Crate
A crate is Rust’s unit of compilation and distribution, containing source code and metadata for a library or executable.
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A crate is a Rust package containing source code and metadata that can be compiled and distributed as a library or application.
- How it is used
- Organizes Rust applications and libraries as Cargo-managed packages that can depend on, test, and distribute one another.
- How deep it goes
- Works through dependency declarations, workspace membership, patching, publishing, and test boundaries without detailing crate compilation internals.
- Examples
- Uses a rand manifest entry, a library in a workspace, a patched num_cpus dependency, and quicksort integration tests.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it with Cargo to declare dependencies, group workspace members, test public APIs, patch dependencies, and publish eligible crates.
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An external crate is a Rust compilation unit published outside the current project for other programs to depend on.
- How it is used
- Uses external crates to add functionality from outside a Rust project, including random-number generation absent from the standard library.
- How deep it goes
- Defines crates and external crates, then walks through adding a dependency and using it; does not detail Cargo’s dependency internals.
- Examples
- Shows a Cargo.toml entry for rand and dice rolls used to generate character statistics.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Cargo by adding a crate dependency and using the crate’s code in a Rust program.
Related concepts
- Criterion.rsincludes · Criterion.rs is a Rust benchmarking library for statistically driven measurement and evaluation of code performance.
- Crosstermincludes · Crossterm is a Rust cross-platform terminal I/O library for handling events such as keyboard input, mouse input, and terminal resizing.
- Cargoused by · Cargo is Rust’s package manager and build system for managing projects, dependencies, compilation, testing, and related workflows.
- randincludes · rand is a Rust library crate providing random-number generation and related randomization utilities.
- libraryequivalent to · A software library is a reusable collection of code or components that other programs can incorporate or invoke to provide functionality.
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