Summary

Allow Cargo packages to depend on the same crate multiple times with different dependency names, to support artifact dependencies for multiple targets.

Motivation

RFC 3028 specified "artifact dependencies", allowing crates to depend on a compiled binary provided by another crate, for a specified target.

Some crates need to depend on binaries for multiple targets; for instance, a virtual machine that supports running multiple targets may need firmware for each target platform. Sometimes these binaries may come from different crates, but sometimes these binaries may come from the same crate compiled for different targets.

This RFC enables that use case, by allowing multiple dependencies on the same crate with the same version, as long as they're each renamed to a different name. This allows multiple artifact dependencies on the same crate for different targets.

Note that this RFC still does not allow dependencies on different semver-compatible versions of the same crate, only multiple dependencies on exactly the same version of the same crate.

Guide-level explanation

Normally, you may only have one dependency on a given crate with the same version. You may depend on different incompatible versions of the same crate (for instance, versions 0.1.7 and 1.2.4), but if you specify two or more dependencies on a crate with the same version, Cargo will treat this as an error.

However, Cargo allows renaming dependencies, to refer to a crate by a different name than the one it was published under. If you use this feature, you may have multiple dependencies on the same version of the same crate, as long as the dependencies have different names. For example:

[dependencies]
example1 = { package = "example", version = "1.2.3" }
example2 = { package = "example", version = "1.2.3" }

This can be useful if you need to refer to the same crate by two different names in different portions of your code.

This feature provides particular value in specifying artifact dependencies for different targets. You may specify multiple artifact dependencies on the same crate for different targets, as long as those dependencies have different names:

[dependencies]
example_arm = { package = "example", version = "1.2.3", artifact = "bin", target = "aarch64-unknown-none" }
example_riscv = { package = "example", version = "1.2.3", artifact = "bin", target = "riscv64imac-unknown-none-elf" }
example_x86 = { package = "example", version = "1.2.3", artifact = "bin", target = "x86_64-unknown-none" }

Cargo will make the binaries from each of these artifacts available under the specified name. For instance, in this example, binaries from example built for riscv64imac_unknown_none_elf will appear in the directory specified by the environment variable CARGO_BIN_DIR_EXAMPLE_RISCV, while binaries from example built for aarch64-unknown-none will appear in the directory specified by CARGO_BIN_DIR_EXAMPLE_ARM.

Reference-level explanation

Cargo allows specifying multiple dependencies on the same crate, as long as all such dependencies resolve to the same version, and have different dependency names specified. Cargo will make the dependency available under each specified name.

Multiple artifact dependencies on the same crate may have different target fields. In this case, cargo will build the dependency for each specified target, and make each build available via the corresponding dependency name.

Cargo provides your crate with the standard set of environment variables for each artifact dependency: CARGO_<ARTIFACT-TYPE>_DIR_<DEP> for the directory containing the artifacts (e.g. CARGO_BIN_DIR_EXAMPLE) and CARGO_<ARTIFACT-TYPE>_FILE_<DEP>_<NAME> for each artifact by name (e.g. CARGO_BIN_FILE_EXAMPLE_mybin). Note that the name you give to the dependency determines the <DEP>, but does not affect the <NAME> of each artifact within that dependency.

Cargo will unify versions across all kinds of dependencies, including multiple artifact dependencies, just as it does for multiple dependencies on the same crate throughout a dependency tree. A dependency tree may only include one semver-compatible version of a given crate, but may include multiple semver-incompatible versions of a given crate. Dependency versions need not be textually identical, as long as they resolve to the same version.

Cargo will not unify features across dependencies for different targets. One dependency tree may have both ordinary dependencies and multiple artifact dependencies on the same crate, with different features for the ordinary dependency and for artifact dependencies for different targets.

Building an artifact dependency for multiple targets may entail building multiple copies of other dependencies, which must similarly unify within a dependency tree.

Multiple dependencies on the same crate may specify different values for artifact (e.g. to build a library and/or multiple specific binaries), as well as different values for target. Cargo will combine all the entries for a given target, and build all the specified artifacts for that target. Requesting a specific artifact for one target will not affect the artifacts built for another target.

Profile overrides are specified in terms of the original crate name, not the dependency name; thus, Cargo does not currently support overriding profile settings differently for different artifact dependencies.

Until this feature is stabilized, it will require specifying the nightly-only option -Z multidep to cargo. If cargo encounters multiple dependencies on the same crate and does not have this option specified, it will continue to emit an error.

Drawbacks

This feature will require Cargo to handle multiple copies of the same crate within the dependencies of a single crate. While Cargo already has support for handling multiple copies of the same crate within a full dependency tree, Cargo currently rejects multiple copies of the same crate within the dependencies of a single crate, and changing that may require reworking assumptions made within some portions of the Cargo codebase.

Rationale and alternatives

Cargo already allows a dependency tree to contain multiple dependencies on the same crate (whether as an artifact dependency or otherwise), by introducing an intermediate crate. This feature provides that capability within the dependencies of a single crate, which should avoid the multiplicative introduction (and potentially publication) of trivial intermediate crates for each target.

This RFC handles building an artifact dependency for multiple targets by requiring a different name for the dependency on each target. As an alternative, we could instead allow specifying a list of targets in the target field. This would provide a more brief syntax, but it would require Cargo to incorporate the target name into the environment variables provided for the artifact dependency. Doing so would complicate artifact dependencies significantly, and would also complicate the internals of Cargo. Separating these dependencies under different names makes them easier to manage and reference, both within Cargo and within the code of the crate specifying the dependencies.

While this RFC has artifact dependencies as a primary use case, it also allows specifying multiple non-artifact dependencies on the same crate with different names. This seems like a harmless extension, equivalent to use name1 as name2; and similar. However, if it adds any substantive complexity, we could easily restrict this feature exclusively to artifact dependencies, without any harm to the primary use case.

Future possibilities

This RFC does not provide a means of specifying different profile overrides for different dependencies on the same crate. A future extension to this mechanism could take the dependency name or target into account and allow specifying different profile overrides for each dependency.

When building an artifact dependency for a target, the depending crate may wish to specify more details of how the crate gets built, including target-specific options (e.g. target features or target-specific binary layout options). Cargo currently exposes such options via .cargo/config.toml, but not via Cargo.toml. If and when we provide a means to specify such options via Cargo.toml, we need to allow specifying those options not just by dependency name but also by target.

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