## Separating Modules into Different Files

So far, all the examples in this chapter defined multiple modules in one file.
When modules get large, you might want to move their definitions to a separate
file to make the code easier to navigate.

For example, let’s start from the code in Listing 7-17 that had multiple
restaurant modules. We’ll extract modules into files instead of having all the
modules defined in the crate root file. In this case, the crate root file is
_src/lib.rs_, but this procedure also works with binary crates whose crate root
file is _src/main.rs_.

First we’ll extract the `front_of_house` module to its own file. Remove the
code inside the curly brackets for the `front_of_house` module, leaving only
the `mod front_of_house;` declaration, so that _src/lib.rs_ contains the code
shown in Listing 7-21. Note that this won’t compile until we create the
_src/front_of_house.rs_ file in Listing 7-22.

<Listing number="7-21" file-name="src/lib.rs" caption="Declaring the `front_of_house` module whose body will be in *src/front_of_house.rs*">

```rust,ignore,does_not_compile
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch07-managing-growing-projects/listing-07-21-and-22/src/lib.rs}}
```

</Listing>

Next, place the code that was in the curly brackets into a new file named
_src/front_of_house.rs_, as shown in Listing 7-22. The compiler knows to look
in this file because it came across the module declaration in the crate root
with the name `front_of_house`.

<Listing number="7-22" file-name="src/front_of_house.rs" caption="Definitions inside the `front_of_house` module in *src/front_of_house.rs*">

```rust,ignore
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch07-managing-growing-projects/listing-07-21-and-22/src/front_of_house.rs}}
```

</Listing>

Note that you only need to load a file using a `mod` declaration _once_ in your
module tree. Once the compiler knows the file is part of the project (and knows
where in the module tree the code resides because of where you’ve put the `mod`
statement), other files in your project should refer to the loaded file’s code
using a path to where it was declared, as covered in the [“Paths for Referring
to an Item in the Module Tree”][paths]<!-- ignore --> section. In other words,
`mod` is _not_ an “include” operation that you may have seen in other
programming languages.

Next, we’ll extract the `hosting` module to its own file. The process is a bit
different because `hosting` is a child module of `front_of_house`, not of the
root module. We’ll place the file for `hosting` in a new directory that will be
named for its ancestors in the module tree, in this case _src/front_of_house_.

To start moving `hosting`, we change _src/front_of_house.rs_ to contain only
the declaration of the `hosting` module:

<Listing file-name="src/front_of_house.rs">

```rust,ignore
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch07-managing-growing-projects/no-listing-02-extracting-hosting/src/front_of_house.rs}}
```

</Listing>

Then we create a _src/front_of_house_ directory and a _hosting.rs_ file to
contain the definitions made in the `hosting` module:

<Listing file-name="src/front_of_house/hosting.rs">

```rust,ignore
{{#rustdoc_include ../listings/ch07-managing-growing-projects/no-listing-02-extracting-hosting/src/front_of_house/hosting.rs}}
```

</Listing>

If we instead put _hosting.rs_ in the _src_ directory, the compiler would
expect the _hosting.rs_ code to be in a `hosting` module declared in the crate
root, and not declared as a child of the `front_of_house` module. The
compiler’s rules for which files to check for which modules’ code mean the
directories and files more closely match the module tree.

> ### Alternate File Paths
>
> So far we’ve covered the most idiomatic file paths the Rust compiler uses,
> but Rust also supports an older style of file path. For a module named
> `front_of_house` declared in the crate root, the compiler will look for the
> module’s code in:
>
> - _src/front_of_house.rs_ (what we covered)
> - _src/front_of_house/mod.rs_ (older style, still supported path)
>
> For a module named `hosting` that is a submodule of `front_of_house`, the
> compiler will look for the module’s code in:
>
> - _src/front_of_house/hosting.rs_ (what we covered)
> - _src/front_of_house/hosting/mod.rs_ (older style, still supported path)
>
> If you use both styles for the same module, you’ll get a compiler error.
> Using a mix of both styles for different modules in the same project is
> allowed, but might be confusing for people navigating your project.
>
> The main downside to the style that uses files named _mod.rs_ is that your
> project can end up with many files named _mod.rs_, which can get confusing
> when you have them open in your editor at the same time.

We’ve moved each module’s code to a separate file, and the module tree remains
the same. The function calls in `eat_at_restaurant` will work without any
modification, even though the definitions live in different files. This
technique lets you move modules to new files as they grow in size.

Note that the `pub use crate::front_of_house::hosting` statement in
_src/lib.rs_ also hasn’t changed, nor does `use` have any impact on what files
are compiled as part of the crate. The `mod` keyword declares modules, and Rust
looks in a file with the same name as the module for the code that goes into
that module.

## Summary

Rust lets you split a package into multiple crates and a crate into modules so
you can refer to items defined in one module from another module. You can do
this by specifying absolute or relative paths. These paths can be brought into
scope with a `use` statement so you can use a shorter path for multiple uses of
the item in that scope. Module code is private by default, but you can make
definitions public by adding the `pub` keyword.

In the next chapter, we’ll look at some collection data structures in the
standard library that you can use in your neatly organized code.

[paths]: ch07-03-paths-for-referring-to-an-item-in-the-module-tree.html