CARGO-CLEAN(1)

📦 version 1.89.0, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

💖 CARGO-CLEAN 💖

okay so bestie, we're in the General Commands Manual section and this is cargo-clean(1) — the little command that takes out the trash 🗑️✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

cargo-clean — Remove generated artifacts 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

cargo clean [options]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically, this deletes the artifacts that Cargo made in the target directory back in the day, like, whenever it built stuff. Remove artifacts from the target directory that Cargo has generated in the past.

And listen — with no options, cargo clean will nuke the entire target directory. The whole thing. Gone. It's giving spring cleaning but make it dramatic 😭💀

👑 OPTIONS 👑

🎀 Package Selection 🎀

When no packages are selected, all packages and all dependencies in the workspace are cleaned. Everyone's getting cleaned, no one is safe.

  • -p spec…, --package spec… — Only clean the packages you name here. This flag can be specified multiple times (stack 'em, bestie). For the SPEC format, go check cargo-pkgid(1) 📖

🧚 Clean Options 🧚

  • --dry-run — Shows you a summary of what would be deleted without actually deleting anything. Peak "look but don't touch" energy 👀. Use it together with --verbose if you wanna see the actual files that would be deleted.
  • --doc — This one makes cargo clean remove only the doc directory inside the target directory. Just the docs, nothing else 🎀
  • --release — Removes all artifacts in the release directory. Bye release build 🫶
  • --profile name — Removes all artifacts in the directory with the given profile name.
  • --target-dir directory — Directory for all generated artifacts and intermediate files. You can also set this with the CARGO_TARGET_DIR environment variable, or the build.target-dir config value (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html). It defaults to target in the root of the workspace.
  • --target triple — Clean 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).

Heads up bestie ⚠️ — specifying this flag makes Cargo run in a different mode where the target artifacts are placed in a separate directory. See the build cache docs (https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/build-cache.html) for more details.

🌈 Display Options 🌈

  • -v, --verbose — Verbose output. Specify it twice for "very verbose" output, which includes extra stuff like 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). Double it and it gets louder fr fr 📢
  • -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). Shhh 🤫
  • --color when — Controls 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 Cargo.toml in the current directory or any parent directory.
  • --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 comes up:
    • 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, like in CI pipelines. Determinism? We love to see it 💅

  • --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 attempt to proceed without the network if possible.
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. 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, iconic 🫶
  • --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). Nightly only, no cap 🧚

💜 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 info 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 info.
  • -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.

🌸 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. Remove the entire target directory:
cargo clean
  1. Remove only the release artifacts:
cargo clean --release

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

cargo(1), cargo-build(1)

and that's the whole page bestie, no notes 💅🫶 this was cargo-clean(1) from the General Commands Manual, straight out of the Cargo crew — thanks for reading, ily, go clean your target dir (or don't, use --dry-run first, I'm literally begging you) ✨🎀🌈

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