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Ask HN: Anyone using Rust for server side application development?

17 points by champagnepapi 4y ago

Just curious if people have had positive experiences with it and how mature the eco system is.

mbalex99 4y ago
At Ditto (www.ditto.live) our entire server side core and the apps that use that core are written in Rust. No one has complained about any issues at all. I think our company loves Rust so much that they're just happy we didn't choose Java. I don't think the results would have been too different if we chose a more established server-side app framework or language, but the company is happy that we use Rust through and through.
42e6e8c8-f7b8-4 4y ago
https://mayhem4api.forallsecure.com https://mayhem4api.forallsecure.com is using actix web with diesel for backend.
ianpurton 4y ago
I've partially written up how I use rust for server side full stack web development. https://rust-on-nails.com https://rust-on-nails.com
smt88 4y ago
I don't know who uses it, but there is a site that has been tracking Rust's maturity for web servers for years. https://www.arewewebyet.org https://www.arewewebyet.org The answer wasn't "yes" until the last year or two.
- champagnepapi 4y ago
  yeah i personally don't know anyone using in production, so i was a bit curious. Thanks for the link :)
- xet7 4y ago
  But what Rust web framework would not have showstopper bugs like this? a) Actix Web https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2810 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2810 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2782 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2782 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2774 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2774 b) Rocket https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket/issues/1405 https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket/issues/1405 c) Warp https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/937 https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/937 https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/798 https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/798 d) Tide https://github.com/http-rs/tide/issues/853 https://github.com/http-rs/tide/issues/853
  - matthewmacleod 4y ago
    Literally every web framework ever in every language has been littered with issues. What point are you trying to make?
    - xet7 4y ago
      I'm trying to find secure web framework. Is there any?
  - smt88 4y ago
    Most of these are "nice to have" security features or defaults rather than massive holes. Frameworks should have good security, but you also need to protect yourself from things like slow loris DoS in your own code. You need to add these protections when using any framework.
dafelst 4y ago
Not me, but Materialize has built a streaming query materialization solution completely in Rust AFAIK, and has raised around $100MM so far according to crunchbase. https://materialize.com/ https://materialize.com/ Super cool product.
sieabah 4y ago
I've found that rust developers are spending far too much time rewriting other applications than writing their own apps.
- a1445c8b 4y ago
  I can see a possible reason behind it: Learning a new language alongside a new problem domain is hard. So it’s possible that some of these projects started out as a way to learn Rust in a problem domain they’re already familiar with.
cvwright 4y ago
There’s a very fast Matrix homeserver implementation written in Rust, called Conduit. https://conduit.rs/ https://conduit.rs/ I’m not one of the developers, but I am looking at using it for work.
ralston3 4y ago
- Actix Web https://github.com/actix/actix-web https://github.com/actix/actix-web - Axum https://github.com/tokio-rs/axum https://github.com/tokio-rs/axum (what I'm currently using in production) - Hyper https://github.com/hyperium/hyper https://github.com/hyperium/hyper Positive experiences mostly. If it builds, it'll usually run with no issues. Ecosystem is mature enough for large production apps.
the__alchemist 4y ago
Sort of? I'm using it to launch a server to display preflight checks and user configuration for drones, with a web (HTML/CSS/JS) UI. It makes sense, since the drone firmware is programmed in rust, so I can share data structures. I'm using the Rocket framework for this. I would not use Rust for a website, since its ecosystem is immature. Ie, things that many websites used require wheel-reinvention or stringing together libs. (Auth, admin, email, templating etc). And there's no high-level ORM, so managing changes to the DB is a pain, which leads to inertia. This isn't a spear at Rust's capability for use on a server; it doesn't have the ecosystem at this time. I don't know if it will in the future.

17 points by champagnepapi 4y ago

Just curious if people have had positive experiences with it and how mature the eco system is.

At Ditto (www.ditto.live) our entire server side core and the apps that use that core are written in Rust. No one has complained about any issues at all. I think our company loves Rust so much that they're just happy we didn't choose Java. I don't think the results would have been too different if we chose a more established server-side app framework or language, but the company is happy that we use Rust through and through.

42e6e8c8-f7b8-4 4y ago

https://mayhem4api.forallsecure.com https://mayhem4api.forallsecure.com is using actix web with diesel for backend.

ianpurton 4y ago

I've partially written up how I use rust for server side full stack web development. https://rust-on-nails.com https://rust-on-nails.com

smt88 4y ago

I don't know who uses it, but there is a site that has been tracking Rust's maturity for web servers for years. https://www.arewewebyet.org https://www.arewewebyet.org The answer wasn't "yes" until the last year or two.

champagnepapi 4y ago
yeah i personally don't know anyone using in production, so i was a bit curious. Thanks for the link :)
xet7 4y ago
But what Rust web framework would not have showstopper bugs like this? a) Actix Web https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2810 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2810 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2782 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2782 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2774 https://github.com/actix/actix-web/issues/2774 b) Rocket https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket/issues/1405 https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket/issues/1405 c) Warp https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/937 https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/937 https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/798 https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/issues/798 d) Tide https://github.com/http-rs/tide/issues/853 https://github.com/http-rs/tide/issues/853
- matthewmacleod 4y ago
  Literally every web framework ever in every language has been littered with issues. What point are you trying to make?
  - xet7 4y ago
    I'm trying to find secure web framework. Is there any?
- smt88 4y ago
  Most of these are "nice to have" security features or defaults rather than massive holes. Frameworks should have good security, but you also need to protect yourself from things like slow loris DoS in your own code. You need to add these protections when using any framework.

dafelst 4y ago

Not me, but Materialize has built a streaming query materialization solution completely in Rust AFAIK, and has raised around $100MM so far according to crunchbase. https://materialize.com/ https://materialize.com/ Super cool product.

sieabah 4y ago

I've found that rust developers are spending far too much time rewriting other applications than writing their own apps.

a1445c8b 4y ago
I can see a possible reason behind it: Learning a new language alongside a new problem domain is hard. So it’s possible that some of these projects started out as a way to learn Rust in a problem domain they’re already familiar with.

cvwright 4y ago

There’s a very fast Matrix homeserver implementation written in Rust, called Conduit. https://conduit.rs/ https://conduit.rs/ I’m not one of the developers, but I am looking at using it for work.

ralston3 4y ago

- Actix Web https://github.com/actix/actix-web https://github.com/actix/actix-web - Axum https://github.com/tokio-rs/axum https://github.com/tokio-rs/axum (what I'm currently using in production) - Hyper https://github.com/hyperium/hyper https://github.com/hyperium/hyper Positive experiences mostly. If it builds, it'll usually run with no issues. Ecosystem is mature enough for large production apps.

the__alchemist 4y ago

Sort of? I'm using it to launch a server to display preflight checks and user configuration for drones, with a web (HTML/CSS/JS) UI. It makes sense, since the drone firmware is programmed in rust, so I can share data structures. I'm using the Rocket framework for this. I would not use Rust for a website, since its ecosystem is immature. Ie, things that many websites used require wheel-reinvention or stringing together libs. (Auth, admin, email, templating etc). And there's no high-level ORM, so managing changes to the DB is a pain, which leads to inertia. This isn't a spear at Rust's capability for use on a server; it doesn't have the ecosystem at this time. I don't know if it will in the future.