CARGO-RUSTDOC(1)

📦 version 1.80.1, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

💖 NAME 💖

cargo-rustdoc — build a package's documentation, using specified custom flags 🎀

it's giving "docs, but make it your flags", bestie. fr fr.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

cargo rustdoc [options] [-- args]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so here's the vibe: the target you pick for the current package (or the package you name with -p if you bothered) gets documented, and whatever args you tack on get passed straight through to the final rustdoc invocation. Dependencies do NOT get documented as part of this command. not even a little. 💅

and heads up — rustdoc will still unconditionally receive arguments like -L, --extern, and --crate-type. your specified args just get added on top of those. no cap.

for the full lore on rustdoc flags, go read https://doc.rust-lang.org/rustdoc/index.html 📚

⚠️ this command requires that only one target is being compiled when you provide additional arguments. if more than one target is available for the current package, you must use the filters of --lib, --bin, etc, to select which target is compiled. no vibes-based guessing allowed, bestie.

if you wanna pass flags to all the rustdoc processes Cargo spawns, use the RUSTDOCFLAGS environment variable (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html) or the build.rustdocflags config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html). that's the move for a global vibe. 🌈

👑 OPTIONS 👑

🎀 Documentation Options 🎀

📦 Package Selection 📦

by default, the package in the current working directory is the chosen one. the -p flag lets you pick a different package in a workspace. ✨

  • -p spec, --package spec — the package to document. see cargo-pkgid(1) for the SPEC format.

🎯 Target Selection 🎯

when you give no target selection options, cargo rustdoc will document all binary and library targets of the selected package. the binary gets skipped if its name is the same as the lib target. binaries are also skipped if they have required-features that are missing. bye bestie 👋

passing target selection flags will document only the specified targets. that's it, that's the list.

💡 note that --bin, --example, --test and --bench flags also support common Unix glob patterns like *, ? and []. BUT — to avoid your shell accidentally expanding glob patterns before Cargo can handle them, you must use single quotes or double quotes around each glob pattern. protect the globs, bestie. 🛡️
  • --lib — document the package's library.
  • --bin name… — document the specified binary. this flag may be specified multiple times and supports common Unix glob patterns.
  • --bins — document all binary targets.
  • --example name… — document the specified example. this flag may be specified multiple times and supports common Unix glob patterns.
  • --examples — document all example targets.
  • --test name… — document the specified integration test. this flag may be specified multiple times and supports common Unix glob patterns.
  • --tests — document all targets in test mode that have the test = true manifest flag set. by default this includes the library and binaries built as unittests, and integration tests. be aware that this will also build any required dependencies, so the lib target may be built twice (once as a unittest, and once as a dependency for binaries, integration tests, etc.). targets may be enabled or disabled by setting the test flag in the manifest settings for the target.
  • --bench name… — document the specified benchmark. this flag may be specified multiple times and supports common Unix glob patterns.
  • --benches — document all targets in benchmark mode that have the bench = true manifest flag set. by default this includes the library and binaries built as benchmarks, and bench targets. be aware that this will also build any required dependencies, so the lib target may be built twice (once as a benchmark, and once as a dependency for binaries, benchmarks, etc.). targets may be enabled or disabled by setting the bench flag in the manifest settings for the target.
  • --all-targets — document all targets. this is equivalent to specifying --lib --bins --tests --benches --examples. the whole buffet, no notes. 🍓

🌸 Feature Selection 🌸

the feature flags let you control which features are enabled. when no feature options are given, the default feature is activated for every selected package. periodt.

see the features documentation (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html#command-line-feature-options) for more details.

  • -F features, --features features — space or comma separated list of features to activate. features of workspace members may be enabled with package-name/feature-name syntax. this flag may be specified multiple times, which enables all specified features.
  • --all-features — activate all available features of all selected packages. go big or go home.
  • --no-default-features — do not activate the default feature of the selected packages.

🔥 Compilation Options 🔥

  • --target triple — document for the given architecture. the default is the host architecture. the general format of the triple is <arch><sub>-<vendor>-<sys>-<abi>. run rustc --print target-list for a list of supported targets. this flag may be specified multiple times.

this may also be specified with the build.target config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).

👀 note that specifying this flag makes Cargo run in a different mode where the target artifacts are placed in a separate directory. see the build cache documentation (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/guide/build-cache.html) for more details.
  • -r, --release — document optimized artifacts with the release profile. see also the --profile option for choosing a specific profile by name.
  • --profile name — document with the given profile. see the reference (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/profiles.html) for more details on profiles.
  • --timings=fmts — output information about how long each compilation takes, and track concurrency information over time. accepts an optional comma-separated list of output formats; --timings without an argument will default to --timings=html. specifying an output format (rather than the default) is unstable and requires -Zunstable-options. valid output formats:
    • html (unstable, requires -Zunstable-options): write a human-readable file cargo-timing.html to the target/cargo-timings directory with a report of the compilation. also write a report to the same directory with a timestamp in the filename if you want to look at older runs. HTML output is suitable for human consumption only, and does not provide machine-readable timing data.
    • json (unstable, requires -Zunstable-options): emit machine-readable JSON information about timing information.

💜 Output Options 💜

  • --target-dir directory — directory for all generated artifacts and intermediate files. may also be specified with the CARGO_TARGET_DIR environment variable, or the build.target-dir config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html). defaults to target in the root of the workspace.

🌈 Display Options 🌈

  • -v, --verbose — use verbose output. may be specified twice for "very verbose" output, which includes extra output such as dependency warnings and build script output. may also be specified with the term.verbose config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).
  • -q, --quiet — do not print cargo log messages. may also be specified with the term.quiet config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).
  • --color when — control when colored output is used. valid values:
    • auto (default): automatically detect if color support is available on the terminal.
    • always: always display colors.
    • never: never display colors.

may also be specified with the term.color config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).

  • --message-format fmt — the output format for diagnostic messages. can be specified multiple times and consists of comma-separated values. valid values:
    • human (default): display in a human-readable text format. conflicts with short and json.
    • short: emit shorter, human-readable text messages. conflicts with human and json.
    • json: emit JSON messages to stdout. see the reference (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/external-tools.html#json-messages) for more details. conflicts with human and short.
    • json-diagnostic-short: ensure the rendered field of JSON messages contains the "short" rendering from rustc. cannot be used with human or short.
    • json-diagnostic-rendered-ansi: ensure the rendered field of JSON messages contains embedded ANSI color codes for respecting rustc's default color scheme. cannot be used with human or short.
    • json-render-diagnostics: instruct Cargo to not include rustc diagnostics in JSON messages printed, but instead Cargo itself should render the JSON diagnostics coming from rustc. Cargo's own JSON diagnostics and others coming from rustc are still emitted. cannot be used with human or short.

🫶 Manifest Options 🫶

  • --manifest-path path — path to the Cargo.toml file. by default, Cargo searches for the Cargo.toml file in the current directory or any parent directory.
  • --ignore-rust-version — ignore rust-version specification in packages.
  • --locked — asserts that the exact same dependencies and versions are used as when the existing Cargo.lock file was originally generated. Cargo will exit with an error when either of the following scenarios arises:
    • the lock file is missing.
    • Cargo attempted to change the lock file due to a different dependency resolution.

it may be used in environments where deterministic builds are desired, such as in CI pipelines. 🔒

  • --offline — prevents Cargo from accessing the network for any reason. without this flag, Cargo will stop with an error if it needs to access the network and the network is not available. with this flag, Cargo will attempt to proceed without the network if possible. airplane mode but for your builds ✈️

Lowkey important: this can give you a different dependency resolution than online mode does. Cargo is gonna restrict itself to crates that are already downloaded locally, even if a newer version exists as indicated in the local copy of the index. So if you wanna go offline, peep the cargo-fetch(1) command to download your deps first bestie, fr fr.

Can also be set with the net.offline config value https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html.

  • --frozen — this is just --locked and --offline holding hands. Specifying one = specifying both. 🫶

✨ Common Options ✨

  • +toolchain — okay so if Cargo was installed with rustup, and the first argument to cargo starts with +, it gets read as a rustup toolchain name (think +stable or +nightly). Peep the rustup docs https://rust-lang.github.io/rustup/overrides.html for the whole tea on how toolchain overrides work. 👑
  • --config KEY=VALUE or PATH — overrides a Cargo config value. The argument should be in TOML syntax as KEY=VALUE, or handed over as a path to an extra config file. You can drop this flag multiple times, no cap. See the command-line overrides section https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#command-line-overrides for more. ✨
  • -C PATH — changes the current working directory before running any of the specified operations. This affects stuff like where cargo looks by default for the project manifest (Cargo.toml), plus the directories it searches to discover .cargo/config.toml, for example. This option must appear before the command name, like:
cargo -C path/to/my-project build
Real talk: this option is only available on the nightly channel https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html and needs the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #10098 https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/10098). So if you're on stable it's giving "not today". 💀
  • -h, --help — prints help information. The classic. 🙈
  • -Z flag — unstable (nightly-only) flags for Cargo. Run cargo -Z help for the details. 🧚

💅 Miscellaneous Options 💅

  • -j N, --jobs N — number of parallel jobs to run. Can also be set with the build.jobs config value https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html. Defaults to the number of logical CPUs. If it's negative, it sets the max number of parallel jobs to the number of logical CPUs plus the value you provided. If a string default is provided, it sets the value back to defaults. And bestie, it should not be 0. 🚫
  • --keep-going — build as many crates in the dependency graph as possible, rather than aborting the build the moment the first one fails.

Example time: if the current package depends on dependencies fails and works, one of which fails to build, cargo rustdoc -j1 may or may not build the one that succeeds (depending on which of the two builds Cargo picked to run first). Meanwhile cargo rustdoc -j1 --keep-going would definitely run both builds, even if the one run first fails. Main character energy, honestly. 🔥

Heads up: this option is only available on the nightly channel https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html and needs the -Z unstable-options flag to enable.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

See the reference https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html for the details on environment variables that Cargo reads. 🌸

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

  • 0: Cargo succeeded. slay. ✅
  • 101: Cargo failed to complete. 😭

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

  1. Build documentation with custom CSS included from a given file:
cargo rustdoc --lib -- --extend-css extra.css

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

cargo(1), cargo-doc(1), rustdoc(1)

And that's the whole page bestie!! 💖 This was the cargo-rustdoc(1) manual page — section 1 of the Cargo manual, so keep that in your back pocket. Go forth and document your crates, you absolute icon. 👑✨💜

📦 where this page comes from