargo"
args = ["test"]
dependencies = ["build"]

When you run:

cargo make --makefile ./my_build.toml test

It will try to run test, see that it has dependencies and those have other dependencies. Therefore it will create an execution plan for the tasks based on the tasks and their dependencies. In our case it will invoke format -> build -> test.

The same task will never be executed twice so if we have for example:

[tasks.A]
dependencies = ["B", "C"]

[tasks.B]
dependencies = ["D"]

[tasks.C]
dependencies = ["D"]

[tasks.D]
script = [
    "echo hello"
]

In this example, A depends on B and C, and both B and C are dependended on D. Task D however will not be invoked twice. The output of the execution will look something like this:

[cargo-make] info - Task: A
[cargo-make] info - Setting Up Env.
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: D
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "sh" "/tmp/cargo-make/CNuU47tIix.sh"
hello
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: B
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: C
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: A

As you can see, 'hello' was printed once by task D as it was only invoked once. But what if we want to run D twice? Simple answer would be to duplicate task D and have B depend on D and C depend on D2 which is a copy of D. But duplicating can lead to bugs and to huge makefiles, so we have alias for that. An alias task has its own name and points to another task. All of the definitions of the alias task are ignored. So now, if we want to have D execute twice we can do the following:

[tasks.A]
dependencies = ["B", "C"]

[tasks.B]
dependencies = ["D"]

[tasks.C]
dependencies = ["D2"]

[tasks.D]
script = [
    "echo hello"
]

[tasks.D2]
alias="D"

Now C depends on D2 and D2 is an alias for D. Execution output of such make file would like as follows:

[cargo-make] info - Task: A
[cargo-make] info - Setting Up Env.
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: D
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "sh" "/tmp/cargo-make/HP0UD7pgoX.sh"
hello
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: B
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: D2
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "sh" "/tmp/cargo-make/TuuZJkqCE2.sh"
hello
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: C
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: A

Now you can see that 'hello' was printed twice.

It is also possible to define platform specific aliases, for example:

[tasks.my_task]
linux_alias = "linux_my_task"
windows_alias = "windows_my_task"
mac_alias = "mac_my_task"

[tasks.linux_my_task]

[tasks.mac_my_task]

[tasks.windows_my_task]

If platform specific alias is found and matches current platform it will take precedence over the non platform alias definition. For example:

[tasks.my_task]
linux_alias = "run"
alias = "do_nothing"

[tasks.run]
script = [
    "echo hello"
]

[tasks.do_nothing]

If you run task my_task on windows or mac, it will invoke the do_nothing task. However, if executed on a linux platform, it will invoke the run task.

Default Tasks and Extending

There is no real need to define the tasks that were shown in the previous example. cargo-make comes with a built in toml file that will serve as a base for every execution. The optional external toml file that is provided while running cargo-make will only extend and add or overwrite tasks that are defined in the default toml. Lets take the build task definition which comes alrady in the default toml:

[tasks.build]
command = "cargo"
args = ["build"]

If for example, you would like to add verbose output to it, you would just need to change the args and add the --verbose as follows:

[tasks.build]
args = ["build", "--verbose"]

If you want to disable some existing task (will not disable its dependencies), you can do it as follows:

[tasks.build]
disabled = true

There is no need to redefine existing properties of the task, only what needs to be added or overwritten. The default toml file comes with many steps and flows already built in, so it is worth to check it first.

You can also extend other external files from your external file by using the extend attribute, for example:

extend = "my_common_makefile.toml"

The file path in the extend attribute is always relative to the current toml file you are in and not to the process working directory.

The extend attribute can be very usefull when you have a workspace with a Makefile.toml that contains all of the common custom tasks and in each project you can have a simple Makefile.toml which just has the extend attribute pointing to the workspace makefile.

Ignoring Errors

In some cases you want to run optional tasks as part of a bigger flow, but do not want to break your entire build in case of any error in those optional tasks. For those tasks, you can add the force=true attribute.

[tasks.unstable_task]
force = true

Platform Override

In case you want to override a task or specific attributes in a task for specific platforms, you can define an override task with the platform name (currently linux, windows and mac) under the specific task. For example:

[tasks.hello-world]
script = [
    "echo \"Hello World From Unknown\""
]

[tasks.hello-world.linux]
script = [
    "echo \"Hello World From Linux\""
]

If you run cargo make with task 'hello-world' on linux, it would redirect to hello-world.linux while on other platforms it will execute the original hello-world. In linux the output would be:

[cargo-make] info - Task: hello-world
[cargo-make] info - Setting Up Env.
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: hello-world
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "sh" "/tmp/cargo-make/kOUJfw8Vfc.sh"
Hello World From Linux
[cargo-make] info - Build done in 0 seconds.

While on other platforms

[cargo-make] info - Task: hello-world
[cargo-make] info - Setting Up Env.
[cargo-make] info - Running Task: hello-world
[cargo-make] info - Execute Command: "sh" "/tmp/cargo-make/2gYnulOJLP.sh"
Hello World From Unknown
[cargo-make] info - Build done in 0 seconds.

In the override task you can define any attribute that will override the attribute of the parent task, while undefined attributes will use the value from the parent task and will not be modified. In case you need to delete attributes from the parent (for example script is only invoked if command is not defined and you have command defined in the parent task and script in the override task), then you will have to clear the parent task in the override task using the clear attribute as follows:

[tasks.hello-world.linux]
clear = true
script = [
    "echo \"Hello World From Linux\""
]

This means, however, that you will have to redefine all attributes in the override task that you want to carry with you from the parent task. **Important - alias comes before checking override task so if parent task has an alias it will be redirected to that task instead of the override.** To override per platform, use the linux_alias, windows_alias, mac_alias attributes. In addition, aliases can not be defined in platform override tasks, only in parent tasks.

Environment Variables

You can also define env vars to be set as part of the execution of the flow in the env block, for examle:

[env]
RUST_BACKTRACE = "1"

All env vars defined in the env block and in the default toml will be defined before running the tasks.

In addition, cargo-make will also add few environment variables that can be helpful when running task scripts/commands:

• CARGO_MAKE - Set to "true" to help sub processes identify they are running from cargo make.
• CARGO_MAKE_TASK - Holds the name of the main task being executed.
• CARGO_MAKE_WORKING_DIRECTORY - The current working directory (can be defined by setting the --cwd cli option)
• CARGO_MAKE_RUST_VERSION - The rust version (for example 1.20.0)
• CARGO_MAKE_RUST_CHANNEL - Rust channel (stable, beta, nightly)
• CARGO_MAKE_RUST_TARGET_ARCH - x86, x86_64, arm, etc ... (see rust cfg feature)
• CARGO_MAKE_RUST_TARGET_ENV - gnu, msvc, etc ... (see rust cfg feature)
• CARGO_MAKE_RUST_TARGET_OS - windows, macos, ios, linux, android, etc ... (see rust cfg feature)
• CARGO_MAKE_RUST_TARGET_POINTER_WIDTH - 32, 64
• CARGO_MAKE_RUST_TARGET_VENDOR - apple, pc, unknown

The following environment variables will be set by cargo-make if Cargo.toml file exists and the relevant value is defined:

• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_NAME - Holds the crate name from the Cargo.toml file found in the cwd.
• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_FS_NAME - Same as CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_NAME however some characters are replaced (for example '-' to '_').
• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_VERSION - Holds the crate version from the Cargo.toml file found in the cwd.
• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_DESCRIPTION - Holds the crate description from the Cargo.toml file found in the cwd.
• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_LICENSE - Holds the crate license from the Cargo.toml file found in the cwd.
• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_DOCUMENTATION - Holds the crate documentation link from the Cargo.toml file found in the cwd.
• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_HOMEPAGE - Holds the crate homepage link from the Cargo.toml file found in the cwd.
• CARGO_MAKE_CRATE_REPOSITORY - Holds the crate repository link from the Cargo.toml file found in the cwd.

The following environment variables will be set by cargo-make if the project is part of a git repo:

• CARGO_MAKE_GIT_BRANCH - The current branch name.
• CARGO_MAKE_GIT_USER_NAME - The user name pulled from the give config user.name key.
• CARGO_MAKE_GIT_USER_EMAIL - The user email pulled from the give config user.email key.

Continuous Integration

cargo-make comes with a predefined flow for continuous integration build executed by internal or online services such as travis-ci and appveyor. It is recommanded to install cargo-make with the debug flag for faster installation.

Travis

Add the following to .travis.yml file:

script:
  - cargo install --debug cargo-make
  - cargo make ci-flow

If you want to run code coverage and upload it to codecov, also define the following environment variable:

env:
  global:
    - CARGO_MAKE_RUN_CODECOV="true"

You can see full yaml file at: .travis.yml

AppVeyor

Add the following to appveyor.yml file:

build: false

test_script:
  - cargo install --debug cargo-make
  - cargo make ci-flow

You can see full yaml file at: appveyor.yml

Predefined Flows

The default toml file comes with many predefined tasks and flows. The following are some of the main flows that can be used without any need of an external Makefile.toml definition.

• dev-test-flow - Also the default flow so it can be invoked without writing any task name (simple run cargo make).This task runs formatting, cargo build and cargo test and will most likely be the set of tasks that you will run while developing and testing a rust project.
• ci-flow - Should be used in CI builds (such as travis/appveyor) and it runs build and test with verbose level.
• publish-flow - Cleans old target directory and publishes the project.
• build-flow - Runs full cycle of build, tests, security checks, dependencies up to date validations and documentation generation.This flow can be used to make sure your project is fully tested and up to date.
• coverage-flow - Creates coverage report from all unit and integration tests (not supported on windows).
• codecov-flow - Runs the coverage-flow and uploads the coverage results to codecov (not supported on windows).

Workspace Support

In case cargo-make detects that the current working directory is a workspace crate (crate with Cargo.toml which defines a workspace and its members), it will not invoke the requested tasks in that directory. Instead, it will generate a task definition in runtime which will go to each member directory and invoke the requested task on that member. For example if we have the following directory structure:

workspace
├── Cargo.toml
├── member1
│   └── Cargo.toml
└── member2
    └── Cargo.toml

And we ran cargo make mytask, it will go to each workspace member directory and execute: cargo make mytask at that directory, where mytask is the original task that was requested on the workspace level. The order of the members is defined by the member attribute in the workspace Cargo.toml.

We can use this capability to run same functionality on all workspace member crates, for example if we want to format all crates, we can run in the workspace directory: cargo make format.

In case you wish to run the tasks on the workspace level and not on the members, use the --no-workspace cli flag when running cargo make, for example:

cargo make --no-workspace mytask

You can define a composite flow that runs both workspace level tasks and member level tasks using this flag. This is an example of a workspace level Makefile.toml which enables to run such a flow:

[tasks.composite]
dependencies = ["member_flow", "workspace_flow"]

[tasks.member_flow]
command = "cargo"
args = ["make", "member_task"]

[tasks.workspace_flow]
#run some workspace level command or flow

You can start this composite flow as follows:

cargo make --no-workspace composite

Init and End tasks

Every task or flow that is executed by the cargo-make has additional 2 tasks. An init task that gets invoked at the start of all flows and end task that is invoked at the end of all flows. The names of the init and end tasks are defined in the config section in the toml file, the below shows the default settings:

[config]
init_task = "init"
end_task = "end"

[tasks.init]

[tasks.end]

By default the init and end tasks are empty and can be modified by external toml files or you can simply change the names of the init and end tasks in the external toml files to point to different tasks. These tasks allow common actions to be invoked no matter what flow you are running.

Important to mention that init and end tasks invocation is different than other tasks.

• Aliases and dependencies are ignored
• If the same task is defined in the executed flow, those tasks will be invoked multiple times

Therefore it is not recommanded to use the init/end tasks also inside your flows.

Cli Options

These are the following options available while running cargo-make:

USAGE:
    cargo make [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] [TASK]

FLAGS:
    -h, --help            Prints help information
        --no-workspace    Disable workspace support (tasks are triggered on workspace and not on members)
        --print-steps     Only prints the steps of the build in the order they will be invoked but without invoking them
    -v, --verbose         Sets the log level to verbose (shorthand for --loglevel verbose)
    -V, --version         Prints version information

OPTIONS:
        --cwd <DIRECTORY>         Will set the current working directory. The search for the makefile will be from this directory if defined.
    -l, --loglevel <LOG LEVEL>    The log level [default: info]  [values: verbose, info, error]
        --makefile <FILE>         The optional toml file containing the tasks definitions [default: Makefile.toml]
    -t, --task <TASK>             The task name to execute (can omit the flag if the task name is the last argument) [default: default]

ARGS:
    <TASK>

Makefile Definition

pub struct ConfigSection {
    /// Init task name which will be invoked at the start of every run
    pub init_task: Option<String>,
    /// End task name which will be invoked at the end of every run
    pub end_task: Option<String>
}

/// Holds the entire externally read configuration such as task definitions and env vars where all values are optional
pub struct ExternalConfig {
    /// Path to another toml file to extend
    pub extend: Option<String>,
    /// Runtime config
    pub config: Option<ConfigSection>,
    /// The env vars to setup before running the tasks
    pub env: Option<HashMap<String, String>>,
    /// All task definitions
    pub tasks: Option<HashMap<String, Task>>
}

/// Holds a single task configuration such as command and dependencies list
pub struct Task {
    /// if true, the command/script of this task will not be invoked, dependencies however will be
    pub disabled: Option<bool>,
    /// if true, any error while executing the task will be printed but will not break the build
    pub force: Option<bool>,
    /// if defined, task points to another task and all other properties are ignored
    pub alias: Option<String>,
    /// acts like alias if runtime OS is Linux (takes precedence over alias)
    pub linux_alias: Option<String>,
    /// acts like alias if runtime OS is Windows (takes precedence over alias)
    pub windows_alias: Option<String>,
    /// acts like alias if runtime OS is Mac (takes precedence over alias)
    pub mac_alias: Option<String>,
    /// if defined, the provided crate will be installed (if needed) before running the task
    pub install_crate: Option<String>,
    /// if defined, the provided script will be executed before running the task
    pub install_script: Option<Vec<String>>,
    /// The command to execute
    pub command: Option<String>,
    /// The command args
    pub args: Option<Vec<String>>,
    /// If command is not defined, and script is defined, the provided script will be executed
    pub script: Option<Vec<String>>,
    /// The script runner (defaults to cmd in windows and sh for other platforms)
    pub script_runner: Option<String>,
    /// A list of tasks to execute before this task
    pub dependencies: Option<Vec<String>>,
    /// override task if runtime OS is Linux (takes precedence over alias)
    pub linux: Option<PlatformOverrideTask>,
    /// override task if runtime OS is Windows (takes precedence over alias)
    pub windows: Option<PlatformOverrideTask>,
    /// override task if runtime OS is Mac (takes precedence over alias)
    pub mac: Option<PlatformOverrideTask>
}

/// Holds a single task configuration for a specific platform as an override of another task
pub struct PlatformOverrideTask {
    /// if true, it should ignore all data in base task
    pub clear: Option<bool>,
    /// if true, the command/script of this task will not be invoked, dependencies however will be
    pub disabled: Option<bool>,
    /// if true, any error while executing the task will be printed but will not break the build
    pub force: Option<bool>,
    /// if defined, the provided crate will be installed (if needed) before running the task
    pub install_crate: Option<String>,
    /// if defined, the provided script will be executed before running the task
    pub install_script: Option<Vec<String>>,
    /// The command to execute
    pub command: Option<String>,
    /// The command args
    pub args: Option<Vec<String>>,
    /// If command is not defined, and script is defined, the provided script will be executed
    pub script: Option<Vec<String>>,
    /// The script runner (defaults to cmd in windows and sh for other platforms)
    pub script_runner: Option<String>,
    /// A list of tasks to execute before this task
    pub dependencies: Option<Vec<String>>
}

Task Naming conventions

This section explains the logic behind the default task names. While the default names logic can be used as a convention for any new task defined in some project Makefile.toml, it is not required.

The default toml file comes with three types of tasks:

• Single command or script task (for example cargo build)
• Tasks that come before or after the single command tasks
• Tasks that define flows using dependencies

Single command tasks are named based on their commmand (in most cases), for example the task that runs cargo build is named build.

[tasks.build]
command = "cargo"
args = ["build"]

This allows to easily understand what this task does.

Tasks that are invoked before/after those tasks are named the same way as the original task but with the pre/post prefix. For example for task build the default toml also defines pre-build and post-build tasks.

[tasks.pre-build]

[tasks.post-build]

In the default toml, all pre/post tasks are empty and are there as placeholders for external Makefile.toml to override so custom functionality can be defined easily before/after running a specfific task.

Flows are named with the flow suffix, for example: ci-flow

[tasks.ci-flow]
# CI task will run cargo build and cargo test with verbose output
dependencies = [
    "pre-build",
    "build-verbose",
    "post-build",
    "pre-test",
    "test-verbose",
    "post-test"
]

This prevents flow task names to conflict with single command task names and quickly allow users to understand that this task is a flow definition.

Badge

If you are using cargo-make in your project and want to display it in your project README or website, you can embed the "Built with cargo-make" badge.

Here are few snapshots:

Markdown

[![Built with cargo-make](https://img.shields.io/badge/built%20with-cargo--make-e49d41.svg)](https://sagiegurari.github.io/cargo-make)

HTML

<a href="https://sagiegurari.github.io/cargo-make">
  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/built%20with-cargo--make-e49d41.svg" alt="Built with cargo-make">
</a>

Roadmap

The cargo-make task runner is still under heavy development. You can view the future development items list in the project board

Contributing

See contributing guide

Release History

Date	Version	Description
2017-07-16	v0.3.27	cargo make ci-flow on travis now automatically runs code coverage and uploads to codecov
2017-07-16	v0.3.25	New --no-workspace cli arg
2017-07-15	v0.3.24	Workspace support
2017-07-14	v0.3.23	Added codecov task in default toml
2017-07-14	v0.3.20	Added coverage task in default toml
2017-07-14	v0.3.16	Added more environment variables based on target environment and rust compiler
2017-07-13	v0.3.15	Added common init and end tasks
2017-07-10	v0.3.13	cargo-make now defines rust version env vars
2017-07-09	v0.3.11	cargo-make now defines env vars based on project git repo information
2017-07-06	v0.3.10	cargo-make now defines env vars based on project Cargo.toml
2017-07-05	v0.3.6	Added --cwd cli arg to enable setting working directory
2017-07-04	v0.3.5	Added clippy task
2017-07-03	v0.3.4	Added --print-steps cli arg
2017-07-02	v0.3.1	Added CARGO_MAKE_TASK env var holding the main task name
2017-07-02	v0.3.0	Renamed few cli options
2017-07-02	v0.2.20	Added -v and --verbose cli arg
2017-07-01	v0.2.19	Added extend config level attribute
2017-06-30	v0.2.17	Added force task attribute
2017-06-28	v0.2.12	Published website
2017-06-28	v0.2.8	Platform specific task override
2017-06-26	v0.2.7	Platform specific alias
2017-06-26	v0.2.6	Enable task attributes override
2017-06-25	v0.2.3	Added disabled task attribute support
2017-06-24	v0.2.0	Internal fixes (renamed dependencies attribute)
2017-06-24	v0.1.2	Print build time, added internal docs, unit tests and coverage
2017-06-24	v0.1.1	Added support for env vars, task alias and crate installation
2017-06-23	v0.1.0	Initial release.

License

Developed by Sagie Gur-Ari and licensed under the Apache 2 open source license.