Install cargo-cache with Homebrew, Nix, pacman

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• cargo-cache

Project history

The cargo-cache repository was created in December 2017, and the first crates.io release followed in October 2018. The README describes it as a tool for displaying information about `~/.cargo/` or `$CARGO_HOME`, with optional cache pruning.

The project began as the maintainer's learning-by-doing Rust project, according to the README, but accumulated a practical feature set: size summaries, autoclean, dry-run removals, git repository garbage collection, regex cache queries, largest-item reports, alternative registry support, age-based removal, unreferenced-cache cleanup, sccache stats, and verification of extracted crate sources.

Adoption history

cargo-cache gained adoption because Cargo caches can become large on developer machines and CI systems. The README explicitly discusses CI cleanup before storing `$CARGO_HOME`, and crates.io reports more than 3 million downloads.

The input records Homebrew, Nix, and Arch packaging. Its high download count for a maintenance tool reflects a recurring need rather than glamour: package caches grow quietly, and developers want a Cargo-aware cleanup tool before deleting directories by hand.

How it is used

`cargo cache` prints a size breakdown without deleting anything. `cargo cache --autoclean` removes extracted crate sources and git checkouts while keeping original archives and bare repositories so Cargo can reconstruct them as needed.

Other documented workflows include `--top-cache-items` for largest entries, `--dry-run` before removals, `cargo cache query` for regex searches, `cargo cache clean-unref` for cache entries not referenced by a Cargo.toml, `cargo cache sc` for local sccache stats, and `cargo cache verify` for extracted crate sources.

Why package nerds care

cargo-cache is package-nerd plumbing: it exposes the physical layout and cost of Cargo's package cache. That makes it useful for people who care about how registries, source archives, git checkouts, installed binaries, and CI caches accumulate over time.

It also documents a conservative cleanup philosophy. The default inspection mode is read-only, and autoclean keeps reconstructable originals, matching the practical rule that cache tools should save disk without surprising the package manager.

Timeline

• 2017-12-05: GitHub repository matthiaskrgr/cargo-cache was created.
• 2018-10-17: cargo-cache 0.0.0 was published on crates.io.
• 2022-09-11: Version 0.8.3 was published.
• 2020s: README documented CI cleanup, sccache summaries, alternative registries, verification, and unreferenced-cache cleanup.

Related projects

• Cargo's `$CARGO_HOME` cache layout is the main system cargo-cache inspects.
• sccache is related only as a cache that cargo-cache can summarize; the README says cargo-cache is not itself a compiler cache.
• Cargo registry archives, registry source checkouts, git databases, and git checkouts are the package-manager structures exposed by the tool.

Sources

• GitHub repository API metadata: https://api.github.com/repos/matthiaskrgr/cargo-cache
• Official README: https://github.com/matthiaskrgr/cargo-cache#readme
• Package-manager adoption from source_facts.package-manager.
• crates.io API metadata and versions: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/cargo-cache