Installation and Cargo Basics

Beginner⏱25 minutes📖4 min readLesson 2 of 10

Installation and Cargo Basics

Install Rust with rustup, master Cargo commands, and write your first Hello World program

Before writing Rust code, you need the Rust toolchain. Rust makes this easy with rustup, the official installer and toolchain manager.

Installing Rust with rustup

Linux / macOS / Windows (WSL)

bash

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

This installs:

rustup: The toolchain manager
rustc: The Rust compiler
cargo: The build system and package manager
rustdoc: The documentation generator

Windows (Standalone)

Download the installer from rustup.rs and run it. You'll also need the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools for linking.

Verify the Installation

bash

rustc --version   # rustc 1.85.0 (or later)
cargo --version   # cargo 1.85.0
rustup --version  # rustup 1.28.0

ℹ️Note

Rust guarantees forward compatibility: code written for Rust 1.0 still compiles on the latest version. This is called "edition stability."

Managing Toolchains with rustup

bash

# List installed toolchains
rustup toolchain list

# Switch to nightly (for experimental features)
rustup default nightly

# Install a specific version
rustup toolchain install 1.75.0

# Add the WebAssembly target
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

Rust Channels

Channel	Use Case	Stability Guarantee
stable (default)	Production	Fully stable, every 6 weeks
beta	Testing upcoming features	Mostly stable
nightly	Experimental features	May break

Your First Rust Project with Cargo

Cargo is Rust's build system and package manager. It handles:

Creating new projects
Building and compiling code
Running tests
Fetching dependencies
Building documentation

cargo new

bash

cargo new hello_rust
cd hello_rust

This creates:

hello_rust/
├── Cargo.toml    # Package manifest
├── src/
│   └── main.rs   # Entry point
└── .git/         # Auto-initialized git repo

Cargo.toml: The Package Manifest

toml

[package]
name = "hello_rust"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2021"

[dependencies]

Field	Purpose
`name`	Package name, used on crates.io
`version`	Semantic versioning
`edition`	Rust edition (2015, 2018, 2021, 2024)
`[dependencies]`	External crate dependencies

src/main.rs: Hello World

rust

fn main() {
    println!("Hello, world!");
}

The main function is the program entry point. println! is a macro (indicated by !) that prints text with a newline.

cargo build

bash

cargo build

Compiles the project. The binary goes to target/debug/hello_rust.

hello_rust/
├── Cargo.toml
├── Cargo.lock      # Dependency lockfile
├── src/
│   └── main.rs
└── target/
    ├── debug/
    │   └── hello_rust   # Binary
    └── ...

cargo run

bash

cargo run

Builds (if needed) and runs the binary in one step:

   Compiling hello_rust v0.1.0 (/path/to/hello_rust)
    Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.25s
     Running `target/debug/hello_rust`
Hello, world!

cargo check

bash

cargo check

Checks code for errors without producing a binary. Much faster than cargo build: use it frequently during development.

✅Success

Use cargo check to quickly verify your code compiles. Only use cargo build or cargo run when you actually need the binary. This saves significant time on larger projects.

Additional Cargo Commands

Command	Purpose
`cargo check`	Type-check without building
`cargo build`	Compile (debug mode)
`cargo build --release`	Compile with optimizations
`cargo run`	Build and run
`cargo test`	Run tests
`cargo doc --open`	Build and open documentation
`cargo fmt`	Format code
`cargo clippy`	Lint code
`cargo update`	Update dependencies
`cargo clean`	Remove target directory

Release vs Debug Mode

Mode	Command	Optimizations	Debug Info	Build Time
Debug	`cargo build`	None	Full	Fast
Release	`cargo build --release`	Level 3	Minimal	Slow

bash

cargo build --release
# Binary is in target/release/hello_rust

⚠️Warning

Always benchmark and deploy the release build. Debug builds are significantly slower and larger.

Adding Dependencies

Edit Cargo.toml:

toml

[dependencies]
serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
rand = "0.8"

Or use cargo add:

bash

cargo add serde --features derive
cargo add rand

Cargo fetches dependencies from crates.io, Rust's package registry.

Using Dependencies

rust

use rand::Rng;

fn main() {
    let secret_number = rand::thread_rng().gen_range(1..=100);
    println!("Secret: {secret_number}");
}

Workspaces (For Larger Projects)

For multi-crate projects:

toml

# Cargo.toml (workspace root)
[workspace]
members = ["crate_a", "crate_b"]

project/
├── Cargo.toml        # Workspace definition
├── crate_a/
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   └── src/main.rs
└── crate_b/
    ├── Cargo.toml
    └── src/main.rs

Cargo Profiles

Customize compilation settings:

toml

[profile.release]
opt-level = 3          # Max optimization
lto = true             # Link-time optimization
codegen-units = 1      # Slower compile, faster code
strip = true           # Remove debug symbols (smaller binary)

ℹ️Note

Setting	Effect
`opt-level = "z"`	Optimize for size
`lto = true`	Better optimization, slower linking
`strip = true`	Significantly smaller binaries

Practice Questions

What command installs Rust?
What does cargo new create?
What's the difference between cargo check and cargo build?
How do you compile with optimizations?
What file declares a project's dependencies?
What does the [dependencies] section in Cargo.toml do?
How do you add the serde crate with derive features?
What's the difference between debug and release builds?
How do you update all dependencies in a project?
What command builds documentation and opens it in a browser?

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Why Rust?

Variables and Mutability

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Course Content

1. Why Rust?2. Installation and Cargo Basics 3. Variables and Mutability 4. Data Types 5. Conditionals and Loops 6. Ownership 7. Borrowing and References 8. Structs and Enums 9. Functions, Methods, and impl Blocks 10. Beginner Project, CLI Temperature Converter