nixpkgs/doc/languages-frameworks/rust.md

title	author	date
Rust	Matthias Beyer	2017-03-05

User's Guide to the Rust Infrastructure

To install the rust compiler and cargo put

rustStable.rustc
rustStable.cargo

into the environment.systemPackages or bring them into scope with nix-shell -p rustStable.rustc -p rustStable.cargo.

There are also rustBeta and rustNightly package sets available. These are not updated very regularly. For daily builds use either rustup from nixpkgs or use the Rust nightlies overlay.

Packaging Rust applications

Rust applications are packaged by using the buildRustPackage helper from rustPlatform:

with rustPlatform;

buildRustPackage rec {
  name = "ripgrep-${version}";
  version = "0.4.0";

  src = fetchFromGitHub {
    owner = "BurntSushi";
    repo = "ripgrep";
    rev = "${version}";
    sha256 = "0y5d1n6hkw85jb3rblcxqas2fp82h3nghssa4xqrhqnz25l799pj";
  };

  depsSha256 = "0q68qyl2h6i0qsz82z840myxlnjay8p1w5z7hfyr8fqp7wgwa9cx";

  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
    description = "A utility that combines the usability of The Silver Searcher with the raw speed of grep";
    homepage = https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep;
    license = with licenses; [ unlicense ];
    maintainers = [ maintainers.tailhook ];
    platforms = platforms.all;
  };
}

buildRustPackage requires a depsSha256 attribute which is computed over all crate sources of this package. Currently it is obtained by inserting a fake checksum into the expression and building the package once. The correct checksum can be then take from the failed build.

To install crates with nix there is also an experimental project called nixcrates.

Using the Rust nightlies overlay

Mozilla provides an overlay for nixpkgs to bring a nightly version of Rust into scope. This overlay can also be used to install recent unstable or stable versions of Rust, if desired.

To use this overlay, clone nixpkgs-mozilla, and create a symbolic link to the file rust-overlay.nix in the ~/.config/nixpkgs/overlays directory.

$ git clone https://github.com/mozilla/nixpkgs-mozilla.git
$ mkdir -p ~/.config/nixpkgs/overlays
$ ln -s $(pwd)/nixpkgs-mozilla/rust-overlay.nix ~/.config/nixpkgs/overlays/rust-overlay.nix

The latest version can be installed with the following command:

$ nix-env -Ai nixos.rustChannels.stable.rust

Or using the attribute with nix-shell:

$ nix-shell -p nixos.rustChannels.stable.rust

To install the beta or nightly channel, "stable" should be substituted by "nightly" or "beta", or use the function provided by this overlay to pull a version based on a build date.

The overlay automatically updates itself as it uses the same source as rustup.