Install Rust

Beginner · Start here

What & why

Before you can run a single line of Rust on your own machine, you need the tools installed. The good news: there’s one official installer that sets up everything and keeps it updated, so you don’t have to hunt down pieces. This lesson walks you through it slowly and shows you how to check that it worked.

The idea, slowly

To write Rust locally you need three things, and they come as a bundle:

• rustc — the compiler. It turns your Rust code into a program the computer can run.
• cargo — the project manager. You’ll actually type cargo far more than rustc. It builds, runs, tests, and pulls in other people’s code. (It has its own lesson next.)
• rustup — the installer and updater. It installs rustc and cargo, and later keeps them up to date.

Think of rustup as the app store, and rustc + cargo as the apps it installs and keeps current. You install rustup once; after that it manages the rest.

Why one installer instead of your system’s package manager

You might be tempted to run something like apt install rustc on Linux, or grab Rust from Homebrew. It usually works for a day and then hurts. Distro packages are often old, they’re hard to update on Rust’s fast release cycle, and they can’t easily switch between the stable, beta, and nightly versions of Rust. rustup is the official tool built exactly for this job. Use it unless you have a specific, known reason not to.

Installing it

Go to rustup.rs in your browser. It shows you the exact command for your operating system.

On macOS or Linux it’s a single line you paste into your terminal:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

On Windows, rustup.rs gives you a small installer to download and double-click (you’ll also want the Visual Studio C++ build tools, which the installer points you to). Either way, when it asks you to choose an option, just press Enter for the standard default install. The defaults are the right choice for beginners.

While it runs, here’s what the installer is “thinking”: download rustup, then use it to download the current stable compiler and cargo, then add them to your PATH so your terminal can find them. That last part — PATH — is the one that trips people up, so read the next section.

Making your terminal find the tools

After installing, the tools live in a folder like ~/.cargo/bin. Your terminal only runs commands it can find on its PATH (a list of folders it searches). The installer adds that folder to your PATH — but a terminal window that was already open won’t notice the change.

The fix is simple: close your terminal and open a new one (or run source "$HOME/.cargo/env"). This is the single most common “I installed it but nothing works” cause. If a command isn’t found, restart the terminal first, before you assume anything is actually broken.

Checking that it worked

Open a fresh terminal and run these three commands:

rustc --version
cargo --version
rustup --version

Each should print a version number, something like rustc 1.XX.0. If you see three version lines, you’re done — the compiler, the project manager, and the updater are all installed and reachable.

Keeping it current

Rust ships a new stable version roughly every six weeks. Updating is one command:

rustup update

That’s rustup doing its “app store” job: fetch the latest stable rustc and cargo and swap them in. Run it now and then; you don’t need to babysit it.

Common mistakes

• Installing from a distro package or Homebrew “because it’s easier.” You often get an old version that’s a pain to update and can’t switch toolchains. When a tutorial assumes a recent Rust and yours is ancient, you’ll waste an afternoon confused. Use rustup from rustup.rs.
• “Command not found” right after installing. This almost always means your open terminal hasn’t picked up the new PATH yet. Close it and open a new one (or source "$HOME/.cargo/env") before you start debugging. Restart first, panic later.
• Skipping the version check. If you don’t run rustc --version and cargo --version, you won’t know whether the install actually took until something fails mid-lesson. Confirm up front — it takes five seconds.
• On Windows, missing the C++ build tools. Rust needs a linker. The rustup installer tells you if you’re missing the Visual Studio build tools; follow its prompt rather than ignoring it, or builds will fail with a confusing linker error.

More examples

Checking exactly what’s installed

You’re on a new machine, or picking up a teammate’s laptop, and want to know if clippy or the WebAssembly target is already there before you rely on it.

rustup component list --installed

Adding a target so you can cross-compile

You’re building a CLI tool on your Mac but need to hand a binary to a colleague running Linux, or deploy it straight to a Linux server.

rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Pinning one project to an older toolchain

A client’s codebase was written against an older Rust release, and upgrading it isn’t your call today — you don’t want to change your global default just for this one folder.

rustup override set 1.75.0

Refreshing a single component

rustfmt starts misbehaving after an OS update, but reinstalling your whole toolchain to fix one small piece feels like overkill.

rustup component remove rustfmt
rustup component add rustfmt

Seeing what’s active at a glance

You installed a nightly toolchain months ago to try one feature, and now you’re not sure which toolchain actually runs when you type cargo build.

rustup show

Your turn

This lesson has no code to fix — the exercise is to actually install and verify. Do this now:

1. Go to rustup.rs and run the command it gives you for your OS, accepting the standard defaults.
2. Close your terminal and open a brand-new one.
3. Run the three checks below.

rustc --version
cargo --version
rustup --version

rustc 1.79.0 (129f3b996 2024-06-10)
cargo 1.79.0 (ffa9cf99a 2024-06-03)
rustup 1.27.1 (54dd3d00f 2024-04-24)

Quick check

Remember this

• Install with rustup from rustup.rs; accept the standard defaults.
• rustup manages rustc (the compiler) and cargo (the project manager) and keeps them updated.
• After installing, open a new terminal so PATH updates — this fixes most “command not found” cases.
• Confirm with rustc --version and cargo --version; both should print version numbers.
• Update anytime with rustup update. Prefer rustup over distro/Homebrew packages.

Go deeper

• rustup — Official installer.
• Cargo Book - Getting Started — What Cargo expects from the toolchain.

Next:

• Cargo basics
• Hello, world