Merge pull request #1107 from maccoda/master

Adding build scripts page.

Author: marioidival

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@
     - [Dependencies](cargo/deps.md)
     - [Conventions](cargo/conventions.md)
     - [Tests](cargo/test.md)
+    - [Build Scripts](cargo/build_scripts.md)
 
 - [Attributes](attribute.md)
     - [`dead_code`](attribute/unused.md)

src/cargo/build_scripts.md

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Build Scripts
+
+Sometimes a normal build from cargo is not enough. Perhaps your crate needs some
+pre-requisites before cargo will successfully compile, things like code
+generation, or some native code that needs to be compiled. To solve this problem
+we have build scripts that Cargo can run.
+
+To add a build script to your package it can either be specified in the
+`Cargo.toml` as follows:
+
+```toml
+[package]
+...
+build = "build.rs"
+```
+
+Otherwise Cargo will look for a `build.rs` file in the project directory by
+default.
+
+## How to use a build script
+
+The build script is simply another Rust file that will be compiled and invoked
+prior to compiling anything else in the package. Hence it can be used to fulfil
+pre-requisites of your crate.
+
+Cargo provides the script with inputs via environment variables [specified
+here] that can be used.
+
+The script provides output via stdout. All lines printed are written to
+`target/debug/build/<pkg>/output`. Further, lines prefixed with `cargo:` will be
+interpreted by Cargo directly and hence can be used to define parameters for the
+packages compilation.
+
+For further specification and examples have a read of the [cargo specification].
+
+[specified here]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html#environment-variables-cargo-sets-for-build-scripts
+
+[cargo specification]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/build-scripts.html