Re: [PATCH v2 0/4] gitlab-ci: fix the cargo invocation in the Windows job

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Sep 28, 2026, 13:41 UTC
Message-ID: <139c09f8-a126-c24f-9264-154f9b2e38bd@gmx.de>
In-Reply-To: <aroOHoSXsemSlP-7@pks.im>

Hi Patrick,

On Mon, 28 Sep 2026, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> On Thu, Sep 24, 2026 at 08:01:49PM +0000, Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget wrote:
> > Range-diff vs v1:
> > 
> >  1:  6a389b2bad ! 1:  cdf2eff480 ci(gitlab,windows): provision GNU Rust for SDK-based MinGW builds
> >      @@ Metadata
> >        ## Commit message ##
> >           ci(gitlab,windows): provision GNU Rust for SDK-based MinGW builds
> >       
> >      -    The minimal Git for Windows SDK already supplies Git and GCC. The
> >      -    MinGW Makefile build needs the GNU Rust toolchain, not another Git
> >      -    installation or Meson.
> >      +    The minimal Git for Windows SDK already supplies Git and GCC. The MinGW
> >      +    Makefile build needs the Rust toolchain that targets GCC (as opposed to
> >      +    the more common MSVC one), not another Git installation or Meson.
> 
> By the way, are there plans to eventually include Rust as part of the
> GfW SDK? Just asking out of curiosity.

I'm still agonizing over that. There is now this new `sha1dc` Rust crate I want to integrate (patch series about to land), therefore I need to get going with including Rust in Git for Windows' SDK. But it's not looking so rosy! As described in the PR to include Rust in Git for Windows at https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-sdk-64/pull/132, the addition comes at the price of roughly 110MB.

Given that `git-sdk-x86_75-minimal.tar.zst` weighs just under 70MB (see https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-sdk-64/releases/ci-artifacts), that would more than _double_ its size!

So I'm really torn between including Rust (and having a strict subset of the same setup in CI as is used to build Git for Windows releases) or alternatively stick with the current strategy: Expect the correct Rust toolchain to be installed separately in CI.

On GitHub Actions, Rust is basically already there, and we'd save a 110MB extra download for _ever_ `win-*` job (of which there are _a lot_ on any given day).

But GitLab runners do not (yet?) come with Rust preinstalled, so... 🤷

> Overall I'm happy with this version, thanks!

Thanks! Johannes