Rust is a systems programming language focused on safety, speed, and concurrency without a garbage collector. This guide installs the Rust toolchain using rustup, the official Rust installer, on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Tested and valid on:

  • Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Prerequisites

  • Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server
  • A user with sudo privileges

Step 1 – Install Rust with rustup

Download and run the rustup installer:

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

Select option 1 for the default installation.

Step 2 – Configure the PATH

Load the Rust environment:

source $HOME/.cargo/env

Or open a new terminal — rustup adds this to ~/.bashrc automatically.

Step 3 – Verify the Installation

Check the Rust and Cargo versions:

rustc --version
cargo --version

Step 4 – Install Build Dependencies

Rust requires the C linker and build tools:

sudo apt install build-essential -y

Step 5 – Create a Hello World Project

Create a new Cargo project:

cargo new hello_world
cd hello_world
cargo run

Step 6 – Update Rust

Update the Rust toolchain:

rustup update

Step 7 – Install Additional Toolchains

Install the nightly toolchain for experimental features:

rustup toolchain install nightly
rustup default stable   # keep stable as default

Conclusion

Rust is now installed on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS via rustup. Cargo manages dependencies, builds, tests, and benchmarks. Rust is an excellent choice for performance-critical applications, CLI tools, and WebAssembly.