Hello, I wanted to share a tool I’ve been creating on called RLib to gather feedbacks. It’s a lightweight, zero-overhead development helper designed to precompile crates (like tokio, serde, etc.) and seamlessly share them dynamically across all local workspaces.

Why built this?

We've all been there: every time we spin up a project or run cargo clean, the machine spends minutes re-compiling the exact same dependencies from scratch, bloating SSD storage with duplicate gigabytes in every single target folder.

Unlike caching tools like sccache which rely on compression/decompression algorithms (introducing small time costs when unpacking artifacts), RLib uses a zero-overhead approach. It directly binds and passes the global precompiled binaries into the development workspace via custom path and compiler flag.

Key Features:

• Universal Reuse: Compile dependency once (~/.rlib), use it everywhere.
• Save Massive Disk Space: Stops standard dependency duplication across multiple project folders.
• cargo clean Proof: The cached crates stay safe outside the workspace. Running clean will never wipe the precompiled dependencies unless we explicitly tell RLib to remove them.
• Under-the-Hood Optimizations: Automatically leverages high-performance linkers (mold, lld) and alternative memory allocators (mimalloc, tcmalloc) seamlessly.

Quick Workflow Example:

1. Initialize the project config:

rlib init

2. Precompile crate (e.g., Tokio with full features):

Check if the crate is already on the global list

rlib list

If not there yet, then compile the crate

rlib tokio features=full

4. Check the global list and copy the unique key:

rlib list
# Output: tokio_1_38_0_full

5. Link it to the local workspace list:

rlib this add tokio_1_38_0_full

6. Run the project instantly:

rlib this cargo run
# Or for instant compilation checks:
rlib this cargo check

I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any edge cases you think I should look out for regarding on anything

Here is the project github : GitHub - fuji-184/RLib · GitHub

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