cargo-lpatch

A cargo plugin to locally patch dependencies by cloning them and setting up local patches in .cargo/config.toml.

Installation

cargo install --path .

Or install from crates.io (once published):

cargo install cargo-lpatch

Usage

Basic Usage

Patch a crate from crates.io:

cargo lpatch --name serde

This will:

1. Query crates.io for the serde crate's repository URL
2. Clone the repository to crates/serde/
3. Add a local patch configuration to .cargo/config.toml

Custom Clone Directory

Specify a custom directory for cloning:

cargo lpatch --name serde --dir my-dependencies

Direct Git URL

You can also provide a direct git URL instead of a crate name:

cargo lpatch --name https://github.com/serde-rs/serde.git

or

cargo lpatch --name git@github.com:serde-rs/serde.git

How It Works

1. Crate Resolution: If you provide a crate name, the tool queries crates.io API to get the repository URL. If you provide a git URL, it uses that directly.

2. Repository Cloning: The tool clones the repository to the specified directory (default: crates/).

3. Configuration Update: The tool creates or updates .cargo/config.toml with a local patch configuration pointing to the cloned repository.

Generated Configuration

After running the tool, your .cargo/config.toml will contain something like:

[patch.crates-io]
serde = { path = "crates/serde" }

This tells Cargo to use the local version of the crate instead of downloading it from crates.io.

Examples

Patch multiple crates

cargo lpatch --name serde --dir deps
cargo lpatch --name tokio --dir deps
cargo lpatch --name clap --dir deps

Working with private repositories

cargo lpatch --name git@github.com:myorg/private-crate.git --dir vendor

Features

• ✅ Query crates.io for repository URLs
• ✅ Support for git URLs (https, ssh, git://)
• ✅ Automatic .cargo/config.toml management
• ✅ Custom clone directories
• ✅ Progress indication for clone operations
• ✅ Update existing clones with git pull
• ✅ Smart URL cleaning and validation

Requirements

• Rust 1.70+
• Git installed and available in PATH
• Network access for crates.io queries and git operations

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.