cargo-clean(1)

NAME

cargo-clean — Remove generated artifacts

SYNOPSIS

cargo clean [options]

DESCRIPTION

Remove artifacts from the target directory that Cargo has generated in the past.

With no options, cargo clean will delete the entire target directory.

OPTIONS

Package Selection

When no packages are selected, all packages and all dependencies in the workspace are cleaned.

-p spec…
--package spec…
Clean only the specified packages. This flag may be specified multiple times. See cargo-pkgid(1) for the SPEC format.

Clean Options

--dry-run
Displays a summary of what would be deleted without deleting anything. Use with --verbose to display the actual files that would be deleted.
--doc
This option will cause cargo clean to remove only the doc directory in the target directory.
--release
Remove all artifacts in the release directory.
--profile name
Remove all artifacts in the directory with the given profile name.
--target-dir directory
Directory for all generated artifacts and intermediate files. May also be specified with the CARGO_TARGET_DIR environment variable, or the build.target-dir config value. Defaults to target in the root of the workspace.
--target triple
Clean for the given architecture. The default is the host architecture. The general format of the triple is <arch><sub>-<vendor>-<sys>-<abi>. Run rustc --print target-list for a list of supported targets. This flag may be specified multiple times.

This may also be specified with the build.target config value.

Note that specifying this flag makes Cargo run in a different mode where the target artifacts are placed in a separate directory. See the build cache documentation for more details.

Display Options

-v
--verbose
Use verbose output. May be specified twice for “very verbose” output which includes extra output such as dependency warnings and build script output. May also be specified with the term.verbose config value.
-q
--quiet
Do not print cargo log messages. May also be specified with the term.quiet config value.
--color when
Control when colored output is used. Valid values:

  • auto (default): Automatically detect if color support is available on the terminal.
  • always: Always display colors.
  • never: Never display colors.

May also be specified with the term.color config value.

Manifest Options

--manifest-path path
Path to the Cargo.toml file. By default, Cargo searches for the Cargo.toml file in the current directory or any parent directory.
--locked
Asserts that the exact same dependencies and versions are used as when the existing Cargo.lock file was originally generated. Cargo will exit with an error when either of the following scenarios arises:

  • The lock file is missing.
  • Cargo attempted to change the lock file due to a different dependency resolution.

It may be used in environments where deterministic builds are desired, such as in CI pipelines.

--offline
Prevents Cargo from accessing the network for any reason. Without this flag, Cargo will stop with an error if it needs to access the network and the network is not available. With this flag, Cargo will attempt to proceed without the network if possible.

Beware that this may result in different dependency resolution than online mode. Cargo will restrict itself to crates that are downloaded locally, even if there might be a newer version as indicated in the local copy of the index. See the cargo-fetch(1) command to download dependencies before going offline.

May also be specified with the net.offline config value.

--frozen
Equivalent to specifying both --locked and --offline.
--lockfile-path PATH
Changes the path of the lockfile from the default (<workspace_root>/Cargo.lock) to PATH. PATH must end with Cargo.lock (e.g. --lockfile-path /tmp/temporary-lockfile/Cargo.lock). Note that providing --lockfile-path will ignore existing lockfile at the default path, and instead will either use the lockfile from PATH, or write a new lockfile into the provided PATH if it doesn’t exist. This flag can be used to run most commands in read-only directories, writing lockfile into the provided PATH.

This option is only available on the nightly channel and requires the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #14421).

Common Options

+toolchain
If Cargo has been installed with rustup, and the first argument to cargo begins with +, it will be interpreted as a rustup toolchain name (such as +stable or +nightly). See the rustup documentation for more information about how toolchain overrides work.
--config KEY=VALUE or PATH
Overrides a Cargo configuration value. The argument should be in TOML syntax of KEY=VALUE, or provided as a path to an extra configuration file. This flag may be specified multiple times. See the command-line overrides section for more information.
-C PATH
Changes the current working directory before executing any specified operations. This affects things like where cargo looks by default for the project manifest (Cargo.toml), as well as the directories searched for discovering .cargo/config.toml, for example. This option must appear before the command name, for example cargo -C path/to/my-project build.

This option is only available on the nightly channel and requires the -Z unstable-options flag to enable (see #10098).

-h
--help
Prints help information.
-Z flag
Unstable (nightly-only) flags to Cargo. Run cargo -Z help for details.

ENVIRONMENT

See the reference for details on environment variables that Cargo reads.

EXIT STATUS

  • 0: Cargo succeeded.
  • 101: Cargo failed to complete.

EXAMPLES

  1. Remove the entire target directory:

    cargo clean

  2. Remove only the release artifacts:

    cargo clean --release

SEE ALSO

cargo(1), cargo-build(1)