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Hello, Rust!

Rust is a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents segfaults, and guarantees thread safety. It is designed to be a safe, concurrent, and practical language (as discussed previously), and supports both functional and imperative-procedural paradigms.

Setting Up Rust Environment​

Documentation

Installation​

To get started with Rust, installation is required. The recommended way is through rustup, a command-line tool for managing Rust versions and associated tools.

Linux, macOS, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)​

On Linux, macOS, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Rust can be installed by running the following command in the terminal:

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

Other Platforms and Installation Methods​

For other platforms such as Windows or Unix-like systems, or for different installation methods, refer to the official guide: Other Rust Installation Methods.

Toolchain Management with rustup​

Rust installation includes rustup, a toolchain installer for Rust. rustup manages multiple Rust toolchains (stable, beta, nightly) and allows switching between them easily. It also helps keep Rust and its tools up to date.

Rust can be updated to the latest version with:

Terminal
rustup update

More information about rustup is available in the rustup official documentation.

Configuring the PATH Environment Variable​

In the Rust development environment, all tools are installed in the user's home directory under ~/.rustup and ~/.cargo.

The rustup, rustc, cargo, and other commands are added to Cargo's bin directory, located at ~/.cargo/bin.

  • rustup is the Rust toolchain installer.
  • rustc is the Rust compiler.
  • cargo is Rust's package manager and build system.

After installation, these tools need to be accessible from the command line. This is usually done automatically by the installer, but if not, add the following line to the shell configuration file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc):

Terminal
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

Verifying Installation​

To verify that Rust is installed correctly, run the following commands in the terminal to check the versions of rustup, rustc, and cargo:

Terminal
rustup --version
Terminal
rustc --version
Terminal
cargo --version

If installation was successful, these commands display the installed versions of Rustup, Rust compiler, and Cargo.

Uninstalling Rust​

Rust can be uninstalled with:

Terminal
rustup self uninstall

First Program​

Documentation

Writing Code​

A simple "Hello, World!" program in Rust:

main.rs
fn main() {
    println!("Hello, World!");
}

Any file name works, but main.rs is conventional. The entry point is always the main function, and the program will not run without it, similar to C, C++, and Java.

Compiling​

The Rust compiler rustc can be used to compile the program:

Terminal
rustc main.rs

This generates an executable file named main (or main.exe on Windows) in the same directory.

Running​

The compiled program can be run with:

Terminal
./main

This prints Hello, World! in the terminal.

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