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It does support calling into other compilers and toolchains through build scripts and such. Take cc-rs[0] for example: this allows building C and C++ files natively without even calling an executable yourself.

In practice, I'd expect libraries to just call make/cmake/ninja for you, or (like openssl-sys) ask you to install the necessary libraries using your favourite package manager.

[0]: https://github.com/rust-lang/cc-rs

That’s pretty much what I was looking for, thanks!

Yes, through a `build.rs` file and crates such as `pkg-config`. Quite a few projects depends on c/c++ source and are merely rust bindings. However, the majority of crates don't require external dependencies

It could technically do it with a build.rs script, but it typically expects to find the .so/.a on your system.