CARGO-DOC(1)

📦 version 1.81.0, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

🎀 cargo-doc(1) — Build a package’s documentation 🎀

(from the General Commands Manual, but make it cute)

🌸 NAME 🌸

cargo-doc — Build a package’s documentation

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

cargo doc [options]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay bestie, so cargo doc builds the documentation for your local package and all its dependencies. The output lands in target/doc in rustdoc’s usual format. That’s the whole vibe. ✨

👑 OPTIONS 👑

📄 Documentation Options 📄

  • --open — Opens the docs in a browser after building them. This uses your default browser unless you define another one in the BROWSER environment variable or use the doc.browser config option (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#docbrowser). 💅
  • --no-deps — Do not build documentation for dependencies. Simple as that.
  • --document-private-items — Include non-public items in the documentation. This gets enabled by default if you’re documenting a binary target. 🔥

📦 Package Selection 📦

By default, when no package selection options are given, the packages selected depend on the selected manifest file (based on the current working directory if --manifest-path is not given). If the manifest is the root of a workspace then the workspace’s default members are selected, otherwise only the package defined by the manifest will be selected. 🫶

The default members of a workspace can be set explicitly with the workspace.default-members key in the root manifest. If this is not set, a virtual workspace will include all workspace members (equivalent to passing --workspace), and a non-virtual workspace will include only the root crate itself. No cap.

  • -p *spec*…, --package *spec*… — Document only the specified packages. See cargo-pkgid(1) for the SPEC format. This flag may be specified multiple times and supports common Unix glob patterns like *, ? and []. However, to avoid your shell accidentally expanding glob patterns before Cargo handles them, you must use single quotes or double quotes around each pattern. ✨
  • --workspace — Document all members in the workspace. All of them. The whole squad. 👯
  • --all — Deprecated alias for --workspace. It’s giving legacy, bestie. Still works, but it’s deprecated. 💀
  • --exclude *SPEC*… — Exclude the specified packages. Must be used in conjunction with the --workspace flag. This flag may be specified multiple times and supports common Unix glob patterns like *, ? and []. However, to avoid your shell accidentally expanding glob patterns before Cargo handles them, you must use single quotes or double quotes around each pattern. 🙈

🎯 Target Selection 🎯

When no target selection options are given, cargo doc will document all binary and library targets of the selected package. The binary will be skipped if its name is the same as the lib target. Binaries are skipped if they have required-features that are missing. That’s the default, periodt.

The default behavior can be changed by setting doc = false for the target in the manifest settings. Using target selection options will ignore the doc flag and will always document the given target. So if you ask for it, you get it. 💅

  • --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. Every single one.
  • --example *name*… — Document the specified example. This flag may be specified multiple times and supports common Unix glob patterns. 🧚
  • --examples — Document all example targets. Show me what you got. ✨

🧬 Feature Selection 🧬

The feature flags allow you to control which features are enabled. When no feature options are given, the default feature is activated for every selected package. That’s just the rules, bestie.

See the features documentation at 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. Bye default, love u. 🙈

⚙️ 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 at 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 at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/profiles.html for more details on profiles. 💅
  • --timings=fmts — Output information 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. For the data girlies. ✨

📁 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 at 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. Not me ignoring compatibility like it’s an ex. 🙈
  • --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. ✈️

Beware that this may result in different dependency resolution than online mode. Cargo will restrict itself to crates that are downloaded locally, even if there might be a newer version as indicated in the local copy of the index. See the cargo-fetch(1) command to download dependencies before going offline.

May also be specified with the net.offline config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html). 💖

  • --frozen — Equivalent to specifying both --locked and --offline. Two moods in one. ❄️

🧰 Common Options 🧰

  • +toolchain — If Cargo has been installed with rustup, and the first argument to cargo begins with +, it will be interpreted as a rustup toolchain name (such as +stable or +nightly). See the rustup documentation at https://rust-lang.github.io/rustup/overrides.html for more information about how toolchain overrides work. 🌙
  • --config KEY=VALUE or PATH — overrides a Cargo configuration value bestie 💖. The argument is either TOML syntax like KEY=VALUE, or a path to an extra config file you want Cargo to read too. You can pass this flag as many times as you want (stack 'em up, no cap). Full tea is in the command-line overrides section: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#command-line-overrides.
  • -C PATH — switches up the current working directory before anything else happens. So it changes where Cargo looks by default for the project manifest (Cargo.toml), and also which directories get searched when discovering .cargo/config.toml, etc. ✨ This one has to come before the command name, like:
cargo -C path/to/my-project build
Okay so this option is only available on the nightly channel (https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html) and it needs the -Z unstable-options flag to even turn on (see #10098 over at https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/10098). So if you're on stable, she is simply not coming to the party 🫶
  • -h, --help — prints help information. The classic. The little "what does this even do" button 💅
  • -Z flag — unstable (nightly-only) flags for Cargo. Run cargo -Z help if you wanna see the details 👑

🎀 Miscellaneous Options 🎀

  • -j N, --jobs N — how many parallel jobs to run. You can also set this with the build.jobs config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html). It 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 gave it. If you give it the string default, it resets the value back to the defaults. And it should not be 0. Like, at all. Zero jobs is giving nothing 🔥
  • --keep-going — build as many crates in the dependency graph as possible, instead of aborting the whole build the moment one of them fails. Honestly so valid 😭

For example: if the current package depends on two dependencies and one of them fails to build, cargo doc -j1 may or may not build the one that succeeds (it depends on which of the two builds Cargo picked to run first), whereas cargo doc -j1 --keep-going would definitely run both builds, even if the one it ran first fails. That's the whole point. She commits 💖

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

Cargo reads environment variables! For all the deets on exactly which ones, check the reference: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html.

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

  • 0: Cargo succeeded. The slay. The main character moment 👑
  • 101: Cargo failed to complete. It's giving tragic 😭

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

  1. Build the local package documentation and its dependencies, and output it to target/doc:
cargo doc

That's it. That's the whole vibe ✨

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

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

And that's the page bestie!! 💖 This one's CARGO-DOC(1) — part of the Cargo toolchain docs, dated right there in the footer alongside the source. Go forth and document your crates, you absolute icon 🎀🦋✨

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