CARGO-INSTALL(1)

📦
version 1.99.1 · 12 versions
, in centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9, fedora 43, fedora 44

✨ NAME ✨

okay bestie gather round 💖 it's cargo-install — the one that builds a Rust binary and installs it. That's the whole plot. This page lives in the General Commands Manual, and honestly? Iconic.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

So this command is the manager of Cargo's local lil set of installed binary crates 🎀. Only packages that actually have an executable [[bin]] or [[example]] target can be installed, and every single executable lands in the installation root's bin folder. And by default? Only binaries get installed. Not examples. Examples are not invited to the default party.

Now — where even is the installation root? It's figured out in this exact order of precedence, first hit wins:

There are multiple sources a crate can come from, and the default source location is crates.io — but --git, --path, and --registry can switch that up. If the source contains more than one package (like crates.io does, or a git repo with a bunch of crates in it) then the crate argument is required to say which crate should be installed. No guessing, bestie.

Crates from crates.io can optionally say which version they want via the --version flags, and same energy for packages from git repositories — those can optionally specify the branch, tag, or revision that should be installed. If a crate has multiple binaries, --bin lets you selectively install just one of them, and if you'd rather install examples, the --example argument is right there for you.

Already got the package installed? Cargo will reinstall it if the installed version doesn't appear to be up-to-date. And if any of these change, Cargo reinstalls:

  • 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 may be used to force Cargo to always reinstall the package. Periodt.

If the source is crates.io or --git then by default the crate gets built in a temporary target directory. To avoid that whole situation, you can specify the target directory by setting the CARGO_TARGET_DIR environment variable to a path. This is especially useful for caching build artifacts on continuous integration systems, ngl, that's the good stuff 🫶.

🔒 Dealing with the Lockfile 🔒

By default, the Cargo.lock file that ships with the package is ignored 🙈. Which means Cargo recomputes which versions of dependencies to use — possibly pulling newer versions that got released after the package was published. The --locked flag can force Cargo to use the packaged Cargo.lock file if it's available. This may be useful for ensuring reproducible builds, so you 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 got published that no longer builds on your system, or has other problems. The downside to --locked is that you will not receive any fixes or updates to any dependency. And note: 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. Rip to the old ones 💀.

🧭 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 — if the package is installed with --path $PATH, the local configuration will be used, beginning discovery at $PATH/.cargo/config.toml.

💅 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.
  • -n, --dry-run — (unstable) Perform all checks without installing.
  • -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. 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 let you 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 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). 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 debug 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 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 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, bestie — this can give you different dependency resolution than online mode does. 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. So if you wanna go offline on purpose, see the cargo-fetch(1) command to download dependencies before you disconnect. 🫶

May also be specified with the net.offline config value <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>.

  • --frozen — the "do both" button ✨. Equivalent to specifying both --locked and --offline at once. Two vibes, one flag.

🧰 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 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.

ngl this is the "we don't stop, we keep going" of flags 💅

👀 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>.

color my terminal like it's a main character 🌈
  • --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>).

so close to being usable on stable 😭 nightly girlies only fr fr
  • -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. slay. 💅
  • 101: Cargo failed to complete. 💀

✨ 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 bestie that's the whole page, you ate that 🍓 this was CARGO-INSTALL(1) from the Cargo source (version and date on the real footer, mwah) — go install something iconic, you got this 👑🦋

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