Rust for Beginners

Introduction to Rust

Rust is a modern programming language that aims to provide memory safety, concurrency, and speed. It is syntactically similar to C++ but offers better memory safety while maintaining performance. Rust is used in a variety of applications from systems programming to web development.

Setting Up Your Rust Environment

To start using Rust, you need to install the Rust programming language. The easiest way to do this is by using the Rustup tool, which manages Rust versions and associated tools.

To install Rust, run the following command in your terminal:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation. After installation, you can verify that Rust is installed by checking the version:

rustc --version

Writing Your First Rust Program

Let’s start by writing a simple “Hello, world!” program in Rust. Create a new directory for your project and navigate into it:

mkdir hello_world
cd hello_world

Next, create a new file named main.rs and open it in your favorite text editor. Add the following code to the file:

fn main() {
    println!("Hello, world!");
}

To run your program, use the Rust compiler, rustc:

rustc main.rs
./main

You should see the output: Hello, world!

Understanding Cargo

Cargo is Rust’s build system and package manager. It simplifies a lot of tasks, such as building your code, downloading the libraries your code depends on, and building those libraries. To create a new Rust project with Cargo, run:

cargo new my_project
cd my_project

This will create a new directory named my_project with the following structure:

my_project
├── Cargo.toml
└── src
    └── main.rs

The Cargo.toml file is the manifest file for Rust projects. It contains metadata about your project, such as its name, version, and dependencies. The src/main.rs file contains the entry point for your application.

Building and Running a Cargo Project

To build and run your Cargo project, use the following commands:

cargo build
cargo run

The cargo build command compiles your project, and cargo run compiles and then runs it.

Adding Dependencies

To add a dependency to your project, you need to specify it in the Cargo.toml file. For example, to add the rand crate (Rust’s term for a library), add the following line under the [dependencies] section:

[dependencies]
rand = "0.8"

Then, in your src/main.rs file, you can use the rand crate:

use rand::Rng;
fn main() {
    let mut rng = rand::thread_rng();
    let n: u32 = rng.gen();
    println!("Random number: {}", n);
}

Learning More

Rust has excellent documentation and a friendly community. Here are some resources to help you learn more:

Happy coding!