Crates: crate_type and crate_name
- The
crate_typeattribute can be used to tell the compiler whether a crate is a binary or a library (and even which type of library) - and the
crate_nameattribute can be used to set the name of the crate.
However, it is important to note that both the
crate_typeandcrate_nameattributes have no effect whatsoever when using Cargo, the Rust package manager.
Since Cargo is used for the majority of Rust projects, this means
real-world uses of crate_type and crate_name are relatively limited.
uses of crate_type and crate_name
// This crate is a library #![crate_type = "lib"] // The library is named "rary" #![crate_name = "rary"] pub fn public_function() { println!("called rary's `public_function()`"); } fn private_function() { println!("called rary's `private_function()`"); } pub fn indirect_access() { print!("called rary's `indirect_access()`, that\n> "); private_function(); }
When the
crate_typeattribute is used, we no longer need to pass the--crate-typeflag torustc.
$ rustc lib.rs
$ ls lib*
library.rlib