Strange Build Errors

Sometimes, you can get strange and confusing build errors when trying to compile your project.

If none of the advice on this page helps you, your issue might require further investigation. Reach out to the Bevy community via GitHub or Discord, and ask for help.

If you are using bleeding-edge Bevy ("main"), also see this page for advice.

Update your Rust

First, make sure your Rust is up-to-date. Bevy only officially supports the latest stable version of Rust at the time the Bevy version you are using was released, or nightly.

If you are using rustup to manage your Rust installation, you can run:

rustup update

Clear the cargo state

Many kinds of build errors can often be fixed by forcing cargo to regenerate its internal state (recompute dependencies, etc.). You can do this by deleting the Cargo.lock file and the target directory.

rm -rf target Cargo.lock

Try building your project again after doing this. It is likely that the mysterious errors will go away.

Multiple versions of dependencies

If not, another reason might be that you have multiple versions of Bevy (or other dependencies) in your dependency tree. Rust/cargo allows multiple versions of the same crate to be linked at the same time into the same executable.

If you are using 3rd-party plugins, make sure you have specified the correct versions of all the plugins you use and that they are compatible with the Bevy version you are using. If you depend on a plugin that uses a different version of Bevy from the one you are using, they will not be interoperable.

You will get compiler errors like:

error[E0308]: mismatched types
  --> src/main.rs:12:20
   |
12 |         transform: Transform::from_xyz(1.0, 2.0, 3.0),
   |                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ expected `Transform`, found a different `Transform`
   |
   = note: `Transform` and `Transform` have similar names, but are actually distinct types
note: `Transform` is defined in crate `bevy_transform`
  --> /home/iyes/.cargo/registry/src/index.crates.io-6f17d22bba15001f/bevy_transform-0.14.0-rc.2/src/components/transform.rs:43:1
   |
43 | pub struct Transform {
   | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
note: `Transform` is defined in crate `bevy_transform`
  --> /home/iyes/.cargo/registry/src/index.crates.io-6f17d22bba15001f/bevy_transform-0.12.1/src/components/transform.rs:41:1
   |
41 | pub struct Transform {
   | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   = note: perhaps two different versions of crate `bevy_transform` are being used?

Or perhaps errors about common Bevy traits like Component, Bundle, or Plugins not being implemented on types that clearly should have them.

New Cargo Resolver

Cargo recently added a new dependency resolver algorithm, that is incompatible with the old one. Bevy requires the new resolver.

If you are just creating a new blank Cargo project, don't worry. This should already be setup correctly by cargo new.

If you are getting weird compiler errors from Bevy dependencies, read on. Make sure you have the correct configuration, and then clear the cargo state.

Single-Crate Projects

In a single-crate project (if you only have one Cargo.toml file in your project), if you are using the latest Rust2021 Edition, the new resolver is automatically enabled.

So, you need either one of these settings in your Cargo.toml:

[package]
edition = "2021"

or

[package]
resolver = "2"

Multi-Crate Workspaces

In a multi-crate Cargo workspace, the resolver is a global setting for the whole workspace. It will not be enabled by default.

This can bite you if you are transitioning a single-crate project into a workspace.

You must add it manually to the top-level Cargo.toml for your Cargo Workspace:

[workspace]
resolver = "2"