You can distribute your Rust apps to many different Linux distributions using a MUSL-enabled version of Rust, with all the dependencies satisfied. However, end user discovery and update management remain a challenge.
Snaps fill this gap, letting you distribute a Rust app in an app store experience for end users.
Why are snaps good for Rust projects?
- Snaps are easy to discover and install Millions of users can browse and install snaps graphically in the Snap Store or from the command-line.
- Snaps install and run the same across Linux They bundle the exact versions of the tools you need, along with all of your app’s dependencies, be they modules or system libraries.
- Snaps automatically update to the latest version Four times a day, users’ systems will check for new versions and upgrade in the background.
- Upgrades are not disruptive Because upgrades are not in-place, users can keep your app open as it’s upgraded in the background.
- Upgrades are safe If your app fails to upgrade, users automatically roll back to the previous revision with data preserved.
Build a snap in 20 minutes
Ready to get started? By the end of this guide, you’ll understand how to make a snap of your app that can be published in the Snap Store, showcasing it to millions of Linux users.
For a brief overview of the snap creation process, including how to install snapcraft and how it’s used, see Snapcraft overview. For a more comprehensive breakdown of the steps involved, take a look at Creating a snap.
Getting started
Snaps are defined in a single YAML file placed in the root folder of your project. The following example shows the entire snapcraft.yaml file for an existing project, XSV, leveraging the existing Cargo.toml to satisfy runtime requirements. Don’t worry, we’ll break this down.
name: test-xsv
version: git
summary: A fast CSV command line toolkit written in Rust
description: |
xsv is a command line program for indexing,
slicing, analysing, splitting and joining CSV
files. Commands should be simple, fast and
composable:
- Simple tasks should be easy.
- Performance trade offs should be exposed
in the CLI interface.
- Composition should not come at the
expense of performance.
base: core18
confinement: devmode
parts:
test-xsv:
plugin: rust
source: .
apps:
test-xsv:
command: bin/xsv
Metadata
The snapcraft.yaml file starts with a small amount of human-readable metadata, which usually can be lifted from the GitHub description or project README.md. This data is used in the presentation of your app in the Snap Store.
name: test-xsv
version: git
summary: A fast CSV command line toolkit written in Rust
description: |
xsv is a command line program for indexing,
slicing, analysing, splitting and joining CSV
files. Commands should be simple, fast and
composable:
- Simple tasks should be easy.
- Performance trade offs should be exposed
in the CLI interface.
- Composition should not come at the
expense of performance.
The name must be unique in the Snap Store. Valid snap names consist of lower-case alphanumeric characters and hyphens. They cannot be all numbers and they also cannot start or end with a hyphen.
By specifying git for the version, the current git tag or commit will be used as the version string. Versions carry no semantic meaning in snaps.
The summary can not exceed 79 characters. You can use a chevron ‘>’ in the description key to declare a multi-line description.
Base
The base keyword defines a special kind of snap that provides a run-time environment with a minimal set of libraries that are common to most applications. They’re transparent to users, but they must be considered, and specified, when building a snap.
base: core18
core18 is the current standard base for snap building and is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Security model
To get started we won’t confine this application. Unconfined applications, specified with devmode, can only be released to the hidden “edge” channel where you and other developers can install them.
confinement: devmode
Parts
Parts define what sources are needed to assemble your app. Parts can be anything: programs, libraries, or other needed assets, but for now, we’re only going to use one part: the xsv source code.
This example will also bundle the current stable release of Rust in the snap using Rustup, and you can define the exact version of Rust with the optional - rust-revision: keyword, should you have specific requirements. Dependencies from your Cargo.toml will also be bundled.
parts:
test-xsv:
plugin: rust
source: .
For more details on Rust-specific metadata, see The Rust plugin.
Apps
Apps are the commands and services exposed to end users. If your Apps are the commands you want to expose to users and any background services your application provides. Each key under apps is the command name that should be made available on users’ systems.
The command specifies the full path to the binary to be run. This is resolved relative to the root of your snap contents.
apps:
test-xsv:
command: bin/xsv
If your command name matches the snap name, users will be able run the command directly. If the names differ, then apps are prefixed with the snap name (test-xsv.command-name, for example). This is to avoid conflicting with apps defined by other installed snaps.
If your application is intended to run as a service you must add the line daemon: simple after the command keyword. This will automatically keep the service running on install, update and reboot.
You can request an alias on the Snapcraft forum if your command name and snap name do not match but you don’t want your command prefixed. These aliases are set up automatically when your snap is installed from the Snap Store.
Building the snap
You can download the example repository with the following command:
$ git clone https://github.com/snapcraft-docs/xsv
After you’ve created the snapcraft.yaml, you can build the snap by executing the snapcraft command in the project directory:
$ snapcraft
Using 'snapcraft.yaml': Project assets will be searched for from the 'snap' directory.
Launching a VM.
[...]
Snapped test-xsv_0.13.0+git1.0728f0c-dirty_amd64.snap
The resulting snap can be installed locally. This requires the --dangerous flag because the snap is not signed by the Snap Store. The --devmode flag acknowledges that you are installing an unconfined application:
$ sudo snap install test-xsv_*.snap --devmode --dangerous
You can then try it out:
$ test-xsv
Removing the snap is simple too:
$ sudo snap remove test-xsv
You can also clean up the build environment, although this will slow down the next initial build:
$ snapcraft clean
By default, when you make a change to snapcraft.yaml, snapcraft only builds the parts that have changed. Cleaning a build, however, forces your snap to be rebuilt in a clean environment and will take longer.
Publishing your snap
To share your snaps you must publish them in the Snap Store. First, create an account on the dashboard. Here you can customise how your snaps are presented, review your uploads and control publishing.
You must choose a unique “developer namespace” as part of the account creation process. This name will be visible by users and associated with your published snaps.
Make sure the snapcraft command is authenticated using the email address attached to your Snap Store account:
$ snapcraft login
Reserve a name for your snap
You can publish your own version of a snap, provided you do so under a name you have rights to. You can register a name on dashboard.snapcraft.io, or by running the following command:
$ snapcraft register myrustsnap
Be sure to update the name: in your snapcraft.yaml to match this registered name, then run snapcraft again.
Upload your snap
Use snapcraft to push the snap to the Snap Store.
$ snapcraft upload --release=edge myrustsnap_*.snap
If you’re happy with the result, you can commit the snapcraft.yaml to your GitHub repo and turn on automatic builds so any further commits automatically get released to edge, without requiring you to manually build locally.
Congratulations! You’ve just built and published your first Rust snap. For a more in-depth overview of the snap building process, see Creating a snap.
Last updated 10 months ago.