duration-extender

A lightweight, zero-dependency Rust crate that extends primitive integer types with intuitive methods for creating std::time::Duration objects.

Write expressive, human-readable code for timeouts, delays, and schedules without the verbosity of Duration::from_secs().

⚠️ Breaking Changes in v0.4.0

.days() and .weeks() methods are removed.

// ❌ Not allowed anymore
// let week = 1.weeks();

// ✅ Use hours instead
let week = (7 * 24).hours();

⚠️ Breaking Changes in v0.3.0

Overflow values now panic for all integer types, in addition to negative values panicking for signed integers.

Previously in v0.2.0:

(-5).minutes() // ❌ Panics
u64::MAX.minutes() // ❌ Panics

Now in v0.3.0:

5.minutes()    // ✅ Works fine
(-5).minutes() // ❌ Panics: "duration cannot be negative: got -5 minutes"
u64::MAX.minutes() // ❌ Panics: "duration value ... overflows u64 seconds capacity"

This makes the behavior fully explicit and safe. See CHANGELOG.md for full details.

Before:

let timeout = Duration::from_secs(30);
let delay = Duration::from_secs(5 * 60);
let cache_ttl = Duration::from_secs(24 * 60 * 60);

After:

let timeout = 30.seconds();
let delay = 5.minutes();

Features

Fluent API — Natural, readable syntax for duration creation.
Type-safe — Works with u64, u32, i64, and i32.
Explicit errors — Panics on overflow and negative values with clear messages.
Zero dependencies — Only the standard library.
Minimal overhead — Compiles down to the same code as manual duration creation.

Installation

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
duration-extender = "0.4"

Usage

Import the DurationExt trait to unlock duration methods on integers:

use duration_extender::DurationExt;
use std::time::Duration;

fn main() {
    let timeout = 10.seconds();
    let delay = 5.minutes();

    let total_time = 2.hours() + 30.minutes() + 15.seconds();

    let retry_count = 3;
    let backoff = retry_count.seconds();

    // Signed integers must be non-negative (panics on negative)
    let elapsed = 100.seconds(); // ✅ Works
    // let bad = (-100).seconds(); // ❌ Panics!
}

Real-World Examples

HTTP client timeout:

let client = reqwest::Client::builder()
    .timeout(30.seconds())
    .build()?;

Tokio sleep:

tokio::time::sleep(2.seconds()).await;

Cache expiration:

cache.insert_with_ttl("key", value, 24.hours());

Rate limiting:

let rate_limit = RateLimit::new(100, 1.minutes());

Available Methods

Method	Equivalent
`.seconds()`	`Duration::from_secs(n)`
`.minutes()`	`Duration::from_secs(n * 60)`
`.hours()`	`Duration::from_secs(n * 3600)`
`.milliseconds()`	`Duration::from_millis(n)`
`.microseconds()`	`Duration::from_micros(n)`
`.nanoseconds()`	`Duration::from_nanos(n)`

Supported Types

The DurationExt trait is implemented for:

u64 and u32 — Direct conversion.
i64 and i32 — Panics on negative values to prevent bugs.

All operations now use checked arithmetic to prevent silent overflow.

Safety Guarantees

Overflow checked — Panics on overflow with a clear message.
Negative handling — Signed integers panic on negative values with clear error messages.
Type safety — Uses Rust's strong type system for compile-time correctness.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

Dual-licensed under:

Choose whichever license suits your needs.

Acknowledgments

Inspired by ergonomic duration APIs in other ecosystems and refined by community feedback.

duration-extender 0.4.0