Top 10 Rust Libraries Every Developer Should Know

Speaking about Rust development, libraries are one’s best friend. They make life easier, code cleaner, and the pace of delivering projects much faster. Knowing the right libraries changes everything, whether deep diving into Rust or levelling up your skills. Let’s look at the top 10 Rust libraries every developer should know.

Tokio: The Go-To for Asynchronous Programming

If you’re dealing with asynchronous programming in Rust, Tokio is your best bet. It’s a runtime for writing reliable and high-performance applications. Tokio further supports tasks such as file I/O, network protocols, and timers, making it ideal for microservices and real-time systems.
An extremely complete ecosystem with detailed documentation makes it friendly for beginners, yet powerful enough for advanced projects.

use tokio::time::{sleep, Duration};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    println!("Starting asynchronous tasks...");

    // Spawn two tasks that run concurrently
    let task1 = tokio::spawn(async {
        println!("Task 1: Started");
        sleep(Duration::from_secs(2)).await; // Simulate work with a delay
        println!("Task 1: Completed");
    });

    let task2 = tokio::spawn(async {
        println!("Task 2: Started");
        sleep(Duration::from_secs(1)).await; // Simulate work with a shorter delay
        println!("Task 2: Completed");
    });

    // Wait for both tasks to complete
    let _ = tokio::join!(task1, task2);

    println!("All tasks completed.");
}

Serde: Serialization and Deserialization Simplified

Serialization and deserialization are such a pain, but with Serde, it’s all a cinch. Serde’s zero-cost abstractions make your app efficient while not sacrificing safety. From parsing JSON and XML to custom formats, Serde does it all.

use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};

// Define a struct and derive Serialize and Deserialize
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug)]
struct Person {
    name: String,
    age: u8,
    email: String,
}

fn main() {
    // Create an instance of the struct
    let person = Person {
        name: String::from("Alice"),
        age: 30,
        email: String::from("alice@example.com"),
    };

    // Serialize the struct to a JSON string
    let json_string = serde_json::to_string(&person).unwrap();
    println!("Serialized JSON: {}", json_string);

    // Deserialize the JSON string back to a struct
    let deserialized_person: Person = serde_json::from_str(&json_string).unwrap();
    println!("Deserialized Struct: {:?}", deserialized_person);
}

Clap: Command-Line Argument Parser

Want to build command-line tools? Clap has got your back. It’s intuitive, highly customizable, and supports auto-completion and argument validation. Clap makes command-line parsing much easier with minimal setup; it’s perfect for CLI tools.

use clap::{Arg, Command};

fn main() {
    let matches = Command::new("MyApp")
        .version("1.0")
        .author("Your Name <your.email@example.com>")
        .about("A simple example of using Clap")
        .arg(
            Arg::new("file")
                .about("Specifies the input file")
                .required(true)
                .index(1),
        )
        .arg(
            Arg::new("verbose")
                .short('v')
                .long("verbose")
                .about("Enables verbose mode")
                .takes_value(false),
        )
        .get_matches();

    // Accessing arguments
    if let Some(file) = matches.value_of("file") {
        println!("File specified: {}", file);
    }

    if matches.is_present("verbose") {
        println!("Verbose mode is enabled.");
    }
}

cargo run -- input.txt --verbose

Output

File specified: input.txt
Verbose mode is enabled.

Rayon: Parallelism Made Easy

Rayon takes away the headache of parallel computing by using far simpler abstractions. Rayon is going to make it way more easy to accelerate some data processing by parallelizing tasks efficiently. From iterating over big datasets to image processing, Rayon brings immense performance.

use rayon::prelude::*;

fn main() {
    // Create a vector of numbers
    let numbers: Vec<i32> = (1..=10).collect();

    // Use Rayon's parallel iterator to process the vector
    let squares: Vec<i32> = numbers.par_iter()
        .map(|&x| x * x) // Perform the square operation
        .collect();

    println!("Original numbers: {:?}", numbers);
    println!("Squared numbers: {:?}", squares);
}

Actix: High-Performance Web Framework

Actix is a powerhouse for building web applications. It is lightweight, fast, and scalable. Actix supports WebSockets, middleware, and routing pretty much everything one might want from a modern web app framework. From APIs to fully-fledged web apps, Actix is loved by developers who target speed and reliability.

Diesel: Type-Safe ORM for Rust

Diesel guarantees type safety while working with databases and eliminates runtime errors. Diesel’s query builder and migrations make the management of databases much easier. With Diesel, you could write SQL queries in Rust while enjoying compile time safety.

Bevy: Game Development Simplified

Bevy is the go-to library when it comes to game creation in Rust. It provides a flexible and efficient architecture of systems, entities, and components. Bevy has a 2D/3D renderer, input, and cross-platform support. Bevy will get a Rustacean going from simple 2D games to complex simulations.

Hyper: Fast and Reliable HTTP Implementation

Thus, Hyper represents the backbone for many web servers and is an incredibly powerful HTTP library. Lightweight with asynchronous and highly performant capabilities, it is a great client and server. Hyper will power REST APIs, proxies, and even real-time web applications.

Tonic: Rust’s gRPC Framework

Need gRPC support in Rust? Tonic is the answer. First-class support for gRPC services with async/await integration. Tonic makes it easier to communicate between microservices with type safety guaranteed.

Rocket: Modern Web Framework

Rocket is a mix of ease of use and strong features that go hand-in-hand with web development. Its intuitive API, strong typing, and in-built safety make it dear to Rust developers. Rocket is very focused on developer experience and is fit for small and medium projects.

Here’s a table summarizing the Rust tools discussed in the article, including their key features, use cases, and benefits: