Installation and Cargo

Introduction

Rust is installed via rustup, which manages the compiler (rustc), the package manager and build tool (Cargo), and the standard library. There is no separate "Rust SDK" installer like .NET; rustup is the single entry point.

Installing Rust

1. Visit https://rustup.rs or run:
   Bash

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

2. After installation, rustc --version and cargo --version should work in a new terminal.

Cargo: Build and Package Manager

Cargo is both the build system and the package manager for Rust. It plays a role similar to dotnet + NuGet in the C# world.

In C#: A solution (.sln) references projects (.csproj). In Rust, a workspace (Cargo.toml with [workspace]) lists member crates; each crate has its own Cargo.toml. There is no separate "solution" file.

Creating a New Project

cargo new my_app
cd my_app

This creates:

• Cargo.toml – package manifest (name, version, dependencies).
• src/main.rs – entry point (like Program.cs with Main).

In C#: Roughly like a single-project console app: one "project" with one main file.

Running and Building

cargo run    # Build and run the binary
cargo build # Only build (output in target/debug/ or target/release/)
cargo build --release  # Optimized build

In C#: cargo run is like dotnet run; cargo build --release is like dotnet publish -c Release (without the publish step).

The Entry Point: main.rs

fn main() {
    println!("Hello, world!");
}

• fn main() – Program entry point (no args in this form; use std::env::args() for CLI args).
• println! – Macro (the ! indicates a macro), similar to Console.WriteLine in C#.

In C#: Equivalent to static void Main() and Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");.

Key takeaway

Rust is installed via rustup; Cargo is the single tool for building, running, and testing. There is no separate solution file; workspaces list member crates. main.rs and println! are your first building blocks.