Updating a Rust Project to Latest Dependencies

I recently updated an older Rust project (termdex, a terminal-based Pokédex) to use the latest package versions. Here’s what I ran into and how I fixed it.

The Starting Point

The project was using older versions of most dependencies:

• ratatui 0.26 (still named tui in Cargo.toml)
• diesel 2.0.0
• crossterm 0.26
• reqwest 0.11
• And several others

The goal was to get everything up to the latest stable versions while keeping the project functional.

Major Updates

Ratatui Migration

The biggest change was moving from ratatui 0.27 to 0.29. The library had several API changes:

• Frame generics: Frame<B> became just Frame (no generic parameter)
• Area method: f.size() → f.area()
• Cursor positioning: f.set_cursor() → f.set_cursor_position() (takes a tuple now)
• Text API: Spans was replaced with Line. Code like Text::from(Spans::from(...)) became Text::from(vec![Line::from(...)])
• Wrap API: Wrap { trim: true } works, but Wrap::trim() doesn’t exist in 0.29

Diesel Macros

Diesel 2.1 deprecated the old #[table_name = "..."] syntax. I updated all models to use the new format:

// Old
#[table_name = "pokemon"]
pub struct NewPokemon { ... }

// New
#[diesel(table_name = pokemon)]
pub struct NewPokemon { ... }

Version Conflicts

The trickiest part was resolving version conflicts between dependencies:

• tui-input 0.8 used crossterm 0.27, but ratatui 0.29 needs crossterm 0.28
• Solution: Updated tui-input to 0.14, which supports crossterm 0.28
• ansi-to-tui had similar issues—upgraded from 3.0 to 7.0 to match ratatui 0.29

Docker Updates

The Dockerfiles needed Rust 1.86 to compile the latest diesel_cli (2.3.3). Updated both Dockerfiles from rust:1.82 to rust:1.86.

Common Issues

1. Borrow checker: Had to clone Text objects before passing them to widgets when they’re used later
2. Unused variables: Some loops had index that wasn’t used, but in one case it was actually needed for array indexing
3. Deprecated methods: Various method renames and API changes that required grep searches through the codebase

The Process

I used Cursor’s AI assistant to help with this. The workflow was:

1. Update Cargo.toml with target versions
2. Run cargo build to see errors
3. Fix compilation errors one by one
4. Repeat until it builds

The AI was helpful for finding all the places that needed changes (like searching for f.size() or #[table_name), but you still need to understand the codebase structure to make the right fixes.

Final Result

After updating:

• ratatui: 0.27 → 0.29
• crossterm: 0.27 → 0.28
• diesel: 2.0.0 → 2.1
• reqwest: 0.11 → 0.12
• tui-input: 0.8 → 0.14
• ansi-to-tui: 3.0 → 7.0

Everything compiles and works. The warnings about unused imports and results are still there, but those are non-blocking.

Takeaways

1. Read the error messages carefully—they often point to exactly what needs changing
2. Update in stages—don’t try to update everything at once
3. Version conflicts are common—dependencies often have their own version requirements
4. Keep Dockerfiles in sync—Rust version requirements can break builds

The whole process took a couple of hours, mostly spent fixing API changes and resolving version conflicts. The code is now on modern, maintained versions of all dependencies.