`cargo run` fails on WebAssembly target due to `CARGO_BUILD_TARGET` leaking into `rustc_codegen_spirv` build

Open Beginner friendly
#3,939 2 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
68/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
rust, wasm
Domain
build-system

Research direction

Start with node-graph/nodes/raster/shaders/build.rs and the cargo_gpu::Install::from_shader_crate(...) call. Reproduce the failure with cargo run, then verify the inner build uses the host target rather than the inherited WebAssembly target. Done means the standard cargo run workflow completes past raster-nodes-shaders without the dylib error.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Summary

When running the standard cargo run development workflow, the build fails while compiling the web frontend (wasm-pack build ./wrapper --dev --target=web).

The failure occurs in the raster-nodes-shaders crate's build.rs script. The build script attempts to compile the rustc_codegen_spirv compiler backend, but the parent CARGO_BUILD_TARGET=wasm32-unknown-unknown environment variable is inherited by the inner cargo build. Because WebAssembly does not support dynamic libraries (dylib), the inner build fails.

Error Output
[INFO]: 🎯  Checking for the Wasm target...
[INFO]: 🌀  Compiling to Wasm...
   Compiling raster-nodes-shaders v0.1.0 (../Graphite/node-graph/nodes/raster/shaders)
error: failed to run custom build command for `raster-nodes-shaders v0.1.0 (../Graphite/node-graph/nodes/raster/shaders)`

Caused by:
  ...
  error: cannot produce dylib for `rustc_codegen_spirv v0.9.0 (https://github.com/Firestar99/rust-gpu-new?rev=c12f2161...#c12f2161)` as the target `wasm32-unknown-unknown` does not support these crate types
Steps to Reproduce
  1. Clone the repository.
  2. Ensure Node.js and Rust prerequisites are installed.
  3. Run cargo run.
  4. Observe the build crash when wasm-pack reaches raster-nodes-shaders.
Proposed Solution

The inner build initiated by cargo_gpu::Install inside node-graph/nodes/raster/shaders/build.rs needs to compile for the host OS, not the WebAssembly target.

Clearing the CARGO_BUILD_TARGET environment variable inside build.rs before it kicks off the cargo_gpu build resolves the issue and allows the compilation to succeed:

// node-graph/nodes/raster/shaders/build.rs

// Inside main():
unsafe { std::env::remove_var("CARGO_BUILD_TARGET"); }

// ... followed by the existing cargo_gpu::Install::from_shader_crate(...) logic
Environment
  • OS: macOS 26.3.1 (Build 25D2128)
  • Rust Version: rustc 1.92.0 (ded5c06cf 2025-12-08)
  • Node.js: v22.21.1
🤖 AI disclosure

I used Gemini to help me understand the error message. This message and the fix are mine.

Dominant language
Rust
Stars
27.3k
Forks
1.3k
Avg merge
1d 7h
Merged PRs (30d)
54

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

More from GraphiteEditor/Graphite

All issues in GraphiteEditor/Graphite

Similar issues

More Rust issues

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.