Installation¶

RCL is written in Rust and builds with Cargo. RCL is easy to build from source, but you can also use one of the options below that automate the process.

As a Nix flake¶

The repository includes a Nix flake. You can run RCL with a flake-enabled version of Nix, such as Nix 2.18:

nix run 'github:ruuda/rcl?ref=v0.6.0' -- --help

The Nix flake also includes the Python module:

PYTHONPATH=$(nix build github:ruuda/rcl?ref=v0.6.0#pyrcl --print-out-paths)/lib python3

The Nix flake also includes a shell with all the tools needed for development, as well as the environment that is tested on CI.

From source¶

To build from source, clone the repository from one of the two mirrors:

git clone https://github.com/ruuda/rcl.git
git clone https://codeberg.org/ruuda/rcl.git

Then build with Cargo. The repository includes a rust-toolchain.toml file that specifies a compatible Rust version. When Cargo is managed by Rustup, Rustup will automatically fetch the right toolchain.

cargo build --release

Put the binary on your PATH to be able to use it system-wide, e.g.:

cp target/release/rcl ~/.local/bin

To build a static binary rather than a dynamically linked one:

cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
cp target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/rcl ~/.local/bin

Python module from source¶

To build the Python module, follow the steps as before, but build the pyrcl directory:

cargo build --release --manifest-path pyrcl/Cargo.toml

Then rename libpyrcl.so to rcl.so so that Python can discover it, and copy it to a location on the PYTHONPATH, e.g.:

cp target/release/libpyrcl.so ./rcl.so

Now you can use the module as any regular one:

$ python3
>>> import rcl
>>> rcl.loads("10 + 32")
42

It is also possible to build a wheel that can be installed into a virtualenv using Maturin.