Including Rust Code in Firefox

This page explains how to add, build, link, and vendor Rust crates.

The code documentation explains how to write and work with Rust code in Firefox. The test documentation explains how to test and debug Rust code in Firefox.

Linking Rust crates into libxul

Rust crates that you want to link into libxul should be listed in the dependencies section of toolkit/library/rust/shared/Cargo.toml. You must also add an extern crate reference to toolkit/library/rust/shared/lib.rs. This ensures that the Rust code will be linked properly into libxul as well as the copy of libxul used for gtests. (Even though Rust 2018 mostly doesn’t require extern crate declarations, these ones are necessary because the gkrust setup is non-typical.)

After adding your crate, execute cargo update -p gkrust-shared to update the Cargo.lock file. You will also need to do this any time you change the dependencies in a Cargo.toml file. If you don’t, you will get a build error saying “error: the lock file /home/njn/moz/mc3/Cargo.lock needs to be updated but –frozen was passed to prevent this”.

By default, all Cargo packages in the mozilla-central repository are part of the same workspace and will share the Cargo.lock file and target directory in the root of the repository. You can change this behavior by adding a path to the exclude list in the top-level Cargo.toml file. You may want to do this if your package’s development workflow includes dev-dependencies that aren’t needed by general Firefox developers or test infrastructure.

The actual build mechanism is as follows. The build system generates a special ‘Rust unified library’ crate, compiles that to a static library (libgkrust.a), and links that into libxul, so all public symbols will be available to C++ code. Building a static library that is linked into a dynamic library is easier than building dynamic libraries directly, and it also avoids some subtle issues around how mozalloc works that make the Rust dynamic library path a little wonky.

Linking Rust crates into something else

To link Rust code into libraries other than libxul, create a directory with a Cargo.toml file for your crate, and a moz.build file that contains:

RustLibrary('crate_name')

where crate_name matches the name from the [package] section of your Cargo.toml. You can refer to the moz.build file and the Cargo.toml file that are used for libxul.

You can then add USE_LIBS += ['crate_name'] to the moz.build file that defines the binary as you would with any other library in the tree.

Important

You cannot link a Rust crate into an intermediate library that will be eventually linked into libxul. The build system enforces that only a single RustLibrary may be linked into a binary. If you need to do this, you will have to add a RustLibrary to link to any standalone binaries that link the intermediate library, and also add the Rust crate to the libxul dependencies as in linking Rust Crates into libxul.

Conditional compilation

Edit tool/library/rust/gkrust-features.mozbuild to expose build flags as Cargo features.

Standalone Rust programs

It is also possible to build standalone Rust programs. First, put the Rust program (including the Cargo.toml file and the src directory) in its own directory, and add an empty moz.build file to the same directory.

Then, if the standalone Rust program must run on the compile target (e.g. because it’s shipped with Firefox) then add this rule to the moz.build file:

RUST_PROGRAMS = ['prog_name']

where prog_name is the name of the executable as specified in the Cargo.toml (and probably also matches the name of the directory).

Otherwise, if the standalone Rust program must run on the compile host (e.g. because it’s used to build Firefox but not shipped with Firefox) then do the same thing, but use HOST_RUST_PROGRAMS instead of RUST_PROGRAMS.

Where should I put my crate?

If your crate’s canonical home is mozilla-central, you can put it next to the related code in the appropriate directory.

If your crate is mirrored into mozilla-central from another repository, and will not be actively developed in mozilla-central, you can simply list it as a crates.io-style dependency with a version number, and let it be vendored into the third_party/rust directory.

If your crate is mirrored into mozilla-central from another repository, but will be actively developed in both locations, you should send mail to the dev-builds mailing list to start a discussion on how to meet your needs.

Third-party crate dependencies

Third-party dependencies for in-tree Rust crates are vendored into the third_party/rust directory of mozilla-central. This means that a copy of each third-party crate’s code is committed into mozilla-central. As a result, building Firefox does not involve downloading any third-party crates.

If you add a dependency on a new crate you must run mach vendor rust to vendor the dependencies into that directory. (Note that mach vendor rust may not work as well on Windows as on other platforms.)

When it comes to checking the suitability of third-party code for inclusion into mozilla-central, keep the following in mind.

  • mach vendor rust will check that the licenses of all crates are suitable.

  • You should review the crate code to some degree to check that it looks reasonable (especially for unsafe code) and that it has reasonable tests.

  • Third-party crate tests aren’t run, which means that large test fixtures will bloat mozilla-central. Consider working with upstream to mark those test fixtures with [package] exclude = ... as described here.

  • If you specify a dependency on a branch, pin it to a specific revision, otherwise other people will get unexpected changes when they run ./mach vendor rust any time the branch gets updated. See bug 1612619 for a case where such a problem was fixed.

  • Other than that, there is no formal sign-off procedure, but one may be added in the future.

Note that all dependencies will be vendored, even ones that aren’t used due to disabled features. It’s possible that multiple versions of a crate will end up vendored into mozilla-central.

Patching third-party crates

Sometimes you might want to temporarily patch a third-party crate, for local builds or for a try push.

To do this, first add an entry to the [patch.crates-io] section of the top-level Cargo.toml that points to the crate within third_party. For example

bitflags = { path = "third_party/rust/bitflags" }

Next, run cargo update -p $CRATE_NAME --precise $VERSION, where $CRATE_NAME is the name of the patched crate, and $VERSION is its version number. This will update the Cargo.lock file.

Then, make the local changes to the crate.

Finally, make sure you don’t accidentally land the changes to the crate or the Cargo.lock file.

For an example of a more complex workflow involving a third-party crate, see mp4parse-rust/README.md. It describes the workflow for a crate that is hosted on GitHub, and for which changes are made via GitHub pull requests, but all pull requests must also be tested within mozilla-central before being merged.