Rust – Docker Setup & Usage Guide

🛠️ Basic Setup

This guide contains instructions for creating, starting, and customizing a Rust Docker container. To create and start the basic Rust container, execute the following command from the RustService directory in Docker Desktop:

docker-compose -f compose_rust_cont.yml up -d --build --force-recreate

🛠️ Web Rocket Setup (Optional)

You can add one or more Rocket web framework projects. This creates a new project directory and installs the required libraries.

1. First, set an environment variable to indicate the project name (which will be used as the directory name). On a Windows host, run:

$env:PRJ_NAME_ARG="name_of_project_directory"

Note:
If you don’t set this variable, a default will be used, taken from the file .env (default_project_name).*

1. Then, execute the add-on compose file:

docker-compose -f compose_rocket_prj_addon.yml up -d --build --force-recreate

Note:
Your project is created in /app/[project_name]. If the environment variable is not set, a default name is used.*

1. Open a CLI in the container, navigate to the newly created project directory (project_name), and execute these commands to build and run the project:

cargo build --release    # Builds the project
cargo run --release     # Runs the Rocket server

✅ Setup Result

After this, you can open a browser on the host and navigate to: http://localhost:8000/

📚 Notes and Things to Be Aware of

• Project files are created in the container (/app), not on the host. There is a bind mount on the container: /host/workdir. On the host, you find it in: /workdir. You can use this to copy the projects here, so they are available on the host.
• The new project directory (see step 1) will contain a rocket.toml file that holds the web settings. One of these settings is:
  • address = "0.0.0.0" — this must be set to 0.0.0.0 to ensure the host can access the website.
• Another important setting is the port. If you change this, make sure to also update the compose_rust_cont.yml file. Other settings are available as comments in the file (not all are documented).
• The config file and the template main are copied from the host in the directory: RustService\Rocket_customized.
• When running more than one web application on the same server, make sure to use another web port in the rocket.toml file and in the Docker Compose files.
• Use $env:PRJ_NAME_ARG in the PowerShell host command box to test the new directory that will be created.

License
This file is part of: Rust Template Stack Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Nico Jan Eelhart.This repository is MIT licensed and free to use. For optional commercial support, customization, training, or long-term maintenance, see COMMERCIAL.md.

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