"Build" calls rustc rather than cargo

Sublime Text Version

Sublime Text 3 (Build 3126)

Rust Enhanced Version

1.1.1

Operating system

OS Name macOS Version 10.12.3

Description

Pressing Cmd+Shift+P and selecting “Build With: RustEnhanced” calls rustc, rather than cargo.

I’m getting the following output in the bottom pane:

error[E0463]: can't find crate for `rustc_serialize`
 --> /net/sujin/home/ubuntu/src/rust-playground/src/ohai.rs:1:1
  |
1 | extern crate rustc_serialize;
  | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ can't find crate

error: aborting due to previous error

[Finished in 0.4s with exit code 101]
[shell_cmd: rustc /net/sujin/home/ubuntu/src/rust-playground/src/ohai.rs]
[dir: /net/sujin/home/ubuntu/src/rust-playground/src]
[path: /Users/primary/.cargo/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/primary/bin]

Note that the shell_cmd says rustc. As a result of using rustc, it fails to find the external crates we are using.

I believe it should call cargo instead. The cargo binary is in the search path at /Users/primary/.cargo/bin/cargo, so I’m not sure why it’s not working.

If I select Tools -> Build System -> RustEnhanced, and then Tools -> Build, the same thing happens.

If I select Tools -> Build System -> Rust, and then Tools -> Build, the same thing happens.

If I select Tools -> Build System -> Automatic, and then Tools -> Build, it does call cargo, but it doesn’t show build errors in the source code, so I’m having to hunt for line numbers. (I’m not sure if that’s calling the built-in Rust or the RustEnhanced plugin.)

[joliss]

Yes, I have two Cargo entries in Tools -> Build System. They both seem to work fine.

Now when I select “Automatic” as the Build System it works as well. I’m not sure if it worked originally or if something changed in the meantime.

In any case, I think there might be a few usability issues at the root of this:

• Because the package is called RustEnhanced, when I hit Cmd+Shift+P, I expected things to work when I select “Build With: RustEnhanced”. I didn’t even think to look for Cargo.
• Same for the Build System – I looked for Rust, not for Cargo.
• It’s hard to know if you’re using the built-in Rust support or the RustEnhanced plugin for many of the commands.

I wonder if “rustc without Cargo” is really at all a popular mode of compiling Rust code. It seems to me that almost everyone would be using Cargo these days. So perhaps we should be steering people towards the Cargo build option as a default.

[joliss]

Thanks!