Post by @thingsiplay@lemmy.ml

2026-10-26 16:10 UTC

a package manager most likely would have to download all dependencies of every library you want to use since it does not know what build options you are gonna use when you install the package That’s exactly what is to be avoided. I’m not suggesting a dependency heavy program to compile. Someone making a program without Cargo wouldn’t probably make lot of dependencies, and if any, they are all included in its own repository. What distribution includes precompiled libraries (not user programs) in Rust? I thought you was talking about user programs. About the libraries, that’s what I’m suggesting to include too, alongside with the correct rustc compiler. Maybe even the version which the Linux developers use, so that would be the standard one everyone can target.

Replies (1)

@Ferk@lemmy.ml 2026-10-26 16:35

ABI-compatibility is only relevant when we talk about binary libraries… if I were talking about user programs then it would be the API what matters, not the ABI. “a lot” of dependencies is a fuzzy line to cross… most projects start small, then as they grow they might modularize more and more, attempt to de-duplicate efforts, etc. So I feel you’d end up essentially duplicating what cargo is already designed to handle. As I said before: your approach might work if you just want to use a little bit of Rust included in a C project… or if your Rust project is small and does not have many dependencies… but the moment you start relying in more and more components and the dependency tree grows enough, it’ll become hard to manage.

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