Config-independent way of specifying alternative registry in Cargo.toml

[kornelski]

Problem

Cargo allows pulling dependencies from alternative registries by specifying registry = "name" in deps' details in Cargo.toml.

However, the registry name itself is not sufficient to identify the registry to use. It is an arbitrary nickname given in .cargo/config.toml (or even its substitute like an env var). The flexibility of this level of indirection is generally very useful during development, but it also means that the Cargo.toml information is not fully self-contained, and its real meaning depends on the environment.

This becomes more of an issue when publishing crates to a registry. The Publish API contains a JSON blob that translates the registry nicknames into proper absolute URL. But the JSON blob in the Publish API is separate from Cargo.toml, and to protect against mischievous clients, a registry server should be verifying data directly from Cargo.toml. Lack of registry URLs in the Cargo.toml is the only reason to keep the otherwise redundant JSON blob.

Proposed Solution

Cargo already rewrites Cargo.toml when publishing. If the manifest registry key was extended to allow full URLs, then Cargo could make the manifest unambiguous and self-contained during publishing.

The registry field in the JSON blob treats null value as "the registry I'm uploading to". This is very useful for the registries, since recognizing registry's own external name can be tricky (if the server is behind a proxy). This would need a special-case value in Cargo.toml too, different from absence of the registry key to avoid ambiguity with crates-io (maybe registry = "self").

Another option would be to add a mapping table to Cargo.toml, such as [registries] name = "url".

Notes

No response

[ehuss]

Sorry, I'm not fully understanding this issue. When published, the URL is resolved as registry-index in Cargo.toml. Can you say more about why that is insufficient for generating the index entry?

[kornelski]

My bad! I've overlooked the registry-index field.