cargo-init - Man Page

Create a new Cargo package in an existing directory

Examples (TL;DR)

Initialize a Rust project with a binary target in the current directory: cargo init
Initialize a Rust project with a binary target in the specified directory: cargo init path/to/directory
Initialize a Rust project with a library target in the current directory: cargo init --lib
Initialize a version control system repository in the project directory (default: git): cargo init --vcs git|hg|pijul|fossil|none
Set the package name (default: directory name): cargo init --name name

Description

This command will create a new Cargo manifest in the current directory. Give a path as an argument to create in the given directory.

If there are typically-named Rust source files already in the directory, those will be used. If not, then a sample src/main.rs file will be created, or src/lib.rs if --lib is passed.

If the directory is not already in a VCS repository, then a new repository is created (see --vcs below).

See cargo-new(1) for a similar command which will create a new package in a new directory.

Options

Init Options

--bin

Create a package with a binary target (src/main.rs). This is the default behavior.

--lib

Create a package with a library target (src/lib.rs).

--edition edition

Specify the Rust edition to use. Default is 2021. Possible values: 2015, 2018, 2021, 2024

--name name

Set the package name. Defaults to the directory name.

--vcs vcs

Initialize a new VCS repository for the given version control system (git, hg, pijul, or fossil) or do not initialize any version control at all (none). If not specified, defaults to git or the configuration value cargo-new.vcs, or none if already inside a VCS repository.

--registry registry

This sets the publish field in Cargo.toml to the given registry name which will restrict publishing only to that registry.

Registry names are defined in Cargo config files <https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html>. If not specified, the default registry defined by the registry.default config key is used. If the default registry is not set and --registry is not used, the publish field will not be set which means that publishing will not be restricted.

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>.

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