CARGO-DOC(1)

📦 version 1.85.1, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing

💖 CARGO-DOC(1) — the manual page, but make it make sense 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the cargo-doc manual page — it lives in the General Commands Manual, and it's about building docs with Cargo. Buckle up, we're doing this properly. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

cargo-doc — Build a package's documentation 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

cargo doc [options]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So what this does is: it builds the documentation for the local package and all of its dependencies. 💅 Where does it go? Into target/doc, in rustdoc's usual format. That's it, that's the whole vibe. 🌸

✨ OPTIONS ✨

📚 Documentation Options

  • --open — opens the docs in a browser once they're built, because reading them in the terminal is giving ✨nothing✨. It'll use your default browser, unless you set a different one via the BROWSER environment variable, or you use the doc.browser configuration option (link: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#docbrowser).
  • --no-deps — do NOT build docs for your dependencies. Just yours. main character energy only 👑
  • --document-private-items — include non-public items in the documentation, yes the private ones, we're being nosy. 🙈 Heads up: this gets enabled by default if you're documenting a binary target. iykyk.

📦 Package Selection

okay so default behaviour time: when you don't pass any package selection options, which packages get selected depends on the selected manifest file (which is based on the current working directory, unless you gave --manifest-path). If that manifest is the root of a workspace, then the workspace's default members get selected. Otherwise? Just the single package defined by that manifest. Simple. 🍓

You can set the default members of a workspace explicitly with the workspace.default-members key in the root manifest. And if you don't set it: a virtual workspace will include all workspace members (that's the same as passing --workspace), and a non-virtual workspace will include only the root crate itself.

  • -p *spec*…, --package *spec*… — document only the specified packages. Wanna know the SPEC format? Go look at cargo-pkgid(1). This flag can be specified multiple times, and it supports common Unix glob patterns like *, ? and []. BUT — and this is important bestie — to stop your shell from accidentally expanding those glob patterns before Cargo even gets to handle them, you must wrap each pattern in single quotes or double quotes. fr fr.
  • --workspace — document all members in the workspace. everybody's invited to the party 🫶
  • --all — deprecated alias for --workspace. it's giving legacy, use the new one 💀
  • --exclude *SPEC*… — exclude the specified packages. This one has to be used together with the --workspace flag, no solo runs. Can be specified multiple times, supports common Unix glob patterns like *, ? and [], and yep — same warning: to avoid your shell expanding the glob patterns before Cargo handles them, you must use single quotes or double quotes around each pattern. 🌈

🎯 Target Selection

When you don't give any target selection options, cargo doc 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 also get skipped if they have required-features that are missing. no cap.

You can change that default behaviour by setting doc = false for the target in the manifest settings. But — plot twist — using target selection options will ignore the doc flag and will always document the given target. periodt. 💅

  • --lib — document the package's library.
  • --bin *name*… — document the specified binary. Can be specified multiple times, and supports common Unix glob patterns.
  • --bins — document all binary targets.
  • --example *name*… — document the specified example. Can be specified multiple times, and supports common Unix glob patterns.
  • --examples — document all example targets.

🌟 Feature Selection

These feature flags let you control which features get enabled. When you give no feature options, the default feature is activated for every selected package. 🧚

Want more deets? The features documentation lives at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html#command-line-feature-options.

  • -F features, --features features — a space or comma separated list of features to activate. Features of workspace members can be enabled with package-name/feature-name syntax. You can specify this flag multiple times, and doing so enables all the specified features. obsessed.
  • --all-features — activate all available features of all selected packages. everything, everywhere, all at once ✨
  • --no-default-features — do not activate the default feature of the selected packages. nope, skipping that one.

🔨 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 can be specified multiple times.

You can also specify this with the build.target config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html).

Heads up: specifying this flag makes Cargo run in a different mode, where the target artifacts get placed in a separate directory. See the build cache documentation at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/build-cache.html for the details.
  • -r, --release — document optimized artifacts with the release profile. Also see the --profile option if you wanna pick a specific profile by name. 🔥
  • --profile name — document with the given profile. More details on profiles over at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/profiles.html.
  • --timings=fmts — output info on how long each compilation takes, and track concurrency information over time. It accepts an optional comma-separated list of output formats; --timings with no 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. It also writes a report to the same directory with a timestamp in the filename, in case 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 — the directory for all generated artifacts and intermediate files. Can 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. Can be specified twice for "very verbose" output, which includes extra output like dependency warnings and build script output. Can 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. Can 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.

Can 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 the 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. we simply do not see it 💅
  • --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 these scenarios happens:
    • The lock file is missing.
    • Cargo attempted to change the lock file due to a different dependency resolution.

You'd use this in environments where deterministic builds are the goal, like 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 isn't available. With this flag, Cargo will try to proceed without the network if it can.
Beware bestie: 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. Check out the cargo-fetch(1) command if you want to download dependencies before going offline. 😭

Can 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-for-one deal 🎀
  • --lockfile-path PATH — changes the path of the lockfile from the default (<workspace_root>/Cargo.lock) to PATH. PATH must end with Cargo.lock (e.g. --lockfile-path /tmp/temporary-lockfile/Cargo.lock). Note that providing --lockfile-path will ignore the existing lockfile at the default path, and instead will either use the lockfile from PATH, or write a new lockfile into the provided PATH if it doesn't exist. This flag can be used to run most commands in read-only directories, writing the lockfile into the provided PATH. 🦋
This option is only available on the nightly channel <https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html> and requires the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #14421 <https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/14421>).

✨ 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 <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. The argument should be in TOML syntax of KEY=VALUE, or provided as a path to an extra configuration file. This flag may be specified multiple times. See the command-line overrides section <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#command-line-overrides> for more information.
  • -C PATH — Changes the current working directory before executing any specified operations. This affects things like where cargo looks by default for the project manifest (Cargo.toml), as well as the directories searched for discovering .cargo/config.toml, for example. This option must appear before the command name, for example cargo -C path/to/my-project build.

This option is only available on the nightly channel <https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html> and requires the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #10098 <https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/10098>).

  • -h, --help — Prints help information.
  • -Z flag — Unstable (nightly-only) flags to Cargo. Run cargo -Z help for details.

🎀 Miscellaneous Options 🎀

  • -j N, --jobs N — Number of parallel jobs to run. May also be specified with the build.jobs config value <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>. Defaults to the number of logical CPUs. If negative, it sets the maximum number of parallel jobs to the number of logical CPUs plus provided value. If a string default is provided, it sets the value back to defaults. Should not be 0.
  • --keep-going — Build as many crates in the dependency graph as possible, rather than aborting the build on the first one that fails to build.

For example if the current package depends on dependencies fails and works, one of which fails to build, cargo doc -j1 may or may not build the one that succeeds (depending on which one of the two builds Cargo picked to run first), whereas cargo doc -j1 --keep-going would definitely run both builds, even if the one run first fails.

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

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

💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

  • 0: Cargo succeeded.
  • 101: Cargo failed to complete.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

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

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

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

And that's the whole vibe, bestie! The footer down there is holding the source/version and date — go give it a little kiss for me 💅✨

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