CARGO-INSTALL(1)

📦 version 1.95.0, in ubuntu stonking

CARGO-INSTALL(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual entry for cargo-install — yes that's the manual name up there, and yes we're gonna read the whole thing together. grab a boba. 🧋

✨ NAME ✨

cargo-install — Build and install a Rust binary 🦀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

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

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So basically this command is the manager for Cargo's local little stash of installed binary crates. Only packages that actually have executable [[bin]] or [[example]] targets can be installed at all — no bins, no entry, sorry. And every single executable lands in the bin folder of the installation root. Also important: by default only binaries get installed, not examples. 💅

The installation root gets decided in this exact order of precedence:

There are a bunch of places a crate can come from, bestie. The default source location is crates.io, but the --git, --path, and --registry flags can swap that out. If whatever source you picked holds more than one package (think crates.io, or a git repo with a whole pile of crates in it), then the crate argument becomes required — you gotta tell Cargo which crate you actually want.

Crates from crates.io can optionally say which version they want via the --version flags, and same energy for packages from git repos — they can optionally specify the branch, tag, or revision to install. If a crate ships multiple binaries, --bin lets you selectively install just one of them, and if you'd rather install examples instead, well, --example is right there. 🌸

If the package is already installed, Cargo will reinstall it whenever the installed version doesn't look up-to-date. And it counts as "not up-to-date" if any of these change:

  • 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. And the --force flag can force Cargo to always reinstall the package, no questions asked. 😤

If the source is crates.io or --git, then by default the crate gets built in a temporary target directory. Wanna skip that? Set the CARGO_TARGET_DIR environment variable to a relative path to specify the target directory yourself. This is lowkey iconic for caching build artifacts on continuous integration systems. 🔥

💾 Dealing with the Lockfile

By default, the Cargo.lock file that ships with the package is ignored. That means Cargo will recompute which versions of dependencies to use, possibly grabbing newer versions that got released after the package was published. The --locked flag forces Cargo to use the packaged Cargo.lock file — if it's available.

Why would you want that? Well, it can be useful for ensuring reproducible builds, so you use the exact same set of dependencies that existed when the package was published. It's also handy if a newer version of a dependency got published that no longer builds on your system, or has other problems. The downside of --locked is that you will not receive any fixes or updates to any dependency. periodt.

Heads up bestie: Cargo didn't start publishing Cargo.lock files until version 1.37, which means packages published with prior versions won't have a Cargo.lock file available. 💀

🔍 Configuration Discovery

This command operates on system or user level, not project level. Which means the local configuration discovery <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#hierarchical-structure> is ignored. Instead, configuration discovery begins at $CARGO_HOME/config.toml. But — plot twist — if the package is installed with --path $PATH, then the local configuration will be used, and discovery begins at $PATH/.cargo/config.toml. 💖

✨ OPTIONS ✨

📦 Install Options

  • --vers version, --version version — Say which version to install. This may be a version requirement <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html>, like ~1.2, which tells Cargo to select the newest version that fits your requirement. If the version doesn't have a requirement operator (something like ^ or ~), then it has to be in the form MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH and it will install exactly that version — it is not treated as a caret requirement the way 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 the local crate to install from.
  • --list — List all installed packages and their versions.
  • -n, --dry-run — (unstable) Perform all checks without actually installing. Sneak peek energy.
  • -f, --force — Force overwriting existing crates or binaries. This one's for when a package has installed a binary with the same name as another package. Also super useful if something changed on the system that you want to rebuild with, like 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, bestie, it's already happening.
  • --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 you don't specify one, the default registry is used, which is defined by the registry.default config key — and that defaults to crates-io.
  • --index index — The URL of the registry index to use.

🌈 Feature Selection

The feature flags let you control which features are enabled. When no feature options are given, the default feature is activated for every selected package. Simple as that. 🦋

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 can be enabled with the package-name/feature-name syntax. This flag may be specified multiple times, and doing that enables all the specified features. ✨
  • --all-features — Activate all available features of all selected packages. Go absolutely feral.
  • --no-default-features — Do not activate the default feature of the selected packages.

⚙️ Compilation Options

  • --target triple — Install for the specified target architecture. The default is the host architecture. The general format of the triple is <arch><sub>-<vendor>-<sys>-<abi>.

Possible values:

  • Any supported target in rustc --print target-list.
  • "host-tuple", which will internally be substituted by the host's target. This can be particularly useful if you're cross-compiling some crates, and don't want to specify your host's machine as a target (for instance, an xtask in a shared project that may be worked on by many hosts).
  • A path to a custom target specification. See Custom Target Lookup Path <https://doc.rust-lang.org/rustc/targets/custom.html#custom-target-lookup-path> for more information.

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/reference/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>. It defaults to a new temporary folder located in the temporary directory of the platform. 🗂️

When using --path, by default it will use the 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 — Output information on how long each compilation takes, and track concurrency information over time. ⏱️

A file cargo-timing.html will be written to the target/cargo-timings directory at the end of the build. An additional report with a timestamp in its filename is also written if you want to look at a previous run. These reports are suitable for human consumption only, and do not provide machine-readable timing data.

📜 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 these 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 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. a two-for-one combo, no cap 💅

✨ 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. like fr fr do not set it to 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 install -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 install -j1 --keep-going would definitely run both builds, even if the one run first fails.

🌈 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 <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.

👑 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. the classic “help me bestie” move
  • -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. slay
  • 101: Cargo failed to complete. oof

✨ 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)

Okay so that’s the whole vibe, bestie. This is the CARGO-INSTALL(1) page — the source/version and date are literally in the footer, and you just read the whole thing like a main character. periodt 💖

📦 where this page comes from