After some recent head-banging, it was explained to me that `"build.rs"` is a special file name, and that Cargo will build such a file even if you do not expect it to, for example if `Cargo.toml` contains the commented out line
```
#build = "build.rs"
```
Some experimentation lead me to the described behavior, but if it misses any subtle details please feel free to correct. The old text is incorrect, though.
The Rust file designated by the `build` command (relative to the package root)
will be compiled and invoked before anything else is compiled in the package,
-allowing your Rust code to depend on the built or generated artifacts. Note
-that there is no default value for `build`, it must be explicitly specified if
-required.
+allowing your Rust code to depend on the built or generated artifacts. Note that
+if you do not specify a value for `build` but your package root does contains a
+`"build.rs"` file, Cargo will compile and invoke this file for you.
Some example use cases of the build command are: