Installing Rust

Scope: getting the Rust toolchain on your machine and proving it works. The toolchain is rustc (the compiler), cargo (build tool and package manager), and rustup (the installer/updater).

The short version

On all three major OSes, the recommended install is rustup, a small program that installs and updates the Rust toolchain.

Windows

Download rustup-init.exe from rustup.rs (or the Rust site).
Run it. Accept the defaults (press Enter at each prompt).
Close and reopen your terminal (PowerShell or Command Prompt).

Check:

rustc --version
cargo --version

You should see version numbers, e.g. rustc 1.8x.x.

Note: the installer may ask you to install the Visual Studio C++ build tools first. That's normal — Rust uses Microsoft's linker on Windows. The installer links you to them.

Mac

In Terminal:

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

Accept the defaults, then restart your terminal (or run the source command the installer prints).

Check:

rustc --version
cargo --version

Linux

Same command as Mac, in your terminal:

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

Accept the defaults, restart your terminal (or run the printed source command).

Check:

rustc --version
cargo --version

Your distribution may also offer Rust via its package manager (apt install rustc, etc.). Those versions are often months old. rustup stays current — prefer it.

The three tools, plainly

Tool	Job	You'll run it...
`rustup`	Installs/updates Rust itself	Rarely — `rustup update` every so often
`rustc`	Compiles one file directly	Rarely — Cargo calls it for you
`cargo`	Builds projects, runs them, manages libraries	Constantly — this is your main tool

Keeping it updated

rustup update

Run that every few weeks. Rust releases a new version every six weeks; updates are painless.

Check

[ ] rustc --version prints a version number
[ ] cargo --version prints a version number
[ ] rustup update runs without errors

Next: Your First Program.