ENV.md

Environment Setup

This file contains some notes from Dylan Lukes (TA) on their process for a fresh minimal Rust installation (based on MacOS).

Note: these instructions assume a UNIX-style environemnt (Linux or MacOS, but not Windows).

For simplicity, I am using VSCode.

1. Install asdf (optional)

See: https://asdf-vm.com/guide/getting-started.html

2. Install rust and cargo

Add the rust plugin and install the latest version.

asdf plugin add rust        # Install the rust plugin for asdf.
asdf install rust latest    # Install the latest version.
asdf global rust latest     # Activate it globally.

After the install step you will see a message along the lines of:

`` Rust is installed now. Great!

To get started you need Cargo's bin directory (~/.asdf/installs/rust/1.64.0/bin) in your PATH environment variable. This has not been done automatically.

To configure your current shell, run: source "~/.asdf/installs/rust/1.64.0/env"

You can either do this, or you can just close your current terminal and open a new one. Or, you can `source ~/.zhshrc` or `source ~/.bashrc` depending on your preferred shell.

## 3. Check that `rust` and `cargo` work

Check that it works by running the following two commands. 

```bash
rustc
cargo

If both emit help messages respectively you're good to go!

4. (VSCode): Install rust-analyzer

The rust-analyzer plugin provides common programming support utilities like auto-complete, "Go To Definition", etc.

Simply find it and install it. So long as your cargo works, it should "just work" in your environment.