How to set up a development environment for Rust on Ubuntu¶

Rust is a relatively new and secure programming language supported on many platforms. This article provides guidance on how to install the Rust toolchain and set up a development environment for Rust on Ubuntu.

Installing Rust¶

There are two (main) options for installing Rust on Ubuntu:

Using Ubuntu packages from the Ubuntu archive: Official packages maintained by the Ubuntu team and installed through the Ubuntu package-management system. Use this method if you are an Ubuntu package developer or maintainer familiar with the archive toolchain model.
Using Rustup, the Rust toolchain installer: Available as a snap package. Use this method if you develop Rust applications for business or general use. The Rustup snap allows for installing the latest releases of Rust ecosystem tools, as well as installing multiple versions of Rust in parallel.

Installing the Rust toolchain from Ubuntu packages¶

Install the cargo package, which automatically pulls required dependencies, including the rustc compiler.

In a terminal, run:
```
sudo apt install cargo
```

Installing the latest Rust toolchain using Rustup¶

Install the Rustup manager from the Snap Store snapcraft.io: Rustup and the Rust toolchain using rustup.

In a terminal, run:
```
snap install --classic rustup
```
After installing Rustup, use it to install the latest stable Rust version:
```
rustup install stable
```
Optional: If your project needs unstable Rust features that are not present in the latest stable toolchain, try the nightly Rust toolchain builds:
```
rustup install nightly
```

Note

Many external Rust libraries on crates.io contain C/C++ code, which requires a working C/C++ compiler to be installed on your system.

Use the following command to install them:

sudo apt install build-essential

IDE integrations¶

Many editors and IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) come with various degrees of Rust support. Here are some popular ones:

Visual Studio Code: Install the rust-analyzer extension from the VSCode Marketplace.
Helix Editor and Zed Editor: Install rust-analyzer using Rustup:
```
rustup component add rust-analyzer
```
JetBrains RustRover (paid): Comes with full Rust support by default.

Building for other platforms¶

To develop Rust applications for other platforms on Ubuntu, install the necessary tools and libraries for each platform.

To see a list of platforms that you can build on Ubuntu, use the following command:

rustup target list

Attention

Some targets on that list require installing additional packages or downloading SDKs from third-party websites. Refer to the official Rust documentation for details.

Example: Setup for building for Windows¶

To target Windows, install the following packages:

sudo apt install binutils-mingw-w64 g++-mingw-w64 gcc-mingw-w64

Add the Windows target to the toolchain:

rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu

Build your project:

cargo build --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu

Example: Setup for building for web browsers¶

Many Rust applications can run inside a web browser. To build a Rust project for web browsers, use the WebAssembly (wasm) target.

Install the required packages:
```
sudo apt install clang lld
```

Add the wasm target to the toolchain:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

Build your project:

cargo build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown

Installing debugging tooling¶

Your code editor or IDE probably already has debugging functionalities tailored for Rust applications. If not, you can also debug Rust applications on Ubuntu using familiar debugging tools such as GDB and LLDB.

Attention

The cargo package conflicts with the rust-lldb command. To use rust-lldb, install the Rustup snap as described in Installing the latest Rust toolchain using Rustup. Then install lldb normally as described below.

To install the corresponding debugging support packages, run:

sudo apt install gdb lldb

You can then use rust-gdb or rust-lldb to debug your Rust applications.

What next¶

See the tutorial introducing the use of Rust and related tooling: Develop with Rust on Ubuntu.