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Athreya aka Maneshwar
Athreya aka Maneshwar

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Servo: The Exp Web Browser Engine Written in Rust

#webdev #programming #rust #browser

Hello, I'm Maneshwar. I'm working on FreeDevTools online currently building *one place for all dev tools, cheat codes, and TLDRs* — a free, open-source hub where developers can quickly find and use tools without any hassle of searching all over the internet.

If you’ve ever wondered how a browser engine works under the hood, Servo is one of the best open-source projects to explore.

It’s a prototype browser engine built in Rust, focusing on performance, modularity, and safety — the same principles that power modern web tech today.

Let’s see what Servo is, what it can be used for, and how to install and run it on a Linux system like Linux Mint or Ubuntu.

What Is Servo?

Servo is an experimental browser engine originally started by Mozilla Research, now maintained by the open-source community under the Linux Foundation Europe.

It’s written entirely in Rust, which gives it strong memory safety and concurrency benefits.

In short, Servo aims to:

  • Render web content using parallel processing (using Rust threads safely)
  • Experiment with new browser architectures
  • Serve as a base for embedding web rendering in other applications
  • Push forward browser performance and security research

Think of it as an open lab for the next generation of web engines — modular, fast, and hackable.

What You Can Do With Servo

  • Render web pages with a minimal, experimental browser
  • Embed it inside apps to render HTML/CSS (like an engine inside an Electron alternative)
  • Learn browser internals — layout, rendering pipeline, DOM, CSS, and scripting
  • Contribute to real-world Rust code used for browser development

Servo supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and Android builds.

Prerequisites

Servo’s codebase uses Rust and C/C++ dependencies.
You’ll need a few tools before building it.

Install Build Tools

Run these commands in your terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git curl build-essential cmake python3 python3-pip libssl-dev pkg-config clang
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Why Clang Is Needed

Clang is a modern compiler from the LLVM project.
Servo depends on Clang for compiling native C/C++ components that interact with Rust code.

You can check if Clang is installed with:

clang --version
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It’s lightweight and can coexist with GCC — no conflicts.

Install Rust Toolchain

Servo is written in Rust, so install it via rustup:

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
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Choose 1 (default installation) when prompted.
After installation, load Rust’s environment variables:

source $HOME/.cargo/env
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To make this permanent (so you don’t need to run it every time):

echo 'source $HOME/.cargo/env' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
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Check versions:

rustc --version
cargo --version
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Clone the Servo Repository

Now grab the source code:

git clone https://github.com/servo/servo.git
cd servo
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Build Servo

Servo uses a helper tool called mach to manage builds and dependencies.

Bootstrap first (downloads Python and Rust packages):

./mach bootstrap
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Then build in release mode:

./mach build --release
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This will take a while — Servo is a full browser engine.

Run Servo

After the build finishes, you can test it:

./mach run https://example.com
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It should open a minimal browser window rendering the web page.

If you want to test without opening a window (headless mode):

./mach run --headless https://example.com
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Troubleshooting

If you hit errors about missing libraries or outdated Rust versions:

rustup update
./mach clean
./mach build --release
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Wrap-Up

Servo isn’t a daily browser replacement — it’s a browser engine lab.
You can use it to:

  • Learn browser rendering internals
  • Embed a fast, modular engine in your own Rust or C++ projects
  • Contribute to a real open-source experiment backed by modern compiler technology

And yes — without Clang, it won’t even compile.
So make sure you have it installed before starting your Servo journey.

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