Installing Rust

The first step to using Rust is to install it! There are a number of ways to install Rust, but the easiest is to use the rustup script. If you're on Linux or a Mac, all you need to do is this (note that you don't need to type in the $s, they just indicate the start of each command):

$ curl -sf -L https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup.sh | sudo sh

If you're concerned about the potential insecurity of using curl | sudo sh, please keep reading and see our disclaimer below. And feel free to use a two-step version of the installation and examine our installation script:

$ curl -f -L https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup.sh -O
$ sudo sh rustup.sh

If you're on Windows, please download either the 32-bit installer or the 64-bit installer and run it.

Uninstalling

If you decide you don't want Rust anymore, we'll be a bit sad, but that's okay. Not every programming language is great for everyone. Just run the uninstall script:

$ sudo /usr/local/lib/rustlib/uninstall.sh

If you used the Windows installer, just re-run the .msi and it will give you an uninstall option.

Some people, and somewhat rightfully so, get very upset when we tell you to curl | sudo sh. Basically, when you do this, you are trusting that the good people who maintain Rust aren't going to hack your computer and do bad things. That's a good instinct! If you're one of those people, please check out the documentation on building Rust from Source, or the official binary downloads. And we promise that this method will not be the way to install Rust forever: it's just the easiest way to keep people updated while Rust is in its alpha state.

Oh, we should also mention the officially supported platforms:

We extensively test Rust on these platforms, and a few others, too, like Android. But these are the ones most likely to work, as they have the most testing.

Finally, a comment about Windows. Rust considers Windows to be a first-class platform upon release, but if we're honest, the Windows experience isn't as integrated as the Linux/OS X experience is. We're working on it! If anything does not work, it is a bug. Please let us know if that happens. Each and every commit is tested against Windows just like any other platform.

If you've got Rust installed, you can open up a shell, and type this:

$ rustc --version

You should see the version number, commit hash, commit date and build date:

rustc 1.0.0-beta (9854143cb 2015-04-02) (built 2015-04-02)

If you did, Rust has been installed successfully! Congrats!

This installer also installs a copy of the documentation locally, so you can read it offline. On UNIX systems, /usr/local/share/doc/rust is the location. On Windows, it's in a share/doc directory, inside wherever you installed Rust to.

If not, there are a number of places where you can get help. The easiest is the #rust IRC channel on irc.mozilla.org, which you can access through Mibbit. Click that link, and you'll be chatting with other Rustaceans (a silly nickname we call ourselves), and we can help you out. Other great resources include the user’s forum, and Stack Overflow.