Cross-Compilation with Cargo and cross

Advanced15 min

Cross-compile Rust binaries for different operating systems and architectures using cargo and the cross tool.

Prerequisites

-Rust toolchain installed via rustup
-Docker installed (for cross tool)

Steps

List available targets

View all compilation targets supported by the Rust toolchain.

$ rustup target list | grep -E '(linux|darwin|windows|wasm)'

Add a target and compile natively

Install a target and cross-compile using cargo build directly.

$ rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl && cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

The musl target produces a fully static binary that works on any Linux distribution.

Install the cross tool

Install cross, which uses Docker containers with pre-configured toolchains for hassle-free cross-compilation.

$ cargo install cross --git https://github.com/cross-rs/cross

Cross-compile for Linux ARM64

Build for aarch64 Linux using cross, which handles the toolchain automatically.

$ cross build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu

Build for multiple targets with a script

Automate cross-compilation for all desired platforms.

$ for target in x86_64-unknown-linux-musl aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu x86_64-apple-darwin aarch64-apple-darwin x86_64-pc-windows-gnu; do echo "Building $target" && cross build --release --target $target; done

macOS targets may not work with cross unless you have the appropriate linker. Use native compilation on macOS for darwin targets.

Full Script

full-script.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Rust Cross-Compilation
set -euo pipefail

APP=${1:?"Usage: $0 <crate-name>"}

TARGETS=(
  "x86_64-unknown-linux-musl"
  "aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu"
  "x86_64-pc-windows-gnu"
)

echo "=== Cross-Compiling $APP ==="
for target in "${TARGETS[@]}"; do
  echo ""
  echo "--- Building for $target ---"
  cross build --release --target "$target" 2>&1 | tail -3
done

echo ""
echo "=== Build Artifacts ==="
for target in "${TARGETS[@]}"; do
  ls -lh "target/$target/release/$APP"* 2>/dev/null || true
done

echo ""
echo "=== Cross-Compile Commands ==="
echo "Add target:   rustup target add <target>"
echo "Native:       cargo build --release --target <target>"
echo "Cross:        cross build --release --target <target>"
echo "List targets: rustup target list --installed"

FAQ

Discussion

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#!/bin/bash # Rust Cross-Compilation set -euo pipefail APP=${1:?"Usage: $0 <crate-name>"} TARGETS=( "x86_64-unknown-linux-musl" "aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu" "x86_64-pc-windows-gnu" ) echo "=== Cross-Compiling $APP ===" for target in "${TARGETS[@]}"; do echo "" echo "--- Building for $target ---" cross build --release --target "$target" 2>&1 | tail -3 done echo "" echo "=== Build Artifacts ===" for target in "${TARGETS[@]}"; do ls -lh "target/$target/release/$APP"* 2>/dev/null || true done echo "" echo "=== Cross-Compile Commands ===" echo "Add target: rustup target add <target>" echo "Native: cargo build --release --target <target>" echo "Cross: cross build --release --target <target>" echo "List targets: rustup target list --installed"