The problem is that cargo gets in the way (as does rustc) if you try and use it in anything other than the simple import this dependency mode. I spent a hell ho

The problem is that cargo gets in the way (as does rustc) if you try and use it in anything other than the simple import this dependency mode. I spent a hell hole of a day or two, trying to pick up a dependency outside cargo because it didn't behave in a way that meshed with the rest of my build environment. So, yes it handles a couple of the basic cases, but then your out of luck, stuck in a version hell/etc because rustc and cargo are so tightly integrated and the flags needed to emulate some of the behavior with just the compiler are poorly documented and/or version dependent. It dictates, you conform (which is basically the rust way).