CARGO-INSTALL(1)

📦 version 1.81.0, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

✨ NAME ✨

cargo-install(1) — Build and install a Rust binary. That's the whole vibe, bestie. 💖

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

cargo install [options] --path path
cargo install [options] --git url [crate…]
cargo install [options] --list

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Okay so this command manages Cargo's local set of installed binary crates. Only packages which have executable [[bin]] or [[example]] targets can be installed, and all executables are installed into the installation root's bin folder. By default only binaries, not examples, are installed. Periodt. 💅

The installation root is determined, in order of precedence:

There are multiple sources from which a crate can be installed. The default source location is crates.io but the --git, --path, and --registry flags can change this source. If the source contains more than one package (such as crates.io or a git repository with multiple crates) the crate argument is required to indicate which crate should be installed. No cap. 🧚

Crates from crates.io can optionally specify the version they wish to install via the --version flags, and similarly packages from git repositories can optionally specify the branch, tag, or revision that should be installed. If a crate has multiple binaries, the --bin argument can selectively install only one of them, and if you'd rather install examples the --example argument can be used as well. It's giving options. ✨

If the package is already installed, Cargo will reinstall it if the installed version does not appear to be up-to-date. If any of the following values change, then Cargo will reinstall the package:

  • The package version and source.
  • The set of binary names installed.
  • The chosen features.
  • The profile (--profile).
  • The target (--target).

Installing with --path will always build and install, unless there are conflicting binaries from another package. The --force flag may be used to force Cargo to always reinstall the package. Lowkey powerful. 🔥

If the source is crates.io or --git then by default the crate will be built in a temporary target directory. To avoid this, the target directory can be specified by setting the CARGO_TARGET_DIR environment variable to a relative path. In particular, this can be useful for caching build artifacts on continuous integration systems. CI girlies, this one's for you. 🫶

🎀 Dealing with the Lockfile 🎀

By default, the Cargo.lock file that is included with the package will be ignored. This means that Cargo will recompute which versions of dependencies to use, possibly using newer versions that have been released since the package was published. The --locked flag can be used to force Cargo to use the packaged Cargo.lock file if it is available. This may be useful for ensuring reproducible builds, to use the exact same set of dependencies that were available when the package was published. It may also be useful if a newer version of a dependency is published that no longer builds on your system, or has other problems. The downside to using --locked is that you will not receive any fixes or updates to any dependency. Note that Cargo did not start publishing Cargo.lock files until version 1.37, which means packages published with prior versions will not have a Cargo.lock file available. Not me being stuck in the past. 💀

🌈 Configuration Discovery 🌈

This command operates on system or user level, not project level. This means that the local configuration discovery https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#hierarchical-structure is ignored. Instead, the configuration discovery begins at $CARGO_HOME/config.toml. If the package is installed with --path $PATH, the local configuration will be used, beginning discovery at $PATH/.cargo/config.toml. It's giving system-wide energy. 👑

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

💖 Install Options 💖

  • --vers version, --version version — Specify a version to install. This may be a version requirement https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html, like ~1.2, to have Cargo select the newest version from the given requirement. If the version does not have a requirement operator (such as ^ or ~), then it must be in the form MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, and will install exactly that version; it is not treated as a caret requirement like Cargo dependencies are.
  • --git url — Git URL to install the specified crate from.
  • --branch branch — Branch to use when installing from git.
  • --tag tag — Tag to use when installing from git.
  • --rev sha — Specific commit to use when installing from git.
  • --path path — Filesystem path to local crate to install from.
  • --list — List all installed packages and their versions.
  • -f, --force — Force overwriting existing crates or binaries. This can be used if a package has installed a binary with the same name as another package. This is also useful if something has changed on the system that you want to rebuild with, such as a newer version of rustc.
  • --no-track — By default, Cargo keeps track of the installed packages with a metadata file stored in the installation root directory. This flag tells Cargo not to use or create that file. With this flag, Cargo will refuse to overwrite any existing files unless the --force flag is used. This also disables Cargo's ability to protect against multiple concurrent invocations of Cargo installing at the same time.
  • --bin name… — Install only the specified binary.
  • --bins — Install all binaries. This is the default behavior.
  • --example name… — Install only the specified example.
  • --examples — Install all examples.
  • --root dir — Directory to install packages into.
  • --registry registry — Name of the registry to use. Registry names are defined in Cargo config files https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html. If not specified, the default registry is used, which is defined by the registry.default config key which defaults to crates-io.
  • --index index — The URL of the registry index to use.

✨ 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.

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.
  • --no-default-features — Do not activate the default feature of the selected packages.

🛠️ Compilation Options 🛠️

  • --target triple — Install 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 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 https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/guide/build-cache.html documentation for more details.

  • --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 a new temporary folder located in the temporary directory of the platform.

When using --path, by default it will use target directory in the workspace of the local crate unless --target-dir is specified.

  • --debug — Build with the dev profile instead of the release profile. See also the --profile option for choosing a specific profile by name.
  • --profile name — Install 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 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.

🌸 Manifest Options 🌸

  • --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.
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.

Also, bestie, you can set that same vibe with the net.offline config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html). ✨

  • --frozen — this is just --locked and --offline holding hands and walking in together. Two-for-one energy, no cap. 🫶

🍓 Miscellaneous Options 🍓

  • -j N, --jobs N — how many parallel jobs you wanna run at once. You can also set this 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 parallel jobs to the number of logical CPUs plus whatever value you gave. If you hand it a string default, it flips the value back to defaults. And like… do not make it 0. Not the move. 💀
  • --keep-going — build as many crates in the dependency graph as you possibly can instead of slamming the whole thing shut the second one fails. It's giving "we don't quit in this house."

For example: if the current package depends on dependencies, and one fails while another works, then cargo install -j1 may or may not build the one that succeeds (it depends on which of the two builds Cargo decided to run first), whereas cargo install -j1 --keep-going would definitely run both builds, even if the one that runs first fails. Resilient queen behavior. 👑

🌈 Display Options 🌈

  • -v, --verbose — verbose output, bestie. Say it twice for "very verbose" output, which includes extra stuff like dependency warnings and build script output. You can also set it with the term.verbose config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).
  • -q, --quiet — do not print cargo log messages. Silence. Peace. You can also set it with the term.quiet config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).
  • --color when — controls when colored output is used. The valid values are:
    • auto (default): automatically detect if color support is available on the terminal. iykyk 🌸
    • always: always display colors. main character palette. 💅
    • never: never display colors. minimalist era.

You can also set it with the term.color config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).

  • --message-format fmt — the output format for diagnostic messages. You can specify it multiple times, and it's made of comma-separated values. The valid values are:
    • 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: make sure the rendered field of JSON messages contains the "short" rendering from rustc. Cannot be used with human or short.
    • json-diagnostic-rendered-ansi: make sure the rendered field of JSON messages contains embedded ANSI color codes, so it respects rustc's default color scheme. Cannot be used with human or short.
    • json-render-diagnostics: tells Cargo not to include rustc diagnostics in the JSON messages it prints, and instead have Cargo itself 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.

🦋 Common Options 🦋

  • +toolchain — if Cargo was installed with rustup and the first argument to cargo starts with +, it gets interpreted as a rustup toolchain name (like +stable or +nightly). See the rustup documentation (https://rust-lang.github.io/rustup/overrides.html) for more on how toolchain overrides work.
  • --config KEY=VALUE or PATH — overrides a Cargo configuration value. The argument should be TOML syntax of KEY=VALUE, or a path to an extra configuration file. This flag can be specified multiple times. See the command-line overrides section (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#command-line-overrides) for more info.
  • -C PATH — changes the current working directory before executing any specified operations. This affects stuff like where cargo looks by default for the project manifest (Cargo.toml), and the directories searched for discovering .cargo/config.toml, for example. This option must appear before the command name, like cargo -C path/to/my-project build. 👈 order matters, don't play yourself
Heads up bestie: this option is only available on the nightly channel (https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html) and it requires the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #10098, https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/10098). Not for the faint of heart. 💀
  • -h, --help — prints help information. The classic. 🫶
  • -Z flag — unstable (nightly-only) flags to Cargo. Run cargo -Z help for the details.

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

See the reference (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html) for the deets on environment variables that Cargo reads. 👀

✨ EXIT STATUS ✨

  • 0: Cargo succeeded. slay. 🎀
  • 101: Cargo failed to complete. it's giving tragedy. 😭

💜 EXAMPLES 💜

  1. Install or upgrade a package from crates.io:
cargo install ripgrep
  1. Install or reinstall the package in the current directory:
cargo install --path .
  1. View the list of installed packages:
cargo install --list

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

cargo(1), cargo-uninstall(1), cargo-search(1), cargo-publish(1)

And that's a wrap on the CARGO-INSTALL(1) page, section 1, bestie — cargo's very own install man page. Go forth and install things responsibly. 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from