Design Patterns in Rust

The book "Design Patterns in Rust" is a practical guide to applying classic and modern patterns in the Rust ecosystem. Unlike traditional languages, Rust imposes specific requirements for memory management and safety, which leaves its mark on the implementation of even the most familiar templates.

The author, Artyom Volkov — an experienced Rust developer and contributor to several open-source projects — shows how to adapt GoF patterns (Singleton, Builder, Factory, Visitor, and others) to the unique model of ownership, borrowing, and lifetimes. You will learn why some classic patterns in Rust are redundant or even harmful, and what idiomatic replacements the language offers.

Book Contents

• Creational Patterns: Builder with typed states, Factory via traits, Singleton using OnceCell and LazyLock.
• Structural Patterns: Adapter via generics, Composite with the Box trait, Decorator using wrappers.
• Behavioral Patterns: Strategy via closures, Observer with std::sync::mpsc channels, Visitor with enum instead of double dispatch.
• Rust Idioms: Typestate pattern, Newtype pattern, RAII with destructors, From/Into for conversions.
• Advanced Topics: Patterns for asynchronous code (async/await), working with macros for code generation, safe wrappers over unsafe code.

Who This Book Is For

• Developers transitioning from Java, C++, or Python to Rust — helps avoid common mistakes.
• Experienced Rustaceans looking to systematize knowledge and learn best practices.
• Software architects seeking ways to build reliable and scalable systems in Rust.
• Students and educators studying modern approaches to design.

Each pattern is accompanied by: a problem statement, a diagram, complete Rust code, a trade-off analysis, and a comparison with implementations in other languages. You will learn not just to copy templates, but to understand when and why to apply them in the context of Rust.

The book is written in a lively style, contains many examples from real projects (web servers, parsers, game engines), and exercises to reinforce the material. After reading, you will be able to design systems that compile on the first try, are resilient to errors, and use resources efficiently.

Perfect for self-study and as a reference for daily work.