D - Useful Development Tools - The Rust Programming Language

# Appendix D - Useful Development Tools

In this appendix, we’ll talk about tools provided by the Rust project that are useful when developing Rust code.

## Automatic Formatting with `rustfmt`

The tool `rustfmt` reformats your code according to the community code style. Many projects use `rustfmt` to prevent arguments about which style to use when writing Rust: everyone formats their code with the tool!

The `rustfmt` tool is not yet at the quality of a version 1.0 release, but a preview is available for you to use in the meantime. Please give it a try and let us know how it goes!

To install `rustfmt`:

    $ rustup component add rustfmt-preview

This will give you both `rustfmt` and `cargo-fmt`, similar to how Rust gives you both `rustc` and `cargo`. To take any Cargo project and format it:

    $ cargo fmt

Running this command will reformat all of the Rust code in the current crate. This should only change the code style, not the code semantics. For more information on `rustfmt`, see its documentation.

## Fix Up Your Code with `rustfix`

If you’ve written code in Rust, you’ve probably seen compiler warnings. For example, consider this code:

Filename: src/main.rs

    fn do_something() {}

    fn main() {
        for i in 0..100 {
            do_something();
        }
    }

Here, we’re calling the `do_something` function 100 times, but we never use the variable `i` in the body of the `for` loop. Rust warns us about that:

    $ cargo build
       Compiling myprogram v0.1.0 (file:///projects/myprogram)
    warning: unused variable: `i`
     --> src/main.rs:4:9
      |
    4 |     for i in 1..100 {
      |         ^ help: consider using `_i` instead
      |
      = note: #[warn(unused_variables)] on by default

        Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.50s

The warning suggests that we use `_i` as a name instead: the underscore indicates that we intend for this variable to be unused. We can automatically apply that suggestion using the `rustfix` tool by running the command `cargo fix`:

    $ cargo fix
        Checking myprogram v0.1.0 (file:///projects/myprogram)
          Fixing src/main.rs (1 fix)
        Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.59s

If we look at src/main.rs again, we’ll see that `cargo fix` has changed the code:

Filename: src/main.rs

    fn do_something() {}

    fn main() {
        for _i in 0..100 {
            do_something();
        }
    }

The `for` loop variable is now named `_i`, and the warning will no longer appear.

The `cargo fix` command can also be used to transition your code between different editions of Rust. Editions are covered in Appendix E.

## More Lints with `clippy`

The `clippy` tool is a collection of lints to catch common mistakes and improve your Rust code.

The `clippy` tool is not yet at the quality of a version 1.0 release, but a preview is available for you to use in the meantime. Please give it a try and let us know how it goes!

To install `clippy`:

    $ rustup component add clippy-preview

To take any Cargo project and run clippy’s lints on it:

    $ cargo clippy

For example, if you write a program that uses an approximation of a mathematical constant such as pi, as this program does:

Filename: src/main.rs

    fn main() {
        let x = 3.1415;
        let r = 8.0;
        println!("the area of the circle is {}", x * r * r);
    }

Running `cargo clippy` on this project will result in this error:

    error: approximate value of `f{32, 64}::consts::PI` found. Consider using it directly
     --> src/main.rs:2:13
      |
    2 |     let x = 3.1415;
      |             ^^^^^^
      |
      = note: #[deny(clippy::approx_constant)] on by default
      = help: for further information visit https://rust-lang-nursery.github.io/rust-clippy/v0.0.212/index.html#approx_constant

This lets you know that Rust has this constant defined more precisely, and that your program would be more correct if you used the constant instead. This code doesn’t result in any errors or warnings from `clippy`:

Filename: src/main.rs

    fn main() {
        let x = std::f64::consts::PI;
        let r = 8.0;
        println!("the area of the circle is {}", x * r * r);
    }

For more information on `clippy`, see its documentation.

## IDE Integration Using the Rust Language Server

To help IDE integration, the Rust project distributes the `rls`, which stands for the Rust Language Server. This tool speaks the Language Server Protocol, which is a specification for IDEs and programming languages to communicate with each other. The `rls` can be used by different clients, such as the Rust plugin for Visual Studio: Code.

The `rls` is not yet at the quality of a version 1.0 release, but a preview is available for you to use in the meantime. Please give it a try and let us know how it goes!

To install the `rls`:

    $ rustup component add rls-preview

Then install the language server support in your particular IDE, and you will gain abilities such as autocompletion, jump to definition, and inline errors.

For more information on the `rls`, see its documentation.