Rust is a systems programming language that guarantees memory safety without a garbage collector through its borrow checker. It is used for WebAssembly, operating systems, game engines, and high-performance network services. This guide installs Rust via rustup on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

Tested and valid on:

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

Prerequisites

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
A user account (does not require sudo)
curl installed

Step 1 – Install Rust via rustup

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

Choose option 1 (default installation) when prompted.

Step 2 – Configure the PATH

source $HOME/.cargo/env
rustc --version
cargo --version

Step 3 – Create Your First Rust Program

cargo new hello_rust
cd hello_rust
cat src/main.rs

Step 4 – Build and Run

cargo build
./target/debug/hello_rust
# Optimised release build:
cargo build --release
./target/release/hello_rust

Step 5 – Add a Dependency

Edit Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
serde = { version = '1', features = ['derive'] }
serde_json = '1'

cargo build

Step 6 – Update Rust

rustup update
rustc --version

Step 7 – Install Useful Tools

cargo install cargo-watch   # auto-rebuild on change
cargo install cargo-edit    # cargo add/rm/upgrade
cargo install ripgrep       # fast grep replacement (rg)
rg --version

Conclusion

Rust is installed via rustup on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. The cargo package manager handles building, testing, and dependency management. Explore crates.io for the Rust ecosystem and read The Rust Book at doc.rust-lang.org.

How to Install Rust on Ubuntu 26.04