How to Install Rust
The default way for installing Rust is to download it through a command line tool known as rustup. This tool provides the advantage of easier management of Rust versions as well as associated tools.
Note: If you prefer not to use
rustupfor some reason, please see the Rust installation page for other options.
The following steps install the latest stable version of the Rust compiler.
Command Line Notation
$denotes the start of a command and should not be copied. For Powershell it is represented by>.
Installing rustup on Linux or macOS
If you’re using Linux or macOS, open a terminal and enter the following command:
$ curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
The command downloads a script and starts the installation of the rustup tool, which installs the latest stable version of Rust. You might be prompted for your password. If the install is successful, the following line will appear:
Rust is installed now. Great!
Additionally, you’ll need a linker of some kind. It’s likely one is already installed, but when you try to compile a Rust program and get errors indicating that a linker could not execute, that means a linker isn’t installed on your system and you’ll need to install one manually. C compilers usually come with the correct linker. Check your platform’s documentation for how to install a C compiler. Also, some common Rust packages depend on C code and will need a C compiler. Therefore, it might be worth installing one now.
Installing rustup on Windows
On Windows, go to https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install and follow the instructions for installing Rust. At some point in the installation, you’ll receive a message explaining that you’ll also need the C++ build tools for Visual Studio 2013 or later. The easiest way to acquire the build tools is to install Build Tools for Visual Studio 2019. When asked which workloads to install make sure "C++ build tools" is selected and that the Windows 10 SDK and the English language pack components are included.
Updating and Uninstalling
After you’ve installed Rust via rustup, updating to the latest version is easy. From your shell, run the following update script:
$ rustup update
To uninstall Rust and rustup, run the following uninstall script from your shell:
$ rustup self uninstall
Troubleshooting
To check whether you have Rust installed correctly, open a shell and enter this line:
$ rustc --version
You should see the version number, commit hash, and commit date for the latest stable version that has been released in the following format:
rustc x.y.z (abcabcabc yyyy-mm-dd)
If you see this information, you have installed Rust successfully! If you don’t see this information and you’re on Windows, check that Rust is in your %PATH% system variable. If that’s all correct and Rust still isn’t working, there are a number of places you can get help. The easiest is the #beginners channel on the official Rust Discord. There, you can chat with other Rustaceans (a silly nickname we call ourselves) who can help you out. Other great resources include the Users forum and Stack Overflow.
