#289 Installing Rust for macOS

Getting rust running under macOS

Notes

There are at least four methods:

binary installation - see Rust Downloads
shell installation - see Rust Downloads
Homebrew
source compilation - see GitHub repo
rustup installer

brew

I use homebrew to manage most of my software installation, so I’ll use that.

My first installation was with rust 1.7.0 on an Intel-based MacBook.

$ brew install rust
==> Installing dependencies for rust: libssh2
==> Installing rust dependency: libssh2
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/libssh2-1.7.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring libssh2-1.7.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/libssh2/1.7.0: 180 files, 798.4K
==> Installing rust
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/rust-1.7.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring rust-1.7.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
Bash completion has been installed to:
  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d

zsh completion has been installed to:
  /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions
==> Summary
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/rust/1.7.0: 10,323 files, 227.8M
$ rustc --version
rustc 1.7.0

So far, so good..

Later

Several updates later…

$ brew info rust
rust: stable 1.40.0 (bottled), HEAD
Safe, concurrent, practical language
https://www.rust-lang.org/
/usr/local/Cellar/rust/1.40.0 (27,438 files, 639.3MB) *
  Poured from bottle on 2020-01-09 at 10:47:18
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/rust.rb
==> Dependencies
Build: cmake ✔
Required: libssh2 ✔, openssl@1.1 ✔, pkg-config ✔
==> Options
--HEAD
  Install HEAD version
==> Analytics
install: 7,931 (30 days), 30,613 (90 days), 123,112 (365 days)
install-on-request: 5,757 (30 days), 21,727 (90 days), 88,186 (365 days)
build-error: 0 (30 days)

After installation:

$ brew info rust
==> rust: stable 1.86.0 (bottled), HEAD
Safe, concurrent, practical language
https://www.rust-lang.org/
Installed
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/rust/1.86.0 (3,648 files, 322.5MB) *
  Poured from bottle using the formulae.brew.sh API on 2025-04-16 at 11:53:42
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/r/rust.rb
License: Apache-2.0 OR MIT
==> Dependencies
Required: libgit2 ✔, libssh2 ✔, llvm@19 ✔, openssl@3 ✔, pkgconf ✔, zstd ✔
==> Requirements
Required: macOS >= 10.12 (or Linux) ✔
==> Options
--HEAD
 Install HEAD version
==> Caveats
Link this toolchain with `rustup` under the name `system` with:
  rustup toolchain link system "$(brew --prefix rust)"

If you use rustup, avoid PATH conflicts by following instructions in:
  brew info rustup

Bash completion has been installed to:
  /opt/homebrew/etc/bash_completion.d
==> Analytics
install: 53,365 (30 days), 136,758 (90 days), 495,659 (365 days)
install-on-request: 44,207 (30 days), 109,219 (90 days), 377,053 (365 days)
build-error: 149 (30 days)
$ rustc --version
rustc 1.40.0
$ cargo --version
cargo 1.40.0

Rust on Apple Silicon

It’s time to get rust running on my new(er) iMac running macOS 15.4 on Apple M3 silicon.

$ brew install rust
==> Installing rust
==> Pouring rust--1.86.0.arm64_sequoia.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
Link this toolchain with `rustup` under the name `system` with:
  rustup toolchain link system "$(brew --prefix rust)"

If you use rustup, avoid PATH conflicts by following instructions in:
  brew info rustup

Bash completion has been installed to:
  /opt/homebrew/etc/bash_completion.d
==> Summary
🍺  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/rust/1.86.0: 3,648 files, 322.5MB
==> Running `brew cleanup rust`...
Disable this behaviour by setting HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP.
Hide these hints with HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS (see `man brew`).
==> Caveats
==> rust
Link this toolchain with `rustup` under the name `system` with:
  rustup toolchain link system "$(brew --prefix rust)"

If you use rustup, avoid PATH conflicts by following instructions in:
  brew info rustup

Bash completion has been installed to:
  /opt/homebrew/etc/bash_completion.d
$ rustc --version
rustc 1.86.0 (05f9846f8 2025-03-31) (Homebrew)
$ cargo --version
cargo 1.86.0

Discarding brew

I’ve run into cross-compilation limitations with the brew-based install, so now switching to rustup install per https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install

First remove the brew-installed rust:

brew uninstall rustup
brew uninstall rust

Then install using the remote self-installer:

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

I made sure source "$HOME/.cargo/env" was included in my shell profile scripts.

Now the rust install is back working, with rustup support:

$ rustup target list
aarch64-apple-darwin (installed)
aarch64-apple-ios
aarch64-apple-ios-macabi
aarch64-apple-ios-sim
aarch64-linux-android
aarch64-pc-windows-gnullvm
aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
aarch64-unknown-fuchsia
aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
aarch64-unknown-linux-ohos
aarch64-unknown-none
aarch64-unknown-none-softfloat
aarch64-unknown-uefi
arm-linux-androideabi
arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi
arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
arm-unknown-linux-musleabi (installed)
arm-unknown-linux-musleabihf
arm64ec-pc-windows-msvc
armebv7r-none-eabi
armebv7r-none-eabihf
armv5te-unknown-linux-gnueabi
armv5te-unknown-linux-musleabi
armv7-linux-androideabi
armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabi
armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf (installed)
armv7-unknown-linux-musleabi
armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf (installed)
armv7-unknown-linux-ohos
armv7a-none-eabi
armv7r-none-eabi
armv7r-none-eabihf
i586-pc-windows-msvc
i586-unknown-linux-gnu
i586-unknown-linux-musl
i686-linux-android
i686-pc-windows-gnu
i686-pc-windows-gnullvm
i686-pc-windows-msvc
i686-unknown-freebsd
i686-unknown-linux-gnu
i686-unknown-linux-musl
i686-unknown-uefi
loongarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
loongarch64-unknown-linux-musl
loongarch64-unknown-none
loongarch64-unknown-none-softfloat
nvptx64-nvidia-cuda
powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu
powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu
powerpc64le-unknown-linux-gnu
powerpc64le-unknown-linux-musl
riscv32i-unknown-none-elf
riscv32im-unknown-none-elf
riscv32imac-unknown-none-elf
riscv32imafc-unknown-none-elf
riscv32imc-unknown-none-elf
riscv64gc-unknown-linux-gnu
riscv64gc-unknown-linux-musl
riscv64gc-unknown-none-elf
riscv64imac-unknown-none-elf
s390x-unknown-linux-gnu
sparc64-unknown-linux-gnu
sparcv9-sun-solaris
thumbv6m-none-eabi
thumbv7em-none-eabi
thumbv7em-none-eabihf
thumbv7m-none-eabi
thumbv7neon-linux-androideabi
thumbv7neon-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
thumbv8m.base-none-eabi
thumbv8m.main-none-eabi
thumbv8m.main-none-eabihf
wasm32-unknown-emscripten
wasm32-unknown-unknown
wasm32-wasip1
wasm32-wasip1-threads
wasm32-wasip2
wasm32v1-none
x86_64-apple-darwin
x86_64-apple-ios
x86_64-apple-ios-macabi
x86_64-fortanix-unknown-sgx
x86_64-linux-android
x86_64-pc-solaris
x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm
x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
x86_64-unknown-freebsd
x86_64-unknown-fuchsia
x86_64-unknown-illumos
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnux32
x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
x86_64-unknown-linux-ohos
x86_64-unknown-netbsd
x86_64-unknown-none
x86_64-unknown-redox
x86_64-unknown-uefi