rust-bin

** Note:** To use GitHub Actions, you must have access to the GitHub Actions feature. GitHub Actions are currently only available in public beta. You can apply for the GitHub Actions beta here.

Goals

• Create a repeatable process for making it as easy as possible to get Rust binaries into the hands of people as early and often as possible

As rewarding of a language as Rust is to program in, it means little if you don't use it to improve the lives of others with applications.

• Inspire others to think about increasing Rust's potential reach

There are many ways we could make Rust more accessible to others. This is one way. I'm excited to see others.

Non-Goals

• Not be complete by default.

Rust supports a very wide array of compilation targets. Including all of these by default will inevitably put more burden on common case people trying figuring out which binaries to download and be a burden on new Rustaceans writing application that want the simplest thing that could be possible work for the majority of cases.

** Note:** If you need to support more cases, you can make changes to .github/workflows/main.yml

How to use this repo

This repository is meant to use as a template for new Rust projects intended to produce a binary for users to run.

cargo generate

This repository works well with the cargo generate plugin.

You can install cargo generate with the following

$ cargo install cargo-generate \
  --features vendored-openssl

Then generate a new rust bin project with run the following providing a --name option with the name of the binary you want to generate

$ cargo generate \
  --git https://github.com/softprops/rust-bin.git \
  --name my-awesome-rust-bin

Create a new git repository on GitHub.com

In your generated project, complete the repository setup process and push to GitHub

git add .
git commit -m "init to winit"
git remote add origin [email protected]:{you}/{my-awesome-rust-bin}.git
git push -u origin master

GitHub repository template

This repository is configured to be a GitHub repository template.

** Note:** You can learn more about repository templates here

Simply click the Use this template button on this repository's GitHub page and follow the problems.

Clone your new repository to your local computer and run the ./bootstrap.sh script. This will update some cargo placeholders that cargo generate would fill in for you. Commit these and push the changes to GitHub.

** Note:** You will likely also want to update the README.md file to reflect your new projects contents.

Start the action

Assumming you have already applied for the GitHub Actions beta here and received your invite you should find GitHub already going to work for you on your first push by visiting

https://github.com/{you}/{my-awesome-rust-bin}/actions

** Note:** This may take a few seconds on the first push. GitHub will take a few seconds to register push events with your newly provided workflow.

You'll find GitHub is doing the following for you

• checking your codestyle with rustfmt
• linting your code with clippy
• doing a quick compile check
• running tests against Rust channels nightly, beta, stable on linux, osx, and windows virtual hosts

Releasing

You'll notice this workflow ends with a publish step but does not actually publish anything yet.

The reason why is that you typically only want to publish a release with a git tag.

Let's try that.

git tag -a v0.1.0 -m "initial release"
git push origin v0.1.0

Visit https://github.com/{you}/{my-awesome-rust-bin}/actions once more and you should find another workflow run has started. This time the workflow will end with a publish step that will create a new GitHub release named after the tag.

You can find your GitHub releases here.

https://github.com/{you}/{my-awesome-rust-bin}/releases

You should find 3 assets attached to your GitHub release. One for linux, one for OSX, and one for windows. Download the one for the type of operating system you are using by clicking the link.

Unpack the asset locally and run it...

Congradulations. You've just shipped your first release ! Now you can share your awesome Rust binaries with all your friends.

You can also communicate with the world that your project is in a stable state by creating a README.md file adding a workflow badge.

![](https://github.com/actions/{you}/{my-awesome-rust-bin}/main/badge.svg)

** Note:** You can extend your GitHub workflow by editing the .github/workflows/main.yml file in your project. You can also create separate workflows for separate GitHub events. Learn more here.

Resources

• setup-rust action
• gh-release action
• GitHub actions docs