Programming in Rust

Getting Started

Programming YottaDB in the Rust language is accomplished through yottadb crate, which is a Rust wrapper around the C implementation of YottaDB.

The YottaDB Rust wrapper requires a minimum YottaDB version of r1.30 and is tested with a minimum Rust version of 1.40.

Install YottaDB

Follow the instructions in the Quick Start section to install YottaDB.

Install Rust

The next step is to install Rust. Follow the instructions provided here to get setup with Rust on your system.

Install YDBRust

Clone the YDBRust repository and run an example.

git clone https://gitlab.com/YottaDB/Lang/YDBRust/
cd YDBRust
cargo run --example say_hello_rust

There are three major APIs that are part of the Rust wrapper:

  • craw, the FFI bindings generated directly by bindgen. Not recommended for normal use.

  • simple_api, a wrapper around the craw API which handles resizing buffers and various other recoverable errors.

  • context_api, which is wrapper around the simple_api that stores the current tptoken and error buffer so you don’t have to keep a track of them yourself.

Note

The context_api is recommended for normal use, but the others are available if your needs are more specialized.

Comparison between Rust and Go wrappers

  • Rust has almost no overhead calling into C. There is no reallocation of buffers as with Go.

  • Rust has a context API, not an easy API. The difference is that buffers are re-used between calls so it’s not constantly allocating and deallocating like the Go Easy API does, nor does it require passing in the tptoken and error buffer like the Go Simple API.

  • Rust can pass numbers into M FFI, not just ydb_string_t.