cargo-add - Man Page

Add dependencies to a Cargo.toml manifest file

Examples (TL;DR)

Add the latest version of a dependency to the current project: cargo add dependency
Add a specific version of a dependency: cargo add dependency@version
Add a dependency and enable one or more specific features: cargo add dependency --features feature_1,feature_2
Add an optional dependency, which then gets exposed as a feature of the crate: cargo add dependency --optional
Add a local crate as a dependency: cargo add --path path/to/crate_directory
Add a development or build dependency: cargo add dependency --dev|build
Add a dependency with all default features disabled: cargo add dependency --no-default-features

tldr.sh

Synopsis

cargo add [options] crate… cargo add [options] --path path cargo add [options] --git url [crate…]

Description

This command can add or modify dependencies.

The source for the dependency can be specified with:

crate@version: Fetch from a registry with a version constraint of “version”
--path path: Fetch from the specified path
--git url: Pull from a git repo at url

If no source is specified, then a best effort will be made to select one, including:

Existing dependencies in other tables (like dev-dependencies)
Workspace members
Latest release in the registry

When you add a package that is already present, the existing entry will be updated with the flags specified.

Upon successful invocation, the enabled (+) and disabled (-) features <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html> of the specified dependency will be listed in the command’s output.

Options

Source options

--git url

Git URL to add the specified crate from <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html#specifying-dependencies-from-git-repositories>.

--branch branch

Branch to use when adding from git.

--tag tag

Tag to use when adding from git.

--rev sha

Specific commit to use when adding from git.

--path path

Filesystem path <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html#specifying-path-dependencies> to local crate to add.

--base base

The path base <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#path-bases> to use when adding a local crate.

Unstable (nightly-only) <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#path-bases>

--registry registry

Name of the registry to use. Registry names are defined in Cargo config files <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>. If not specified, the default registry is used, which is defined by the registry.default config key which defaults to crates-io.

Section options

--dev

Add as a development dependency <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html#development-dependencies>.

--build

Add as a build dependency <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html#build-dependencies>.

--target target

Add as a dependency to the given target platform <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html#platform-specific-dependencies>.

To avoid unexpected shell expansions, you may use quotes around each target, e.g., --target 'cfg(unix)'.

Dependency options

--dry-run

Don’t actually write the manifest

--rename name

Rename <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html#renaming-dependencies-in-cargotoml> the dependency.

--optional

Mark the dependency as optional <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html#optional-dependencies>.

--no-optional

Mark the dependency as required <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html#optional-dependencies>.

--public

Mark the dependency as public.

The dependency can be referenced in your library’s public API.

Unstable (nightly-only) <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#public-dependency>

--no-public

Mark the dependency as private.

While you can use the crate in your implementation, it cannot be referenced in your public API.

Unstable (nightly-only) <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#public-dependency>

--no-default-features

Disable the default features <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html#dependency-features>.

--default-features

Re-enable the default features <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html#dependency-features>.

-F features, --features features

Space or comma separated list of features to activate <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/features.html#dependency-features>. When adding multiple crates, the features for a specific crate may be enabled with package-name/feature-name syntax. This flag may be specified multiple times, which enables all specified features.

Display Options

-v, --verbose

Use verbose output. May be specified twice for “very verbose” output which includes extra output such as dependency warnings and build script output. May also be specified with the term.verbose config value <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>.

-q, --quiet

Do not print cargo log messages. May also be specified with the term.quiet config value <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>.

--color when

Control when colored output is used. Valid values:

auto (default): Automatically detect if color support is available on the terminal.
always: Always display colors.
never: Never display colors.

May also be specified with the term.color config value <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>.

Manifest Options

--manifest-path path

Path to the Cargo.toml file. By default, Cargo searches for the Cargo.toml file in the current directory or any parent directory.

-p spec, --package spec

Add dependencies to only the specified package.

--ignore-rust-version

Ignore rust-version specification in packages.

--locked

Asserts that the exact same dependencies and versions are used as when the existing Cargo.lock file was originally generated. Cargo will exit with an error when either of the following scenarios arises:

The lock file is missing.
Cargo attempted to change the lock file due to a different dependency resolution.

It may be used in environments where deterministic builds are desired, such as in CI pipelines.

--offline

Prevents Cargo from accessing the network for any reason. Without this flag, Cargo will stop with an error if it needs to access the network and the network is not available. With this flag, Cargo will attempt to proceed without the network if possible.

Beware that this may result in different dependency resolution than online mode. Cargo will restrict itself to crates that are downloaded locally, even if there might be a newer version as indicated in the local copy of the index. See the cargo-fetch(1) command to download dependencies before going offline.

May also be specified with the net.offline config value <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>.

--frozen

Equivalent to specifying both --locked and --offline.

--lockfile-path PATH

Changes the path of the lockfile from the default (<workspace_root>/Cargo.lock) to PATH. PATH must end with Cargo.lock (e.g. --lockfile-path /tmp/temporary-lockfile/Cargo.lock). Note that providing --lockfile-path will ignore existing lockfile at the default path, and instead will either use the lockfile from PATH, or write a new lockfile into the provided PATH if it doesn’t exist. This flag can be used to run most commands in read-only directories, writing lockfile into the provided PATH.

This option is only available on the nightly channel <https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html> and requires the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #14421 <https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/14421>).

Common Options

+toolchain

If Cargo has been installed with rustup, and the first argument to cargo begins with +, it will be interpreted as a rustup toolchain name (such as +stable or +nightly). See the rustup documentation <https://rust-lang.github.io/rustup/overrides.html> for more information about how toolchain overrides work.

--config KEY=VALUE or PATH

Overrides a Cargo configuration value. The argument should be in TOML syntax of KEY=VALUE, or provided as a path to an extra configuration file. This flag may be specified multiple times. See the command-line overrides section <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html#command-line-overrides> for more information.

-C PATH

Changes the current working directory before executing any specified operations. This affects things like where cargo looks by default for the project manifest (Cargo.toml), as well as the directories searched for discovering .cargo/config.toml, for example. This option must appear before the command name, for example cargo -C path/to/my-project build.

This option is only available on the nightly channel <https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/appendix-07-nightly-rust.html> and requires the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #10098 <https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/10098>).

-h, --help

Prints help information.

-Z flag

Unstable (nightly-only) flags to Cargo. Run cargo -Z help for details.

Environment

See the reference <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html> for details on environment variables that Cargo reads.

Exit Status

0: Cargo succeeded.
101: Cargo failed to complete.

Examples

1. Add regex as a dependency

cargo add regex

2. Add trybuild as a dev-dependency

cargo add --dev trybuild

3. Add an older version of nom as a dependency

cargo add nom@5

4. Add support for serializing data structures to json with derives

cargo add serde serde_json -F serde/derive

5. Add windows as a platform specific dependency on cfg(windows)

cargo add windows --target 'cfg(windows)'

Referenced By

cargo(1), cargo-remove(1).