Add cargo-binstall

[janbrasna]

Tool name

cargo-binstall

Tool license

GPL-3.0-only

Add or update?

• Add
• Update

Desired version

latest

Approximate size

6 MB

Brief description of tool

Binstall is a tool to fetch and install Rust-based executables as binaries. It aims to be a drop-in replacement for cargo install in most cases.

URL for tool's homepage

https://github.com/cargo-bins/cargo-binstall

Provide a basic test case to validate the tool's functionality.

cargo binstall cargo-binstall

Platforms where you need the tool

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions

Runner images where you need the tool

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026

Can this tool be installed during the build?

brew install cargo-binstall

Tool installation time in runtime

seconds

Are you willing to submit a PR?

No response

[GitPaulo]

Hi, this is a reasonable request but I worry about the community's actual need for this tool, could you elaborate on:

• Is this required for common Rust builds, or just an optimisation?
• Are major Rust projects recommending it as standard CI tooling - I cannot find such information?
• Do you have data on CI time savings vs cargo install?

Alternatively install it yourself via: brew install cargo-binstall which is possible or an action.

cc @erik-bershel

[GitPaulo]

I'm closing this, re-open if interest and context is added.

[janbrasna]

Yeah I went looking for my runs using pedestrian cargo install before getting fed up with actually building a stable tool over and over, and started to curl GH releases for binaries instead… (which may or may not be a workaround depending on whether you pin a version or only write the workflow for one platform etc.) … but the logs are long expired, so I'll just make some trivial repro examples.

TL;DR is instead of pulling e.g. mdBook binary in seconds, every consumer in every run builds their own binaries for 1–2min over and over again. It seems like a waste, compared to any other ecosystem.

The intent behind having this preinstalled is mainly because actually even installing it is cumbersome (homebrew on darwin easy, extra steps to expose the right paths for linuxbrew, and again having to wget executables or build from source on windows so the install steps are not portable). The cargo-binaries org provides a setup action — for some enterprises 3rdparty actions are not allowed, so that's a little limiting.