Can a no_std crate have std dependencies in test cases only?

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I am working on a UTF8 / UTF32 conversion crate with no_std support. Is it possible for the library itself be no_std, but the test cases be std?

How would it look like in Cargo.toml file?

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You can use cfg_attr to only enable no_std outside of tests:

#![cfg_attr(not(test), no_std)]

Playground example

originally solved this with extern crate but I like this solution better

Nevermind, use

#[cfg(test)]
extern crate std;
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Integration tests (i.e. tests in the tests/ directory) are compiled separately from your library and depend on std by default. No changes in Cargo.toml are needed.

You should not use this approach. The extern crate std; approach is a preferred one. Plus you can use extern inside test modules.

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Why?

I didn't know that, for some reason I thought it had to be at the root of the crate

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In practice gating no_std causes unpleasant issues related to prelude, especially if your crate has an std or alloc feature. Previously I was proponent of gating no_std, but after hitting several such issues I see the merit of using extern crate std. It's easier to think about crate code when std and alloc are explicit dependencies.

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