How do I fetch and compile only the dev-dependencies? [duplicate]

Question

The Rust Cargo.toml specification file allows for development dependencies section, e.g. [dev-dependencies]

Cargo.toml:

[dev-dependencies]
tempdir = "0.3"

What is the command to fetch and compile those development dependencies?

To be clear, I want to fetch and compile only the [dev-dependencies]. The Linked questions differ in that they address fetching and compiling all dependencies and then building the application.

Answer 1

I do not have enough reputation so I just answer.

As declare by your link and rust-by-example, it is impossible to "build" a binary from dev-dependencies.

Sometimes there is a need to have dependencies for tests (or examples, or benchmarks) only. Such dependencies are added to Cargo.toml in the [dev-dependencies] section

To be sneaky, may be you can put some function under #[cfg(test)] and run cargo test so that your goal can be achieved.

A more appropriate way to selectively build by cargo using the feature flag, in cargo.toml and cargo command. You can take a look at the cargo command to toggle feature here and optional dependencies which help control categorizing of features.