CARGO-ADD(1)

📦 version 1.88.0, in ubuntu questing

✨ CARGO-ADD(1) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the cargo-add manual page — it's a general commands manual page, and it's genuinely one of the most useful little gremlins in the whole cargo toolbox 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

cargo-add — add dependencies to a Cargo.toml manifest file. that's it. that's the job. and it ATE 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

cargo add [options] crate…
cargo add [options] --path path
cargo add [options] --git url [crate…]

three whole moods. pick your fighter ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, this command can add or modify dependencies. lowkey it does both, highkey it does both.

the source for the dependency can be specified with:

  • crate@version: fetch from a registry with a version constraint of "version"
  • --path path: fetch from the specified path
  • --git url: pull from a git repo at url

if no source is specified, then a best effort will be made to select one, including:

  • existing dependencies in other tables (like dev-dependencies)
  • workspace members
  • latest release in the registry

when you add a package that is already present, the existing entry will be updated with the flags specified. no dupe drama, it just updates 🫶

upon successful invocation, the enabled (+) and disabled (-) features of the specified dependency will be listed in the command's output. the docs for that are over at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html — go read them, i'll wait 💜

✨ OPTIONS ✨

💫 Source options 💫

unstable, nightly-only bestie 😭 https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#path-bases
  • --registry registry — the name of the registry to use. registry names are defined in Cargo config files (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html). if you don't specify one, the default registry is used, which is defined by the registry.default config key, which defaults to crates-io.

🎀 Section options 🎀

to avoid unexpected shell expansions, you may use quotes around each target, e.g., --target 'cfg(unix)'. quoting is your friend, not me being dramatic 💀

🍓 Dependency options 🍓

unstable, nightly-only https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#public-dependency
  • --no-public — mark the dependency as private. while you can use the crate in your implementation, it cannot be referenced in your public API.
also unstable, also nightly-only https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#public-dependency

🌸 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

💅 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. it's a little detective 🔍
  • -p spec, --package spec — add dependencies to only the specified package.
  • --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. no cap, very serious girlboss behaviour 👑

  • --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-for-one deal, slay.
  • --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 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 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 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. 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 at 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. bestie behaviour fr fr 🫶
  • -Z flag — unstable (nightly-only) flags to Cargo. run cargo -Z help for details.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

see the reference at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html for details on environment variables that Cargo reads. i'm not typing them all out here, the reference ate 💅

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

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

🧚 EXAMPLES 🧚

  1. Add regex as a dependency
cargo add regex
  1. Add trybuild as a dev-dependency
cargo add --dev trybuild
  1. Add an older version of nom as a dependency
cargo add nom@5
  1. Add support for serializing data structures to json with derives
cargo add serde serde_json -F serde/derive
  1. Add windows as a platform specific dependency on cfg(windows)
cargo add windows --target 'cfg(windows)'

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

cargo(1), cargo-remove(1)

and that's the whole page bestie ✨ this was the CARGO-ADD(1) page from the general commands manual, filed under CARGO-ADD(1) in the footer — go forth and add dependencies responsibly, ily 💖🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from