Using Linnet from Rust

Use Linnet when a problem is naturally expressed as a half-edge graph with an explicit boundary. This example builds the smallest such graph, validates its involution, and emits DOT that can be inspected or handed to a renderer.

Create a Rust project

cargo new linnet-quickstart
cd linnet-quickstart
cargo add linnet@0.17

Replace src/main.rs with:

use linnet::half_edge::{
    builder::HedgeGraphBuilder, involution::Flow, HedgeGraph,
};

fn main() {
    let mut builder = HedgeGraphBuilder::new();
    let source = builder.add_node("source");
    let sink = builder.add_node("sink");

    builder.add_edge(source, sink, "propagator", false);
    builder.add_external_edge(source, "incoming", false, Flow::Sink);
    builder.add_external_edge(sink, "outgoing", false, Flow::Source);

    let graph: HedgeGraph<&str, &str> = builder.build();
    graph.check().expect("the half-edge involution is valid");

    assert_eq!(graph.n_externals(), 2);
    println!("{}", graph.dot_label(&graph.full_filter()));
}

Run it with cargo run. The output is a DOT graph with one paired internal edge and two dangling boundary edges. graph.check() is the important first invariant: run it immediately after constructing or parsing a graph, before applying graph algorithms.

Continue with the graph tutorial to select a subgraph and compute a cycle basis. Use the Clinnet guide to render existing DOT files, or the Typst guide to construct and draw an editable graph with Linnest.

linnet is a library, so add it to a project with cargo add; cargo install and Cargo Binstall apply to executables. The separately versioned Clinnet renderer can be installed with cargo install clinnet --locked.