cargo-clean

Remove the entire target directory

$ cargo clean

$ cargo clean --doc

$ cargo clean [[-r|--release]]

$ cargo clean --profile [dev]

cargo clean [OPTIONS]

-p , --package
    Clean only the specified package's artifacts within the workspace.

--doc
    Clean only the target/doc directory, where documentation generated by cargo doc resides.

--release
    Clean artifacts from the target/release directory (optimized build) instead of the default target/debug directory.

--profile
    Clean artifacts for a specific build profile (e.g., dev, release, or a custom profile).

--target
    Clean artifacts only for the specified target triple (e.g., x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu).

--target-dir

The cargo clean command is used to remove the target directory, which contains all compiled artifacts generated by Rust's build system (Cargo). This includes executables, libraries, intermediate object files, and documentation generated by cargo doc. Its primary purposes are to free up disk space, ensure a clean build from scratch for troubleshooting, or to prepare a project for distribution without unnecessary compiled files. Running cargo clean ensures that the next build will be a full recompilation, which can resolve issues caused by stale or corrupted build caches.

Using cargo clean deletes all compiled outputs, meaning the next build will require a full recompilation of your project and its dependencies, which can be time-consuming. It does not clean Cargo's global caches (e.g., downloaded crates in ~/.cargo/registry or git checkouts in ~/.cargo/git), nor does it remove files from the .cargo/bin directory for installed binaries.

cargo clean is particularly useful in several scenarios:
- When troubleshooting persistent build errors that might be due to stale artifacts.
- To free up disk space, as compiled projects, especially with multiple build profiles or targets, can consume significant storage.
- Before distributing a project or committing to version control, to ensure only source files are included.
- In Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to guarantee a fresh build environment for each job.

While cargo clean by default removes the entire target directory, options like --doc, --release, --profile, and --target allow for more granular control, enabling you to clean only specific subsets of artifacts without deleting everything. This is useful if you only want to clear, for instance, release builds without affecting your debug development flow.

Cargo, the Rust package manager and build system, was introduced early in Rust's development (around 2014) to standardize project management, dependency resolution, and compilation. The cargo clean command has been a fundamental utility within Cargo from its inception, providing a straightforward and integrated way to manage build artifacts and maintain a tidy development environment.

cargo build(1), cargo run(1), cargo test(1), cargo check(1), rm(1)