How to Debug Rust in RustRover (IntelliJ)

To debug Rust in RustRover, you must first link the IDE to the local rustc source code because RustRover cannot resolve compiler internals via extern crate alone. Run the following command in your terminal, replacing <repo-path> with the absolute path to your cloned rust-lang/rust repository:

cargo dev setup intellij --repo-path <repo-path>

This command modifies your Cargo.toml files to use path dependencies for rustc crates, enabling code completion and debugging. Once setup is complete, restart RustRover to apply the changes.

RustRover cannot see inside the Rust compiler's source code by default, which breaks debugging for tools like Clippy. This command tells the IDE where your local copy of the compiler source lives so it can read the files directly. Think of it as giving the IDE a map to the compiler's internal files so it can understand your code.