cfg

Configuration conditional checks are possible through two different operators:

• the cfg attribute: #[cfg(...)] in attribute position
• the cfg! macro: cfg!(...) in boolean expressions

While the former enables conditional compilation, the latter conditionally evaluates to true or false literals allowing for checks at run-time. Both utilize identical argument syntax.

cfg!, unlike #[cfg], does not remove any code and only evaluates to true or false. For example, all blocks in an if/else expression need to be valid when cfg! is used for the condition, regardless of what cfg! is evaluating.

// This function only gets compiled if the target OS is linux
#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
fn are_you_on_linux() {
    println!("You are running linux!");
}

// And this function only gets compiled if the target OS is *not* linux
#[cfg(not(target_os = "linux"))]
fn are_you_on_linux() {
    println!("You are *not* running linux!");
}

fn main() {
    are_you_on_linux();

    println!("Are you sure?");
    if cfg!(target_os = "linux") {
        println!("Yes. It's definitely linux!");
    } else {
        println!("Yes. It's definitely *not* linux!");
    }
}

See also:

the reference, cfg!, and macros.