Setting up a Rust build environment

Regardless of which operating system you use, we recommend using rustup to install and maintain your Rust toolchain. On Linux and OS X, you simply run the following command in a shell:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

No further action should be needed.

On Windows, things are a little more involved. First download rustup‑init.exe from the rustup site and run it, following the on-screen instructions. Rust may require installation of VC++ build tools (more instructions can be found here). Once installed, execute the following rustup commands:

rustup default stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
rustup target add i686-pc-windows-gnu

Second, install Rtools. The latest installer is available on CRAN. Alternatively, Rtools can be installed using chocolatey:

choco install rtools -y

Finally, make sure that environment variables are set up correctly. R_HOME should point to the R folder, e.g. C:\Program Files\R\R-4.1.0 (be careful with spaces in the path). RTOOLS40_HOME should point to the Rtools folder (usually set up automatically by the installer), which is C:\rtools40 by default. PATH should contain paths to %R_HOME%\bin and %RTOOLS40_HOME%\usr\bin, as well as cargo, which is found at %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin if installed using rustup-init.exe.