Integrating C/C++ using bindgen

If you need to call some C or C++ APIs from Rust, you can use bindgen which generates Rust code from C & C++ headers. For more documentation, see the bindgen User Guide.

Generating Rust bindings

Fuchsia provides the rustc_bindgen_golden GN template to generate Rust bindings from C/C++ headers and ensure they remain up-to-date. This template runs bindgen during the build and compares the output against a checked-in “golden” file.

1. Define the GN target

Import the template and define a rustc_bindgen_golden target in your BUILD.gn.

For example, see //src/lib/usb_rs/BUILD.gn:

import("//build/rust/rustc_bindgen.gni")

rustc_bindgen_golden("my_bindings_golden") {
  header = "my_header.h"
  checked_in_source = "src/bindings.rs"

  # Optional: configure bindgen behavior
  # e.g., allowlist, denylist, raw_lines, etc.
  # see //build/rust/rustc_bindgen.gni for all options
}

2. Configure the Rust target

You must add the golden target to the validations parameter of the Rust target that uses the bindings to ensure the check runs as part of the build:

rustc_library("my_library") {
  edition = "2024"
  sources = [
    "src/lib.rs",
    "src/bindings.rs",
  ]
  # ...

  validations = [ ":my_bindings_golden" ]
}

In your Rust code, you can then use the generated bindings (e.g., mod bindings;).

3. Updating the checked-in bindings

If the C header changes, the build will fail because the generated bindings will no longer match the checked-in file. The build output will display a diff and instructions on how to update the file.

To update the checked-in file, you can either:

• Copy the generated file over the checked-in file using the cp command provided in the build failure message.

• Rebuild with the update_goldens GN argument set to true:

  fx set ... --args=update_goldens=true
  fx build
  

  After the build completes and updates the files, revert the update_goldens argument to false (or remove it) to ensure future mismatches are caught.