cargo

rust package manager and build system

TLDR

Build project

$ cargo build

Run project

$ cargo run

Test project

$ cargo test

Create new project

$ cargo new [project-name]

Add dependency

$ cargo add [dependency]

Update dependencies

$ cargo update

cargo is the Rust package manager and build system. It handles dependency management, compiling packages, running tests, generating documentation, and publishing crates to crates.io.
The tool is essential for Rust development and comes bundled with Rust.

PARAMETERS

new name

Create new project

build [--release]

Compile project

run

Build and run

test

Run tests

check

Check compilation without building

add crate

Add dependency

install crate

Install binary crate

publish

Publish to crates.io

doc [--open]

Build documentation

clean

Remove build artifacts

update

Update dependencies

FEATURES

- Dependency resolution
- Build management
- Test runner
- Documentation generator
- Benchmarking
- Publishing to crates.io
- Workspace support
- Custom build scripts

PROJECT STRUCTURE

$ my_project/
├── Cargo.toml      # Project manifest
├── Cargo.lock      # Dependency lock file
└── src/
    └── main.rs     # Source code

CARGO.TOML

$ [package]
name = "myproject"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2021"

[dependencies]
serde = "1.0"
tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["full"] }

WORKFLOW

$ # Create new binary project
cargo new myapp

# Create library
cargo new --lib mylib

# Build debug version
cargo build

# Build optimized release
cargo build --release

# Run project
cargo run

# Run tests
cargo test

# Check without building
cargo check

# Generate and open docs
cargo doc --open

CAVEATS

First build downloads dependencies (slow). Release builds significantly slower than debug. Cargo.lock should be committed for binaries (not libraries). Large projects have long compile times. Target directory can grow large.

HISTORY

Cargo was developed alongside Rust starting around 2013, becoming the standard build tool and package manager for the Rust ecosystem.