TL;DR — Quick Summary

cross makes Rust cross-compilation easy. Compile for Linux ARM, Windows, macOS, WASM — using Docker containers with pre-configured toolchains. Drop-in cargo replacement.

cross compiles Rust for any target. Docker handles the toolchains — you just build.

Installation

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

Usage

# Build for Linux ARM64
cross build --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu

# Build for Linux ARM (Raspberry Pi)
cross build --target armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf

# Release build for Windows
cross build --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu --release

# Test on target
cross test --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu

Summary

  • cross: drop-in cargo replacement for cross-compilation
  • Docker-powered — pre-configured toolchains
  • Supports 50+ target platforms
  • Same workflow as cargo — just swap the command
  • Written in Rust — maintained by cross-rs