Setting Up a Dev Container for Rust

Primary author: Caitlin Estrada
Reviewer: Sanjana Gopalswamy

Prerequisites

Visual Studio Code with the Microsoft Dev Containers extension
Docker installed for creating and managing containers

Step 1: Create Blank Git Repository and Initialize

Open the terminal and create a new directory for your project:
```
mkdir comp423-rust-tutorial
cd comp423-rust-tutorial
```
Initialize a new Git repository:
```
git init
```

Step 2: Create a new Dev Container project

Create a .devcontainer directory in the root of your project with the following file inside of this "hidden" configuration directory: .devcontainer/devcontainer.json

Step 3: Dev Container Configuration

The devcontainer.json file defines the configuration for your development environment. Here, we're specifying the following:

name: A descriptive name for your dev container
image: A base image from Microsoft
extensions: Add the rust-analyzer VSCode plugin by the Rust Programming Language Group
version: Show the rustc --version to prove a recent version of Rust

// A sample devcontainer.json
{
  "name": "Rust Development",
  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/vscode/devcontainers/rust:1",
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
        "settings": {},
        "extensions": ["rust-lang.rust-analyzer"],
    }
  },
  "postCreateCommand": "rustup update && rustc --version"
}

Rust version

The most recent Rust version is 1.83.0

Step 4: Create a new rust project

Open a new terminal
Create a new project using Cargo:
```
cargo new my_rust_project 
```
Navigate into your project directory:
```
cd my_rust_project
```

Step 5: Write a basic "Hello COMP 423" program

// A simple Rust code block to print "Hello, COMP423!"
fn main() {
    println!("Hello, COMP423!");
}

Step 6: Compile

Build your project using Cargo:

cargo build

What does this command do?

It compiles your project's source code into an executable binary (if it's a binary project) or a library (if it's a library project).

Step 7: Run

Run the project using Cargo:

cargo run

Expected Output

Hello COMP423!

Bug

Verify that this is your output to ensure you followed the tutorial correctly!

Citations & Resources

Cargo Documentation

Rust Documentation

COMP423 MkDocs Tutorial