Fast Rust Builds (2021)

10 months ago

Rust code is known for slow compilation, but projects like rust-analyzer show it's possible to maintain reasonable build times with care.
Build times are crucial for productivity, acting as a multiplier on development speed and affecting mental flow and context switching.
The 'silver bullet' for managing build times is continuous attention and optimization before they become a problem.
CI time is a valuable metric for build performance, offering standardized feedback and encouraging healthy practices like using merge robots (e.g., bors).
Effective CI caching strategies focus on rarely changing dependencies rather than the entire target directory to optimize build times.
Reducing dependencies and critically evaluating each one's necessity can significantly decrease build times.
Tools like `cargo -Z timings` and `cargo llvm-lines` help profile and optimize compilation by identifying bottlenecks and redundant instantiations.
Architecting Rust projects with a clear crate dependency graph can enhance parallelism and reduce compilation times.
Avoiding excessive use of procedural macros and generics at crate boundaries can prevent unnecessary compilation overhead.
Strategies like thin generic wrappers around non-generic implementations and minimizing the number of final artifacts can further optimize build times.

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