Cache Rust dependencies with Docker build

Seems like you are not alone in your endeavor to cache rust dependencies via the docker build process. Here is a great article that helps you along the way: https://blog.mgattozzi.dev/caching-rust-docker-builds/

The gist of it is you need a dummy.rs and your Cargo.toml first, then build it to cache the dependencies and then copy your application source later in order to not invalidate the cache with every build.

Dockerfile

FROM rust
WORKDIR /var/www/app
COPY dummy.rs .
COPY Cargo.toml .
RUN sed -i 's#src/main.rs#dummy.rs#' Cargo.toml
RUN cargo build --release
RUN sed -i 's#dummy.rs#src/main.rs#' Cargo.toml
COPY . .
RUN cargo build --release
CMD ["target/release/app"]

CMD application name “app” is based on what you have specified in your Cargo.toml for your binary.

dummy.rs

fn main() {}

Cargo.toml

[package]
name = "app"
version = "0.1.0"
authors = ["..."]
[[bin]]
name = "app"
path = "src/main.rs"

[dependencies]
actix-web = "1.0.0"

src/main.rs

extern crate actix_web;

use actix_web::{web, App, HttpServer, Responder};

fn index() -> impl Responder {
    "Hello world"
}

fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
    HttpServer::new(|| App::new().service(web::resource("https://stackoverflow.com/").to(index)))
        .bind("0.0.0.0:8080")?
        .run()
}