You are not installing one mysterious “Rust app”.rustup manages the toolchain, rustc is the compiler, andcargo manages normal Rust projects.
The three names you will immediately meet
Installs and manages Rust toolchains, release channels, and additional targets.
The Rust compiler. It checks Rust source code and compiles valid programs.
The everyday project tool: create, build, run, test, and manage dependencies.
Common companion tools for formatting code and catching suspicious or unidiomatic patterns.
Windows
The official Rust installer page provides rustup-init.exe for Windows. Run the installer and follow its prompts. Rust on Windows can also require Microsoft's C++ build tools because linking native programs needs the platform toolchain.
WSL behaves like a Unix environment for installation purposes. Follow the Linux/Unix rustup path inside the WSL terminal rather than the native Windows installer.
macOS, Linux, and Unix-like environments
The official installation method uses a shell command that downloads and starts rustup:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
Read the prompts before accepting them. On some systems you may also need a C compiler/linker toolchain if it is not already installed.
How do you know the install actually worked?
Open a fresh terminal and ask each important tool for its version:
rustc --version cargo --version rustup --version
Version numbers mean the commands are on your PATH and available to the shell. If the install succeeded but the command is still “not found”, the official installer notes that restarting the terminal may be necessary for the PATH change to take effect.
In normal day-to-day beginner work you will mostly type Cargo commands. rustup becomes important when you update Rust, switch toolchains, or add a compilation target. rustc is always there underneath, but Cargo usually drives it for a project.
Updating later
The rustup-managed toolchain can be updated with:
rustup update