Usage Reference

Virtual Slicing (recommended)

Linux / macOS

# Install nightly driver (one-time)
cargo +nightly install cargo-slicer \
  --features rustc-driver \
  --bin cargo-slicer-rustc \
  --bin cargo_slicer_dispatch

# Pre-analyze workspace call graph (seconds)
cargo-slicer pre-analyze

# Build with virtual slicing
cargo clean
CARGO_SLICER_VIRTUAL=1 CARGO_SLICER_CODEGEN_FILTER=1 \
  RUSTC_WRAPPER=$(which cargo_slicer_dispatch) \
  cargo +nightly build --release

WSL on Windows drives (`/mnt/c/`, `/mnt/d/`, …)

Same as above but disable sccache to avoid NTFS permission errors:

SCCACHE_IDLE_TIMEOUT=0 cargo +nightly install cargo-slicer \
  --features rustc-driver \
  --bin cargo-slicer-rustc \
  --bin cargo_slicer_dispatch

cargo-slicer pre-analyze

cargo clean
CARGO_SLICER_VIRTUAL=1 CARGO_SLICER_CODEGEN_FILTER=1 \
  CARGO_SLICER_SCCACHE=/nonexistent \
  RUSTC_WRAPPER=$(which cargo_slicer_dispatch) \
  cargo +nightly build --release

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
(default)	Source slicing: copy deps, delete unused items
`build [ARGS]`	Slice deps then build with sliced crates
`pre-analyze [--parser BACKEND]`	Cross-crate static analysis for virtual slicing
`generate [-o DIR] [--delete]`	Write a sliced source copy without modifying the original
`rl-bench [OPTIONS]`	Measure compile speedup as RL training KPIs

Pre-analysis parser backends

cargo-slicer pre-analyze                # syn (default, most accurate)
cargo-slicer pre-analyze --parser fast  # fast tokenizer
cargo-slicer pre-analyze --parser ctags # items only, no call edges

Backend	Speed	Call edges	Use when
`syn`	0.5–12 s	Yes, accurate	Default — best stubs
`fast`	< 1 s	Yes, approximate	Large workspaces, time-sensitive
`ctags`	Fastest	None	Items-only analysis

Source slicing (stable, no nightly)

cargo-slicer                # slice all deps
cargo-slicer regex          # slice one crate
cargo-slicer --clean        # clean and re-slice
cargo-slicer -O             # fast production mode (skip verification)
cargo-slicer build --release  # slice + build

Optimization levels

Level	Description
`-O0`	No deletion — safe baseline
`-O1`	Delete private functions (with verification)
`-O2`	Delete all private items + trial deletion
`-O3`	Graph-guided deletion (default)
`-O`	Fast production — skip verification