What is the difference between binaries in ~/.rustup vs ~/.cargo?

Question

I just installed Rust with rustup on MacOS and noticed that there are two rustc and two cargo binaries:

~/.cargo/bin/rustc (cargo)
~/.rustup/toolchains/stable-x86_64-apple-darwin/bin/rustc (cargo)

Their versions are exactly the same, but diff shows there exists some difference. So why are there two different rustc (cargo) binaries and which one should I use?

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 31 '17 at 17:01

12

The reason there are two files named rustc is because rustup is a toolchain multiplexer. It lets you install many versions of Rust and easily switch between them.

The binary installed at ~/.cargo/bin/rustc proxies to the current toolchain that you have selected. Each installed compiler is kept under the toolchains directory.

Although the compiler in the toolchains directory appears to be a smaller file, that's only because it's dynamically linked instead of statically linked.

More information can be found on rustup's README.

edited Jan 31 '17 at 17:01

Shepmaster

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answered Jan 31 '17 at 01:12

squiguy

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So the binaries in `.cargo` are basically proxies to the current toolchain, right? – Zizheng Tai Jan 31 '17 at 04:16
@ZizhengTai Yes, exactly. – squiguy Jan 31 '17 at 05:44
@squiguy: You might want to expand your answer to explain why the files are different. – Matthieu M. Jan 31 '17 at 09:27
@MatthieuM. Done. Feel free to edit my answer(s) in the future. – squiguy Jan 31 '17 at 16:52
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@ZizhengTai to clarify, the `cargo`, `rust-gdb`, `rust-lldb`, `rustc`, `rustdoc`, and `rustup` binaries in `.cargo/bin/` are all *the same* file. The first 5 all proxy to the relevant toolchain file. – Shepmaster Jan 31 '17 at 17:06

What is the difference between binaries in ~/.rustup vs ~/.cargo?

1 Answers1