cross¶

Containerized cross-compilation for Rust (https://github.com/cross-rs/cross)

To install cross

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

To build for a specific target

cross build --target <target-triple>

To build a release binary

cross build --target <target-triple> --release

To run tests for a target

cross test --target <target-triple>

Common ARM target triples

cross build --target arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf   # ARMv6 (Raspberry Pi Zero/1)
cross build --target armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf  # ARMv7 (Raspberry Pi 2/3)
cross build --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu      # ARM64 (Raspberry Pi 4/5, modern LXC)

To build for multiple targets

cross build --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu --release
cross build --target armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf --release

To list available targets (via rustup)

rustup target list

To add a target to rustup (for native builds)

rustup target add <target-triple>

Cross.toml — custom image configuration (repo root)

[target.arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf] image = "ghcr.io/cross-rs/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf:edge" To run container-backed integration tests:

RUN_DOCKER_TESTS=1 cargo test -- --test-threads=1

To build a .deb package after cross-compiling (cargo-deb)

cargo deb --no-build --target <target-triple>

To build an .rpm package after cross-compiling (cargo-generate-rpm)

cargo generate-rpm --target <target-triple>

Note: Requires a running Docker or Podman daemon.