Ruru (Rust + Ruby = :heart:)

Native Ruby extensions in Rust

Documentation

Have you ever considered rewriting some parts of your ~~slow~~ Ruby application?

Just replace your Ruby application with Rust, method by method, class by class. It does not require you to change the interface of your classes or to change any other Ruby code.

As simple as Ruby, as efficient as Rust.

Examples

The famous String#blank? method

The fast String#blank? implementation by Yehuda Katz

```rust methods!( RString, itself,

fn stringisblank() -> Boolean { Boolean::new(itself.tostring().chars().all(|c| c.iswhitespace())) } );

fn main() { Class::fromexisting("String").define(|itself| { itself.def("blank?", stringis_blank); }); } ```

Simple Sidekiq-compatible server

Link to the repository

Rack middleware

Set the X-RUST header to Hello from Rust!

```rust class!(RustMiddleware);

methods!( RustMiddleware, itself,

fn initialize(app: AnyObject) -> RustMiddleware {
    itself.instance_variable_set("@app", app);

    itself
}

fn call(env: Hash) -> Array {
    let app_call = itself
        .instance_variable_get("@app")
        .send("call", vec![env.to_any_object()])
        .to::<Array>();

    let status = app_call.at(0);
    let mut headers = app_call.at(1).clone().to::<Hash>();
    let response = app_call.at(2);

    headers.store(RString::new("X-RUST"), RString::new("Hello from Rust!"));

    Array::new().push(status).push(headers).push(response)
}

);

[no_mangle]

pub extern fn initialize_middleware() { Class::new("RustMiddleware").define(|itself| { itself.def("initialize", initialize); itself.def("call", call); }); } ```

Ruby:

use RustMiddleware

Defining a new class

Let's say you have a Calculator class.

```ruby class Calculator def pow3(number) (1..number).eachwith_object({}) do |index, hash| hash[index] = index ** 3 end end end

... somewhere in the application code ...

Calculator.new.pow_3(5) #=> { 1 => 1, 2 => 8, 3 => 27, 4 => 64, 5 => 125 } ```

You have found that it's very slow to call pow_3 for big numbers and decided to replace the whole class with Rust.

```rust class!(Calculator);

methods!( Calculator, itself,

fn pow_3(num: Fixnum) -> Hash {
    let mut hash = Hash::new();

    for i in 1..num.to_i64() + 1 {
        hash.store(Fixnum::new(i), Fixnum::new(i.pow(3)));
    }

    hash
}

);

[no_mangle]

pub extern fn initializemyapp() { Class::new("Calculator").define(|itself| { itself.def("pow3", pow3); }); } ```

Ruby:

```ruby

No Calculator class in Ruby anymore

... somewhere in the application ...

Calculator.new.pow_3(5) #=> { 1 => 1, 2 => 8, 3 => 27, 4 => 64, 5 => 125 } ```

Nothing has changed in the API of class, thus there is no need to change any code elsewhere in the app.

Replacing only several methods instead of the whole class

If the Calculator class from the example above has more Ruby methods, but we want to replace only pow_3, use Class::from_existing()

rust Class::from_existing("Calculator").define(|itself| { itself.def("pow_3", pow_3); });

Calling Ruby code from Rust

Getting an account balance of some User whose name is John and who is 18 or 19 years old.

ruby User .find_by(age: [18, 19], name: 'John') .account_balance

```rust let mut conditions = Hash::new();

conditions.store( Symbol::new("age"), Array::new().push(Fixnum::new(18)).push(Fixnum::new(19)) );

conditions.store( Symbol::new("name"), RString::new("John") );

let accountbalance = Class::fromexisting("User") .send("findby", vec![conditions.toanyobject()]) .send("accountbalance", vec![]) .to::() .to_i64(); ```

Check out Documentation for more examples!

... and why is FFI not enough?

• No support of native Ruby types;

• No way to create a standalone application to run the Ruby VM separately;

• No way to call your Ruby code from Rust;

How do I use it?

Warning! The crate is a WIP.

There are two ways of using Ruru:

• Standalone application - Rust is run first as a compiled executable file and then it calls Ruby code (see docs for VM::init())

• Running Rust code from a Ruby application

The second way requires additional steps (to be improved):

1. Your local MRI copy has to be built with the --enable-shared option. For example, using rbenv:

   bash CONFIGURE_OPTS=--enable-shared rbenv install 2.3.0

2. Add Ruru to Cargo.toml

   toml [dependencies] ruru = ">= 0.5.0"

3. Compile your library as a dylib

   toml [lib] crate-type = ["dylib"]

4. Create a function which will initialize the extension

   ```rust

   [no_mangle]

   pub extern fn initializemyapp() { Class::new("SomeClass");

   /// ... etc } ```

5. Open the library and call the function from Ruby

   ```ruby require 'fiddle'

   library = Fiddle::dlopen('libmy_library.dylib')

   Fiddle::Function.new(library['initializemyapp'], [], Fiddle::TYPE_VOIDP).call ```

6. Ruru is ready :heart:

Contributors are welcome!