[Rust Frontend] [CI] Unify Rust artifact builds with setuptools-rust (#44981)

Signed-off-by: Bugen Zhao <i@bugenzhao.com>

MANIFEST.in

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ include requirements/cuda.txt
 include requirements/rocm.txt
 include requirements/cpu.txt
 include CMakeLists.txt
+include tools/build_rust.py
 
 recursive-include cmake *
 recursive-include csrc *

build_rust.sh

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-# Build the vllm-rs Rust frontend binary and install it into the vllm package.
+# Build the vllm-rs Rust frontend binary.
 # Usage: ./build_rust.sh [--debug]
 #
 # By default builds in release mode. Pass --debug for faster compile times
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@
 set -euo pipefail
 
 REPO_ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"
-RUST_DIR="$REPO_ROOT/rust"
-TARGET_PATH="${VLLM_RS_TARGET_PATH:-$REPO_ROOT/vllm/vllm-rs}"
 
 # Read the required toolchain from rust-toolchain.toml.
 TOOLCHAIN=$(grep '^channel' "$REPO_ROOT/rust-toolchain.toml" | sed 's/.*= *"\(.*\)"/\1/')
@@ -27,18 +25,9 @@ if ! rustup run "$TOOLCHAIN" rustc --version &>/dev/null; then
 fi
 
 if [[ "${1:-}" == "--debug" ]]; then
-    PROFILE_ARGS=()
-    PROFILE_DIR="debug"
+    PROFILE_ARG="--debug"
 else
-    PROFILE_ARGS=(--release)
-    PROFILE_DIR="release"
+    PROFILE_ARG="--release"
 fi
 
-cargo +"$TOOLCHAIN" build "${PROFILE_ARGS[@]}" \
-    --manifest-path "$RUST_DIR/Cargo.toml" \
-    --bin vllm-rs \
-    --features native-tls-vendored
-
-mkdir -p "$(dirname "$TARGET_PATH")"
-cp "$RUST_DIR/target/$PROFILE_DIR/vllm-rs" "$TARGET_PATH"
-echo "Installed vllm-rs to $TARGET_PATH"
+python3 "$REPO_ROOT/tools/build_rust.py" "$PROFILE_ARG"

docker/Dockerfile

@@ -255,51 +255,47 @@ ENV TORCH_CUDA_ARCH_LIST=${torch_cuda_arch_list}
 #################### RUST BUILD IMAGE ####################
 # Build the Rust frontend (`vllm-rs`) in a dedicated stage so the main wheel
 # build stage doesn't need the rust toolchain, protoc, or the rust source.
-# This stage runs in parallel with csrc-build/extensions-build.
-FROM ${BUILD_BASE_IMAGE} AS rust-build
+# This stage reuses the Python environment from base and runs in parallel with
+# csrc-build/extensions-build.
+FROM base AS rust-build
 ARG BUILD_OS
 
-ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
-
-# Install a basic C toolchain (some rust crates compile C in their build.rs
-# scripts) and unzip (used to extract the pinned protoc release below).
+# Install native tools needed only for Rust/protoc builds.
 RUN if [ "${BUILD_OS}" = "manylinux" ]; then \
         dnf install -y --setopt=install_weak_deps=False \
-            ca-certificates curl git gcc gcc-c++ make unzip \
+            make unzip \
         && dnf clean all && rm -rf /var/cache/dnf; \
     else \
         apt-get update -y \
         && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-            ca-certificates curl git build-essential unzip \
+            make unzip \
         && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
     fi
 
 COPY tools/install_protoc.sh /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 RUN /tmp/install_protoc.sh && rm /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 
-# Install rustup; the toolchain itself is pinned by rust-toolchain.toml.
-RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | \
-    sh -s -- -y --profile minimal --default-toolchain none
-ENV PATH="/root/.cargo/bin:${PATH}"
-
 WORKDIR /workspace
 
-# Copy only the rust workspace — the binary is the sole artifact we need.
+COPY requirements/build/rust.txt requirements/build/rust.txt
+RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/opt/uv/cache \
+    uv pip install --python /opt/venv/bin/python3 -r requirements/build/rust.txt
+
+# Copy only the Rust build inputs. The binary is the sole artifact we need.
 COPY rust rust
 COPY rust-toolchain.toml rust-toolchain.toml
+COPY tools/build_rust.py tools/build_rust.py
 COPY build_rust.sh build_rust.sh
 
 # Cap cargo parallelism to avoid exhausting the CI host's open-file limit
 # (rustc spawns enough concurrent processes to hit RLIMIT_NOFILE otherwise).
 ENV CARGO_BUILD_JOBS=4
 
-# Build the release binary. Cache cargo registry/git and target/, but copy the
-# binary out of the target/ cache mount so it persists into the image layer
-# for later COPY --from=rust-build.
+# Build the release binary. Cache cargo registry/git, but not target/, because
+# stale target metadata can outlive source updates across BuildKit cache reuse.
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/registry \
     --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/git \
-    --mount=type=cache,target=/workspace/rust/target \
-    VLLM_RS_TARGET_PATH=/workspace/vllm-rs bash build_rust.sh
+    bash build_rust.sh
 #################### RUST BUILD IMAGE ####################
 
 #################### CSRC BUILD IMAGE ####################
@@ -342,6 +338,7 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/opt/uv/cache \
 WORKDIR /workspace
 
 COPY pyproject.toml setup.py CMakeLists.txt ./
+COPY tools/build_rust.py tools/build_rust.py
 COPY cmake cmake/
 COPY csrc csrc/
 COPY vllm/envs.py vllm/envs.py
@@ -508,7 +505,7 @@ COPY . .
 
 # Drop the pre-built rust frontend binary into the source tree. setup.py
 # detects it and ships it as-is, skipping the local cargo build.
-COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
+COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
 
 ARG GIT_REPO_CHECK=0
 RUN --mount=type=bind,source=.git,target=.git \

docker/Dockerfile.cpu

@@ -93,35 +93,32 @@ ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
 RUN apt-get update -y \
     && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-        ca-certificates curl git build-essential unzip \
+        ca-certificates curl git build-essential unzip python3 python3-pip \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 COPY tools/install_protoc.sh /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 RUN /tmp/install_protoc.sh && rm /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 
-# Install rustup; the toolchain itself is pinned by rust-toolchain.toml.
-RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | \
-    sh -s -- -y --profile minimal --default-toolchain none
-ENV PATH="/root/.cargo/bin:${PATH}"
-
 WORKDIR /workspace
 
-# Copy only the rust workspace — the binary is the sole artifact we need.
+COPY requirements/build/rust.txt requirements/build/rust.txt
+RUN python3 -m pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements/build/rust.txt
+
+# Copy only the Rust build inputs. The binary is the sole artifact we need.
 COPY rust rust
 COPY rust-toolchain.toml rust-toolchain.toml
+COPY tools/build_rust.py tools/build_rust.py
 COPY build_rust.sh build_rust.sh
 
 # Cap cargo parallelism to avoid exhausting the CI host's open-file limit
 # (rustc spawns enough concurrent processes to hit RLIMIT_NOFILE otherwise).
 ENV CARGO_BUILD_JOBS=4
 
-# Build the release binary. Cache cargo registry/git and target/, but copy the
-# binary out of the target/ cache mount so it persists into the image layer
-# for later COPY --from=rust-build.
+# Build the release binary. Cache cargo registry/git, but not target/, because
+# stale target metadata can outlive source updates across BuildKit cache reuse.
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/registry,sharing=locked \
     --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/git,sharing=locked \
-    --mount=type=cache,target=/workspace/rust/target,sharing=locked \
-    VLLM_RS_TARGET_PATH=/workspace/vllm-rs bash build_rust.sh
+    bash build_rust.sh
 
 ######################### BUILD IMAGE #########################
 FROM base AS vllm-build
@@ -156,7 +153,7 @@ COPY . .
 
 # Drop the pre-built rust frontend binary into the source tree. setup.py
 # detects it and ships it as-is, skipping the local cargo build.
-COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
+COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
 
 RUN if [ "$GIT_REPO_CHECK" != 0 ]; then bash tools/check_repo.sh ; fi
 

docker/Dockerfile.nightly_torch

@@ -102,21 +102,21 @@ ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
 RUN apt-get update -y \
     && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-        ca-certificates curl git build-essential unzip \
+        ca-certificates curl git build-essential unzip python3 python3-pip \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 COPY tools/install_protoc.sh /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 RUN /tmp/install_protoc.sh && rm /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 
-# Install rustup; the toolchain itself is pinned by rust-toolchain.toml.
-RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | \
-    sh -s -- -y --profile minimal --default-toolchain none
-ENV PATH="/root/.cargo/bin:${PATH}"
-
 WORKDIR /workspace
 
+COPY requirements/build/rust.txt requirements/build/rust.txt
+RUN python3 -m pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements/build/rust.txt
+
+# Copy only the Rust build inputs. The binary is the sole artifact we need.
 COPY rust rust
 COPY rust-toolchain.toml rust-toolchain.toml
+COPY tools/build_rust.py tools/build_rust.py
 COPY build_rust.sh build_rust.sh
 
 # Cap cargo parallelism to avoid exhausting the CI host's open-file limit
@@ -125,8 +125,7 @@ ENV CARGO_BUILD_JOBS=4
 
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/registry \
     --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/git \
-    --mount=type=cache,target=/workspace/rust/target \
-    VLLM_RS_TARGET_PATH=/workspace/vllm-rs bash build_rust.sh
+    bash build_rust.sh
 #################### RUST BUILD IMAGE ####################
 
 #################### WHEEL BUILD IMAGE ####################
@@ -141,7 +140,7 @@ COPY . .
 
 # Drop the pre-built rust frontend binary into the source tree. setup.py
 # detects it and ships it as-is, skipping the local cargo build.
-COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
+COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
 
 RUN python3 use_existing_torch.py
 

docker/Dockerfile.rocm

@@ -138,27 +138,25 @@ RUN apt-get update -q -y && apt-get install -q -y --no-install-recommends \
 COPY tools/install_protoc.sh /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 RUN /tmp/install_protoc.sh && rm /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 
-# Install rustup; the toolchain itself is pinned by rust-toolchain.toml.
-RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | \
-    sh -s -- -y --profile minimal --default-toolchain none
-ENV PATH="/root/.cargo/bin:${PATH}"
-
 # Cap cargo parallelism to avoid exhausting the AMD CI host's open-file limit
 # (rustc spawns enough concurrent processes to hit RLIMIT_NOFILE otherwise).
 ENV CARGO_BUILD_JOBS=4
 ENV CARGO_NET_RETRY=10
 ENV RUSTUP_MAX_RETRIES=10
 
+RUN --mount=type=cache,id=vllm-rocm-uv,target=/root/.cache/uv \
+    cd ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm \
+    && uv pip install --system -r requirements/build/rust.txt
+
 # Build the release binary. Cargo's registry/git caches can be written by
 # concurrent BuildKit jobs on shared workers, so lock those cache mounts while
-# keeping the cache benefit. Copy the binary out so it persists into the image
-# layer for later COPY --from=rust-build.
+# keeping the cache benefit. Do not cache target/, because stale target metadata
+# can outlive source updates across BuildKit cache reuse.
 RUN --mount=type=cache,id=vllm-rocm-cargo-registry,target=/root/.cargo/registry,sharing=locked \
     --mount=type=cache,id=vllm-rocm-cargo-git,target=/root/.cargo/git,sharing=locked \
-    --mount=type=cache,id=vllm-rocm-cargo-target,target=${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/rust/target,sharing=locked \
     cd ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm \
-    && VLLM_RS_TARGET_PATH=/tmp/vllm-rs bash build_rust.sh \
-    && test -x /tmp/vllm-rs
+    && bash build_rust.sh \
+    && test -x vllm/vllm-rs
 
 # -----------------------
 # vLLM native build stages
@@ -178,6 +176,7 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,id=vllm-rocm-uv,target=/root/.cache/uv \
 # pyproject.toml is bind-mounted in the RUN step so metadata-only changes do
 # not invalidate the expensive native build layer.
 COPY setup.py CMakeLists.txt ./
+COPY tools/build_rust.py tools/build_rust.py
 COPY cmake cmake/
 COPY csrc csrc/
 COPY vllm/envs.py vllm/envs.py
@@ -211,7 +210,7 @@ COPY --from=csrc-build ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/dist /precompiled-wheels
 
 # Drop the pre-built rust frontend binary into the source tree. setup.py
 # detects it and ships it as-is, skipping the local cargo build.
-COPY --from=rust-build /tmp/vllm-rs ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/vllm/vllm-rs
+COPY --from=rust-build ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/vllm/vllm-rs ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/vllm/vllm-rs
 
 RUN --mount=type=cache,id=vllm-rocm-uv,target=/root/.cache/uv \
     cd vllm \
@@ -420,7 +419,7 @@ ARG COMMON_WORKDIR
 
 # Drop the pre-built rust frontend binary into the source tree. setup.py
 # detects it and ships it as-is, skipping the local cargo build.
-COPY --from=rust-build /tmp/vllm-rs ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/vllm/vllm-rs
+COPY --from=rust-build ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/vllm/vllm-rs ${COMMON_WORKDIR}/vllm/vllm/vllm-rs
 
 # Create /install directory for custom wheels
 RUN mkdir -p /install

docker/Dockerfile.xpu

@@ -6,21 +6,21 @@ ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
 RUN apt-get update -y \
     && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-        ca-certificates curl git build-essential unzip \
+        ca-certificates curl git build-essential unzip python3 python3-pip \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 COPY tools/install_protoc.sh /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 RUN /tmp/install_protoc.sh && rm /tmp/install_protoc.sh
 
-# Install rustup; the toolchain itself is pinned by rust-toolchain.toml.
-RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | \
-    sh -s -- -y --profile minimal --default-toolchain none
-ENV PATH="/root/.cargo/bin:${PATH}"
-
 WORKDIR /workspace
 
+COPY requirements/build/rust.txt requirements/build/rust.txt
+RUN python3 -m pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements/build/rust.txt
+
+# Copy only the Rust build inputs. The binary is the sole artifact we need.
 COPY rust rust
 COPY rust-toolchain.toml rust-toolchain.toml
+COPY tools/build_rust.py tools/build_rust.py
 COPY build_rust.sh build_rust.sh
 
 # Cap cargo parallelism to avoid exhausting the CI host's open-file limit
@@ -29,8 +29,7 @@ ENV CARGO_BUILD_JOBS=4
 
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/registry \
     --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cargo/git \
-    --mount=type=cache,target=/workspace/rust/target \
-    VLLM_RS_TARGET_PATH=/workspace/vllm-rs bash build_rust.sh
+    bash build_rust.sh
 
 FROM intel/deep-learning-essentials:2025.3.2-0-devel-ubuntu24.04 AS vllm-base
 
@@ -215,7 +214,7 @@ COPY . .
 
 # Drop the pre-built rust frontend binary into the source tree. setup.py
 # detects it and ships it as-is, skipping the local cargo build.
-COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
+COPY --from=rust-build /workspace/vllm/vllm-rs vllm/vllm-rs
 
 ARG GIT_REPO_CHECK=0
 RUN --mount=type=bind,source=.git,target=.git \

requirements/build/rust.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Dependencies for building Rust artifacts through setuptools-rust.
+setuptools>=77.0.3,<81.0.0
+setuptools-rust>=1.9.0
+wheel

rust/README.md

@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ To build the `vllm-rs` in isolation:
 
 ```bash
 # from the local checkout
-cargo install --path src/cmd --bin vllm-rs
+./build_rust.sh
 ```
 
 ### Example Request

setup.py

@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ import torch
 from packaging.version import Version, parse
 from setuptools import Extension, setup
 from setuptools.command.build_ext import build_ext
-from setuptools_rust import Binding, RustExtension
 from setuptools_rust.build import build_rust
 from setuptools_scm import get_version
 from torch.utils.cpp_extension import CUDA_HOME, ROCM_HOME
@@ -40,6 +39,9 @@ PRECOMPILED_RUST_FRONTEND_PATH = ROOT_DIR / "vllm" / "vllm-rs"
 # cannot import envs directly because it depends on vllm,
 #  which is not installed yet
 envs = load_module_from_path("envs", os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, "vllm", "envs.py"))
+rust_build = load_module_from_path(
+    "rust_build", os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, "tools", "build_rust.py")
+)
 
 VLLM_TARGET_DEVICE = envs.VLLM_TARGET_DEVICE
 USE_PRECOMPILED_EXTENSIONS = envs.VLLM_USE_PRECOMPILED
@@ -1146,16 +1148,9 @@ if USE_PRECOMPILED_RUST_FRONTEND or PRECOMPILED_RUST_FRONTEND_PATH.exists():
 # package directory alongside the Python modules.
 # TODO: we may use `RustBin` to directly install it into `bin` directory, but this
 # requires extra work on using precompiled binaries.
-rust_extensions = [
-    RustExtension(
-        target="vllm.vllm-rs",
-        path="rust/src/cmd/Cargo.toml",
-        args=["--bin", "vllm-rs"],
-        features=["native-tls-vendored"],
-        binding=Binding.Exec,
-        optional=not should_require_rust_frontend(),
-    ),
-]
+rust_extensions = rust_build.rust_extensions(
+    optional=not should_require_rust_frontend()
+)
 
 setup(
     # static metadata should rather go in pyproject.toml

tools/build_rust.py

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright contributors to the vLLM project
+
+"""Shared setuptools-rust build entry for the vllm-rs binary."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from setuptools import setup
+from setuptools_rust import Binding, RustExtension
+
+ROOT_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+
+
+def rust_extensions(*, optional: bool) -> list[RustExtension]:
+    return [
+        RustExtension(
+            target="vllm.vllm-rs",
+            path="rust/src/cmd/Cargo.toml",
+            args=["--bin", "vllm-rs"],
+            features=["native-tls-vendored"],
+            binding=Binding.Exec,
+            optional=optional,
+        ),
+    ]
+
+
+def build_binary(build_rust_args: list[str]) -> None:
+    os.chdir(ROOT_DIR)
+    (ROOT_DIR / "vllm").mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+    setup(
+        name="vllm-rust-frontend-build",
+        packages=[],
+        rust_extensions=rust_extensions(optional=False),
+        script_args=["build_rust", "--quiet", "--inplace", *build_rust_args],
+    )
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    build_binary(sys.argv[1:])
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()