Cargo is still a dev tool and isn't a great distribution solution.
Second, this was in response to an npm is simpler comment; npm and cargo are absolutely the same category of tool.
local compilation may work for you and other individuals, but "just cargo install" can immediately run into issues if you're trying to deploy something to things that aren't dev workstations
> npm and cargo are absolutely the same category of tool
as a dev tool? absolutely. as a production distribution solution? definitely not
If you’re talking about distributing Rust projects, sure it’s fine. Generally though, if you’re orchestrating a bunch of other things outside the rust software itself, I’d turn to just.
npm is still mainly used in JavaScript and Typescript scenarios, so I think you’re kinda splitting hairs if you’re suggesting it’s a general purpose tool.
1) what’s the easiest way to give people access to a tool I just wrote, `cargo publish`
2) what’s the easiest way for someone to use it, as few steps as possible, right now it’s `install rust` && `cargo install`.
Once I get to three or more steps on 2 I tend to turn to just or make depending on the context.
Use github actions or other setup for other backends.
(this is language agnostic and a reasonable thing to learn as a dev).
Or if you must live in the cargo command, go nuts with cargo-release.