Migrating from mdBook to Rustyll? This guide will help you transition your Rust documentation project to Rustyll’s more flexible platform while maintaining your content structure and style.

Installation

Since both mdBook and Rustyll are Rust-based tools, you likely already have Rust installed. If not:

# Install Rust if you haven't already
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Install Rustyll
cargo install rustyll

Automatic Migration

Rustyll provides a built-in migration tool for mdBook projects:

rustyll migrate --from mdbook --source ./my-mdbook-project --destination ./my-rustyll-site

This command will:

1. Copy all Markdown content files
2. Convert mdBook’s directory structure to Rustyll collections
3. Transform mdBook’s book.toml to Rustyll’s _config.yml
4. Create appropriate Liquid templates
5. Generate a migration report

Directory Structure Differences

mdBook	Rustyll	Notes
src/	Root directory	Content goes in the root folder in Rustyll
src/SUMMARY.md	_data/toc.yml	Table of contents becomes data file
book.toml	_config.yml	Configuration file
theme/	_sass/ and assets/	Theme customizations

Content Structure

mdBook organizes content as chapters in a single book. In Rustyll, this converts to a documentation collection:

# Rustyll collection configuration
collections:
  docs:
    output: true
    permalink: /docs/:path/

SUMMARY.md Conversion

mdBook’s SUMMARY.md becomes a structured YAML data file:

# mdBook (SUMMARY.md)
# Summary

- [Introduction](README.md)
- [Getting Started](getting-started.md)
    - [Installation](getting-started/installation.md)
    - [Configuration](getting-started/configuration.md)
- [Advanced Topics](advanced.md)

Converts to:

# Rustyll (_data/toc.yml)
- title: Introduction
  url: /docs/
- title: Getting Started
  url: /docs/getting-started/
  children:
    - title: Installation
      url: /docs/getting-started/installation/
    - title: Configuration
      url: /docs/getting-started/configuration/
- title: Advanced Topics
  url: /docs/advanced/

Configuration Conversion

mdBook’s TOML configuration converts to Rustyll’s YAML:

# mdBook (book.toml)
[book]
title = "My Documentation"
authors = ["Author Name"]
description = "A guide to my project"

[output.html]
git-repository-url = "https://github.com/me/myproject"
edit-url-template = "https://github.com/me/myproject/edit/main/{path}"

Converts to:

# Rustyll (_config.yml)
title: "My Documentation"
authors:
  - "Author Name"
description: "A guide to my project"
repository: "https://github.com/me/myproject"
edit_page_url: "https://github.com/me/myproject/edit/main/{path}"

# mdBook-specific features conversion
mdbook_compat:
  enabled: true  # Enable mdBook compatibility features

mdBook-specific Features

Rustyll provides equivalents for mdBook’s features:

mdBook Feature	Rustyll Equivalent
Code snippets with line numbers	Syntax highlighting with line numbers
Code snippets with highlighting	Syntax highlighting with emphasis
Search	Integrated search
Rust playground integration	Code execution blocks
Print page	Print-friendly stylesheets

Code Block Conversion

An mdBook code block can contain Rust-specific annotations:

```rust,edition2021,should_panic
fn main() {
    panic!("This will panic");
}
```

The equivalent code display in a Rustyll Markdown page uses a Rust code fence:

```rust
fn main() {
    panic!("This will panic");
}
```

A code fence displays source code; it does not execute the Rust example.