Getting Started with Rust: Installing and Running a Program

Rust is a low-level, fast, and safe programming language that is increasingly establishing itself by replacing C and C++ on many large-scale projects, such as the Linux Kernel.

It is particularly appreciated for its memory management system without a garbage collector, its performance and its robustness.

Installing Rust

The recommended way to install Rust is to use the rustup tool, which installs both:

• the Rust compiler (rustc)
• the package and project manager cargo

On Linux and macOS

Open a terminal and run:

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

This script downloads the installer, explains what it will do, then installs everything needed. If everything goes well, you should see this message:

Rust is installed now. Great!

Then, remember to restart your terminal or run:

source $HOME/.cargo/env

On Windows

Download and run the file rustup-init.exe. A console will open and guide you through the installation. Once finished, you should see the same success message.

⚠️ Make sure the installation properly added Rust to your PATH.

You can test it with:

rustc --version
cargo --version

Writing a basic program

Let's write a first program that displays a personalized "Hello World!".

1. Create a folder for your project:

mkdir hello-rust
cd hello-rust

1. Create a main.rs file:

fn main() {
    let name = "Alice";
    println!("Bonjour, {} !", name);
}

This program:

• declares a variable name
• displays a message with println!, Rust's display macro

The {} is a placeholder that will be replaced by the value of the name variable. You can add several if needed, like println!("{} a {} ans", nom, age);.

Compiling and running the program

Manually

You can compile the file with rustc:

rustc main.rs

This generates an executable (main on Linux/macOS, main.exe on Windows) that you can run:

./main

or

main.exe

With Cargo (recommended)

Cargo is Rust's official project management tool.

It handles dependencies, compilation, execution, etc.

To create a new project:

cargo new hello-rust
cd hello-rust

This creates a complete project structure with:

• a Cargo.toml file (configuration)
• a src/ folder with a main.rs file

You can then run your program with:

cargo run

cargo run compiles (if needed) and runs your program automatically.