Generate random numbers without the rand crate

You should use the rand crate for random numbers generally. But if for some reason you need random numbers, can't use rand, but can use std, then you can pull cryptographically-secure random u64s from the standard Hasher:

fn random_u64() -> u64 {
    std::hash::Hasher::finish(&std::hash::BuildHasher::build_hasher(
        &std::collections::hash_map::RandomState::new(),
    ))
}

Run cargo clean-all to free up large amounts of disk space

Everyone finds out eventually: the Rust compiler stores a large amount of data in your target/ directories, and doesn't clean up after itself.

The cargo clean-all plugin finds these directories and helps you delete them, interactively by default.

cargo install cargo-clean-all
cargo clean-all

The Ok::<(), WhateverError>(()) block tail

Sometimes you have a block of code that uses ? but otherwise doesn't return a value, and it won't typecheck without a hint.

Usually the prettiest solution is to write out the full Ok constructor, using the [turbofish], in thi block's tail expression.

block_on(async {
    let scan_completion = engine.start_scan(config.C(), None).await?;
    scan_completion.await??;
    Ok::<(), AnyError>(())
})?;

Assert Send / Sync

struct DbPathGen(());

const _ASSERT_SEND_SYNC: () = assert_send_sync::<DbPathGen>();
const fn assert_send_sync<T: Send + Sync>() { }

Also in rustmax::extras::assert_send_sync.

Copy a directory recursively

There's no standard way to recursively copy a dir!

Here take this:

    pub fn copy_dir_recursive(
        src: &std::path::Path,
        dst: &std::path::Path,
    ) -> std::io::Result<()> {
        std::fs::create_dir_all(dst)?;

        for entry in std::fs::read_dir(src)? {
            let entry = entry?;
            let file_type = entry.file_type()?;
            let src_path = entry.path();
            let dst_path = dst.join(entry.file_name());

            if file_type.is_dir() {
                copy_dir_recursive(&src_path, &dst_path)?;
            } else {
                std::fs::copy(&src_path, &dst_path)?;
            }
        }

        Ok(())
    }

It's also at rustmax::extras::copy_dir_recursive.

Now doing it in a way that is mindful of the infinite curveballs different OSes will throw at you via the filesystem … well that's probably why std doesn't try.

There's an Either hiding in the futures crate!

The Either type, most known from Haskell, is a useful reusable abstraction for the common need to create a lightweight type that is a named union of two other types, typically looks like:

enum Either<A, B> {
  Left(A),
  Right(B),
}

Rust doesn't provide this type because it instead provides Result, which is the most common use-case for the pattern, and the remaining use-cases seem marginal for such a simple type - official guidelines encouraging writing your own Either type for specific uses, with more specific names.

Sometimes you want one though!

There's one in the futures crate: futures::future::Either.

Although Either is a Future and provided for awaiting pairs of futures, its definition is exactly as above.

Import traits with as _

Most of the time we need traits to call a method, and for this we need the trait to be in scope, but it doesn't need to be namable.

use std::io::{self, Seek as _};

let hash = read_hash(&mut reader)?;
reader.seek(io::SeekFrom::Start(0))?;

Set up the mold linker

Linking is one of the most time-consuming stages of a Rust build, and it has to be redone every time you test your program.

On Linux the mold linker is faster than the the default linker. Setting it up manually is not difficult, but just hard enough that I have to look it up every time.

The Rustmax CLI tool can do it instead:

rustmax install-tool mold

Use rustfmt::skip

Sometimes exact formatting is important to make code beautiful. Don't be afraid annotate with #[rustfmt::skip].

Use Option with ?

The ? operator works with Option to early-return on None, making option-heavy code much cleaner.

fn find_user_email(id: u32) -> Option<String> {
    let user = database.find_user(id)?;  // Return None if user not found
    let profile = user.get_profile()?;   // Return None if no profile
    let email = profile.email?;          // Return None if no email
    Some(email)
}

An alternative to match or if let statements, ? lets you chain operations that might fail, automatically propagating None up the call stack.

Put common development commands in a justfile

Almost every project has a handful of commands the developer(s) uses frequently. Put these in a justfile so the menu of commands for this project is always obvious, which can be extra helpful after years away from a project.

cargo install just

just runs commands listed in a file named justfile. The justfile lives your project's root directory, and is configured with a make-like syntax:

default:
    just --list

install-tools:
    cargo install mdbook
    cargo install mdbook-yapp

clean: doc-clean
    cargo clean

doc-clean:
    rm -rf out

It's a simple idea, but suprisingly useful. And don't worry that it looks like a Makefile — it is much more fun and sensible in use than make.

When you come back to a project and see there's a justfile you know to run just --list and you'll immediately see what was on the previous maintainer's mind.

$ just --list
Available recipes:
    build
    check
    clean
    default
    doc-book
    doc-build
    doc-clean
    doc-crates
    install-tools
    lint
    maint-audit
    maint-duplicates
    maint-lock-minimum-versions # useful prior to running `cargo audit`
    maint-outdated
    maint-upgrade
    prebuild
    publish
    publish-dry
    replace-version old new
    test
    test-min-version-build

Merge message streams with futures::stream::select

An async event loop often needs to receive messages from multiple sources. Use futures::stream::select to merge two streams of the same type into one.

A common pattern: an event loop that handles both external messages and internally-generated events (like async task completions):

use futures::channel::mpsc;
use futures::stream::StreamExt;

async fn run_event_loop(
    mut rx_external: mpsc::Receiver<Msg>,
) {
    // Create channel for loop to send messages to itself.
    let (tx_self, rx_self) = mpsc::channel::<Msg>(10);

    // Merge both streams.
    let mut rx_combined = futures::stream::select(rx_external, rx_self);

    while let Some(msg) = rx_combined.next().await {
        match msg {
            Msg::StartTask => {
                // Spawn async task that reports completion.
                let mut tx_self = tx_self.clone();
                tokio::spawn(async move {
                    do_work().await;
                    tx_self.send(Msg::TaskComplete).await.ok();
                });
            }
            Msg::TaskComplete => {
                // Handle completion sent from spawned task.
            }
        }
    }
}