Last Updated on March 7, 2026
Cargo is the Rust package manager. Cargo downloads your Rust package’s dependencies, compiles your packages, makes distributable packages, and uploads them to crates.io, the Rust community’s package registry.
Cargo is distributed by default with Rust, so if you’ve got rustc installed locally you probably also have cargo installed locally.
This is free and open source software.
Performs the following tasks:
- Introduces two metadata files with various bits of package information.
- Fetches and builds your package’s dependencies.
- Invokes rustc or another build tool with the correct parameters to build your package.
- Introduces conventions to make working with Rust packages easier.
Website: doc.rust-lang.org
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Carl Lerche and Yehuda Katz
License: Apache License 2.0
Cargo is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |