Binary dependency in test_rule

[Nick Fischer]

Hi folks,

I'm currently working on a Bazel/rust project and I'm trying to set up integration tests for one of our apps. Without going into too much detail, the app is related to distributed messaging/communication.

For the integration test (rust_test) I would like to spawn multiple instances of the app's rust_binary with different configurations, observe the behavior and report a test result.

For now, unfortunately I've been unsuccessful in making rust_binary available inside the test sandbox. The closest thing I've come across is the rust_test's data field, but that will only include a non-executable binary in the sandbox.

What's the proper way of doing this? I would imagine this to be a common use case (e.g. spinning up a server app for client-side testing)

Thanks and best regards,
Dominik

[Richard Lavoie]

This is a typical use case for https://github.com/dzbarsky/rules_itest to run integration tests.

Richard

On Oct 24, 2025, at 9:31 AM, Nick Fischer <hey.domin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi folks,

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[Nick Fischer]

Thanks, I will give this a shot!

[rel...@gmail.com]

In general, I believe that taking a data dependency on the rust_binary target and invoking it from the rust_test target would be expected to work.

https://github.com/reltuk/rules_rust_test_data_example

What do you mean when you say it includes the non-executable binary in the sandbox?

-- Aaron

[Nick Fischer]

Hi,

I thought I tried your approach before, and that the binary was accessible inside the runfiles but that it was not executable.
I just tried again, and it is indeed working. Maybe I messed something up with the paths. 
Thanks for the help!

best regards,
Nick