Cargo 101

This chapter gives you everything you need to compile and run the examples in this book using Cargo, Rust’s official package manager and build tool.

Creating a new project

To create a new Rust library project:

cargo new my_project --lib

To create a binary project (i.e., one with a main.rs):

cargo new my_project

Building your project

Navigate into the project directory:

cd my_project

Then build it:

cargo build

This compiles your code in debug mode (faster builds, less optimization). You’ll find the output in target/debug/.

Running your code

If it’s a binary crate (with a main.rs), you can run it:

cargo run

This compiles and runs your code in one go.

Testing your code

To run tests in lib.rs or in any #[cfg(test)] module:

cargo test

Cleaning build artifacts

Remove the target/ directory and everything in it:

cargo clean

Checking your code (without building)

cargo check

This quickly verifies your code compiles without generating the binary.

Adding dependencies

To add dependencies, open Cargo.toml and add them under [dependencies]:

[dependencies]
ndarray = "0.15"

Or use the command line:

cargo add ndarray