In-depth analysis of Cargo caching mechanism and best practices

As a package management tool in Rust, Cargo not only plays an important role in project construction, but its efficient caching mechanism also saves a lot of time for Rust developers. This article will delve into the caching principle and usage skills of Cargo, and provide rich examples to help you easily master the management and optimization of Cargo caching.

Cargo Cache Overview

Cargo uses caching to improve build efficiency, and when the build command is executed, it stores the downloaded dependencies in the CARGO_HOMEdirectory. This directory is located by default in the .cargofolder of the user's home directory.

For example, in macOS, you can find the location of the Cargo Home directory by using the following command:

echo $HOME/.cargo/

Output example:

/Users/yourusername/.cargo/

You can also change the location of CARGO_HOMEenvironment variables. If you need to get the CARGO_HOMEdirectory in your code, you can use the API provided by the homepackage.

File and directory structure

Non-directory file

• Config.toml: Cargo's global configuration file.
• Credentials.toml: A file used to provide private login credentials, such as for login crates.io.
• .Crates.tomland .crates2.json…