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Merged
epage merged 2 commits into from
Jan 28, 2026
Merged

Prevent cargo init in home directory #16566

epage merged 2 commits into from
Jan 28, 2026
+62 −6

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@terror terror commented Jan 28, 2026

Resolves #16562

Running cargo init in the home directory can lead to confusing states, particularly for new users experimenting with Cargo. A Cargo.toml in the home directory causes issues with file discovery, as Cargo will treat the entire home directory as a package root when running commands from any subdirectory.

This diff adds a check to error out when cargo init is run in the home directory, with a message suggesting to use cargo init <path> instead.

@rustbot rustbot added Command-new S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. labels Jan 28, 2026
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rustbot commented Jan 28, 2026

r? @ehuss

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terror commented Jan 28, 2026

r? @epage

@rustbot rustbot assigned epage and unassigned ehuss Jan 28, 2026
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epage commented Jan 28, 2026

Thanks for working on this!

As a heads up, we''ve found it really helpful for contributors and reviewers to split the tests out into their own commit before the change with them passing, showing the existing behavior you wish to change. Then you fix commit will update the test to reflect the new behavior with the diff between them showing how your changes affected behavior. For more on this, including example PRs, see https://doc.crates.io/contrib/process/working-on-cargo.html#submitting-a-pull-request.

epage
epage reviewed Jan 28, 2026
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@terror terror force-pushed the cargo-init-home-directory branch from b17eb3d to a3621f6 Compare January 28, 2026 05:57
@terror terror force-pushed the cargo-init-home-directory branch from a3621f6 to fd59dc2 Compare January 28, 2026 06:08
epage
epage approved these changes Jan 28, 2026
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Thanks!

As this was approved during a Cargo Team meeting and this is a UX command, I'll directly merge rather than do an FCP.

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@epage epage added this pull request to the merge queue Jan 28, 2026
ranger-ross
ranger-ross reviewed Jan 28, 2026
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src/cargo/ops/cargo_new.rs
Comment on lines +500 to +507
if let Some(home) = home_dir() {
if path == &home {
anyhow::bail!(
"cannot create package in the home directory\n\n\
help: use `cargo init <path>` to create a package in a different directory"
)
}
}
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@ranger-ross ranger-ross Jan 28, 2026 •
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nit: you can flatten these if statements

if let Some(home) = home_dir() && path == &home { ... }

tests/testsuite/cargo_init/in_home_directory/mod.rs Outdated
#[cargo_test]
fn case() {
snapbox::cmd::Command::cargo_ui()
.arg_line("init --vcs none")
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@ranger-ross ranger-ross Jan 28, 2026 •
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why is --vcs none removed in the second commit?
(Or added in the first commit?)

Merged via the queue into rust-lang:master with commit fc2cea5 Jan 28, 2026
29 checks passed
@rustbot rustbot removed the S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. label Jan 28, 2026
@weihanglo weihanglo mentioned this pull request Jan 31, 2026
Merged
rust-bors bot pushed a commit to rust-lang/rust that referenced this pull request Jan 31, 2026
@bors
Auto merge of #151764 - weihanglo:update-cargo, r=weihanglo
6573c44 
Update cargo submodule

18 commits in efcd9f58636c1990393d495159045d9c35e43b8f..fe2f314aef06e688a9517da1ac0577bb1854d01f
2026-01-23 13:50:59 +0000 to 2026-01-30 21:52:01 +0000
- feat(lints): Add unused workspace dependency lint (rust-lang/cargo#16571)
- docs: Remove redundant homepage link (rust-lang/cargo#16572)
- refactor: Remove unused workspace dependencies (rust-lang/cargo#16573)
- Re-downgrade curl-sys (rust-lang/cargo#16570)
- docs(report): enhance man pages for `cargo report *` (rust-lang/cargo#16430)
- fix(lints): Refine redundant metadata lints (rust-lang/cargo#16564)
- Prevent `cargo init` in home directory (rust-lang/cargo#16566)
- feat(lints): Add redundant_homepage lint  (rust-lang/cargo#16561)
- feat(lints): Add `non_*_case_features` (rust-lang/cargo#16560)
- Update build_std::basic test to ensure index doesn't update (rust-lang/cargo#16559)
- feat(lints): Add mutually exclusive `non_{kebab,snake}_case_packages` (rust-lang/cargo#16554)
- fix(lints): Pluralize non_kebab_case_bins (rust-lang/cargo#16553)
- Add -Z json-target-spec (rust-lang/cargo#16557)
- feat(lint): Add redundant_readme lint  (rust-lang/cargo#16552)
- chore(deps): update msrv (rust-lang/cargo#16387)
- tests: add regression test for --artifact-dir on stable (rust-lang/cargo#16541)
- Don't check the specific build-std output (rust-lang/cargo#16551)
- Fix build-std lto test to run on other platforms (rust-lang/cargo#16550)
rust-bors bot pushed a commit to rust-lang/rust that referenced this pull request Jan 31, 2026
@bors
Auto merge of #151764 - weihanglo:update-cargo, r=weihanglo
310ae8c 
Update cargo submodule

18 commits in efcd9f58636c1990393d495159045d9c35e43b8f..fe2f314aef06e688a9517da1ac0577bb1854d01f
2026-01-23 13:50:59 +0000 to 2026-01-30 21:52:01 +0000
- feat(lints): Add unused workspace dependency lint (rust-lang/cargo#16571)
- docs: Remove redundant homepage link (rust-lang/cargo#16572)
- refactor: Remove unused workspace dependencies (rust-lang/cargo#16573)
- Re-downgrade curl-sys (rust-lang/cargo#16570)
- docs(report): enhance man pages for `cargo report *` (rust-lang/cargo#16430)
- fix(lints): Refine redundant metadata lints (rust-lang/cargo#16564)
- Prevent `cargo init` in home directory (rust-lang/cargo#16566)
- feat(lints): Add redundant_homepage lint  (rust-lang/cargo#16561)
- feat(lints): Add `non_*_case_features` (rust-lang/cargo#16560)
- Update build_std::basic test to ensure index doesn't update (rust-lang/cargo#16559)
- feat(lints): Add mutually exclusive `non_{kebab,snake}_case_packages` (rust-lang/cargo#16554)
- fix(lints): Pluralize non_kebab_case_bins (rust-lang/cargo#16553)
- Add -Z json-target-spec (rust-lang/cargo#16557)
- feat(lint): Add redundant_readme lint  (rust-lang/cargo#16552)
- chore(deps): update msrv (rust-lang/cargo#16387)
- tests: add regression test for --artifact-dir on stable (rust-lang/cargo#16541)
- Don't check the specific build-std output (rust-lang/cargo#16551)
- Fix build-std lto test to run on other platforms (rust-lang/cargo#16550)
@rustbot rustbot added this to the 1.95.0 milestone Jan 31, 2026
shepmaster added a commit to rust-lang/rust-playground that referenced this pull request Feb 2, 2026
@shepmaster
Can no longer cargo init our directory
c9f6d3d 
See rust-lang/cargo#16566
shepmaster added a commit to rust-lang/rust-playground that referenced this pull request Feb 2, 2026
@shepmaster
Can no longer cargo init our directory
442d113 
See rust-lang/cargo#16566
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cargo init in the home directory can lead to confusing states

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