Crate devbox_build

Small utility library for writing Rust build sripts (build.rs).

It contains a collection of types that should make writing of build sripts a bit easier. It focuses on file manipulation and generation while checking file stamps to avoid unnecessary build steps. It can replace makefiles for simple things like copying some files and invoking some external compiler or tool like NPM when things have changes.

Most methods do not return a Result but simply panic with consistent error messages stoping Cargo build which is desired behaviour for build sripts in most cases. For situations when you do want to recover from errors or implement a better error reporting most method have a twin method suffixed with '_result' that return Result values instead.

To install via umbrella devbox crate

[dev-dependencies]
devbox = { version = "0.1" }

Example

Example build sripts builds a web application located in project root/webapp inside the target directory using NPM by installing all JS dependencies and running build script through NPM. Built web app is then embedded into Rust binary by packing it as a Rust source code. All the steps are done only on clean builds or when relevant resources change since last build.

pub fn main() {

    let build = Build::new();

    //-- Setup web app build dir inside of Rust target directory ----------------------

    // Rust does not allow changes outside target directory, so setup a webapp build
    // directory using links to source files where nodejs and company can do it's thing

    let webrs = build.out_dir().file("webapp.rs");
    let websrc = build.manifest_dir().dir("webapp");
    let webwrk = build.out_dir().dir("webapp_build");
    let webwrk_pkg = webwrk.file("package.json");
    let webwrk_pkl = webwrk.file("package-lock.json");
    let webwrk_ndm = webwrk.dir("node_modules");
    let webwrk_dst = webwrk.dir("dist");

    for unit in websrc.content("*") {
        unit.link_from_inside(&webwrk);
    }

    //-- Build webapp using NPM -------------------------------------------------------

    let npm = Cmd::new("npm").arg("--prefix").arg(webwrk.path());

    webwrk_ndm.mk_from("Install WebApp node packages", &webwrk_pkg + &webwrk_pkl, ||{
        npm.clone().arg("install").run();
        webwrk_ndm.touch();
    });

    webwrk_dst.mk_from("Build WebApp using webpack", &webwrk.content("**"), || {
        npm.clone().arg("run").arg("build").run();
        webwrk_dst.touch();
    });

    //-- Package webapp into server binary as Rust source code ------------------------

    webrs.mk_from("Embed WebApp build into binary", &webwrk_dst, || {
        let mappings = webwrk_dst.files("**").into_iter().map(|file|
            format!(r#""{}" => Some(include_bytes!("{}")),"#,
                file.path().strip_prefix(&webwrk_dst.path()).unwrap().to_str().unwrap(),
                file.path().to_str().unwrap())
        ).fold("".to_owned(), |result, ref s| result + s + "\n" );

        webrs.rewrite(format!(r"
            pub fn file(path: &str) -> Option<&'static [u8]> {{
                match path {{
                    {}
                    &_ => None,
                }}
            }}
        ", mappings));
    });
}

Structs

Build	Represents the build itself encaspsulating Cargo environment variables
Cmd	Clone-able variant of std::process::Command with some build specific helper methods
Dir	Resource representing file system directory
File	Resource representing file system file
Set	Ordered list of owned resources

Enums

Unit	Enum based Resource that is either a File or a Dir

Traits

Resource

A resource represents anything that is input or output of a build step.