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Frequently Asked Questions

How can I use unpublished Tauri changes?​

To use Tauri from GitHub (bleeding edge version) you need to change your Cargo.toml file and update your CLI and API.

Pulling the Rust crate from source

Append this to your Cargo.toml file:

Cargo.toml
[patch.crates-io]
tauri = { git = "https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri", branch = "dev" }
tauri-build = { git = "https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri", branch = "dev" }

This will force all your dependencies to use tauri and tauri-build from Git instead of crates.io.

Using the Tauri CLI from source

If you are using the Cargo CLI, you can install it directly from GitHub:

cargo install --git https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri --branch dev tauri-cli

If you are using the @tauri-apps/cli package, you will need to clone the repo and build it:

git clone https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri
git checkout dev
cd tauri/tooling/cli/node
yarn
yarn build

To use it, run directly with node:

node /path/to/tauri/tooling/cli/node/tauri.js dev
node /path/to/tauri/tooling/cli/node/tauri.js build

Alternatively, you can run your app with Cargo directly:

cd src-tauri
cargo run --no-default-features # instead of tauri dev
cargo build # instead of tauri build - won't bundle your app though
Using the Tauri API from source

It is recommended to also use the Tauri API package from source when using the Tauri crate from GitHub (though it might not be needed). To build it from source, run the following script:

git clone https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri
git checkout dev
cd tauri/tooling/api
yarn
yarn build

Now you can link it using yarn:

cd dist
yarn link
cd /path/to/your/project
yarn link @tauri-apps/api

Or you can change your package.json to point to the dist folder directly:

package.json
{
  "dependencies": {
    "@tauri-apps/api": "/path/to/tauri/tooling/api/dist"
  }
}

Should I use Node or Cargo?​

Even though installing the CLI through Cargo is the preferred option, it has to compile the whole binary from scratch when you install it. If you're in a CI environment or on a very slow machine you're better off choosing another installation method.

As the CLI is written in Rust, it is naturally available through crates.io and installable with Cargo.

We also compile the CLI as a native Node.js addon and distribute it via npm. This has several advantages compared to the Cargo installation method:

  1. The CLI is pre-compiled, leading to much faster install times
  2. You can pin a specific version in your package.json file
  3. If you develop custom tooling around Tauri, you can import the CLI as a regular JavaScript module
  4. You can install the CLI using a JavaScript manager

We recommend using es2021, last 3 Chrome versions, and safari13 for your browserlist and build targets. Tauri leverages the OS's native rendering engine (WebKit on macOS, WebView2 on Windows and WebKitGTK on Linux).

Build Conflict with Homebrew on Linux​

Homebrew on Linux includes its own pkg-config (a utility to find libraries on the system). This can cause conflicts when installing the same pkg-config package for Tauri (usually installed through the package manager like apt). When you try to build a Tauri app it will try to invoke pkg-config and will end up invoking the one from Homebrew. If Homebrew wasn't used to install Tauri's dependencies, this can cause errors.

Errors will usually contain messages along the lines of error: failed to run custom build command for X - Package Y was not found in the pkg-config search path.. Note that you may see similar errors if the required dependencies are not installed at all.

There are two solutions to this issue:

  1. Uninstall Homebrew
  2. Set the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable to point to the correct pkg-config before building a Tauri app