Contributing features back to cargo?

[rex-remind101]

This is very cool, but is there a reason these features aren't added directly back to cargo test? If there is a reason could it be documented?

[sunshowers]

Hi there, thanks for the report. There are a few reasons nextest is a separate project:

• As documented at https://nexte.st/book/how-it-works.html, nextest has a significantly thicker interface. cargo test cannot just change how it works without breaking backwards compatibility, while nextest did not have this constraint at the time it was created.
• It's easier to experiment with improvements without having to worry about the long-term stability guarantees provided by Cargo, or go through the (necessarily) heavyweight Rust RFC process.
• Ultimately, as mentioned in the readme, nextest is a gift. I only have limited time to work on it these days and it's a far more efficient use of my time to maintain nextest than to try and port the changes over to cargo test (which won't make nextest fully redundant anyway, so I'll still have to maintain it).

With all that said, there is currently an ongoing effort to add parts of nextest to cargo test. I'd love to see how that plays out over time. However I expect that nextest will always have a role as a place to experiment with UX and workflow improvements.

I'd welcome a PR which captures this information, probably added to the bottom of https://nexte.st/book/how-it-works.html. Would you like to submit this PR?

[rex-remind101]

Thanks for the thoughtful explanation! I can add a pr once the weekend arrives.

[rex-remind101]

#963 lmk if this works :)

[sunshowers]

Thanks! Closing since this is now at https://nexte.st/book/how-it-works.html#contributing-features-back-to-cargo.