baseimage

Docker base image that compiles Rust binaries for amd64 and arm64 natively — no QEMU, no emulation slowdowns.

• ~5× faster builds. Compiles on the native CPU via cargo-zigbuild instead of emulating the target arch with QEMU.
• Saves 3–4 min of CI time. Drop it into a multi-stage Dockerfile and cross-compilation is already configured.
• Both targets, zero setup. Pre-installed toolchains for x86_64-unknown-linux-musl and aarch64-unknown-linux-musl, cargo-chef, cargo-zigbuild, openssl-dev.
• Layer caching built in. cargo-chef splits dependency compilation from your own code, so deps are only rebuilt when Cargo.lock changes.
• Static musl binaries. Outputs are ready to drop into FROM scratch or any minimal runtime image.

Inspired by umputun/baseimage. Unlike a manual cross-compilation setup, this image wraps the full cargo-chef workflow into three commands so you don't repeat the boilerplate in every project.

Install

ghcr.io/vladkens/baseimage/rust:latest   # latest stable Rust
ghcr.io/vladkens/baseimage/rust:1.94     # pinned version

Rebuilt weekly. Available versions: 1.92, 1.93, 1.94.

Usage

FROM --platform=$BUILDPLATFORM ghcr.io/vladkens/baseimage/rust:latest AS chef

FROM chef AS planner
COPY Cargo.toml Cargo.lock .
RUN /scripts/build prepare          # → recipe.json

FROM chef AS builder
COPY --from=planner /app/recipe.json recipe.json
RUN /scripts/build cook             # compiles deps for both targets
COPY . .
RUN /scripts/build final my-app     # → /out/my-app/linux/{amd64,arm64}

FROM alpine:latest AS runtime
WORKDIR /app
ARG TARGETPLATFORM
COPY --from=builder /out/my-app/${TARGETPLATFORM} /app/my-app
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["/app/my-app"]

/scripts/build commands

Command	What it does
prepare [recipe_file]	Runs cargo chef prepare — snapshots the dependency tree into recipe.json
cook [recipe_file]	Runs cargo chef cook — compiles all deps for both musl targets
final <bin_name>	Builds the binary and copies it to /out/<bin_name>/linux/amd64 and /out/<bin_name>/linux/arm64

The final output layout matches Docker's $TARGETPLATFORM variable, so copying the right binary in the runtime stage is a one-liner.