Is it possible to install Cargo dependencies in the same directory as my project?

Question

I'm running my Rust project with Docker. It is fast, but there is a problem when I add an external dependency. Since Docker starts a new every time I run the "cargo run" command, it then fetches the external dependencies from the Internet again.

While this is related to an issue I have with Docker, I don't believe this is restricted to Docker as it can be an issue for a broad range of setups. What I'm looking for is simple regardless of Docker or anything else: Install the dependencies in the Rust project folder instead of having it installed globally, like in Node package manager.

Answer 1

The dependencies are already built inside every project; in the target directory. The dependencies source code is cached in your user directory at $HOME/.cargo.

If you wish to not use the user-wide download cache, you can specify the CARGO_HOME environment variable and have a separate cache:

CARGO_HOME=$PWD/cargo cargo build

---

As you drew the analogy to npm, note that Cargo's solution is basically what yarn does — a global cache of downloads and the project's specific dependencies are built / linked into the node_modules directory.