Setting Up a Project with Cargo

Cargo is Rust's built-in build tool and package manager — think of it as npm and a build system rolled into one, and it comes installed automatically alongside the Rust compiler. Running cargo new my_project creates a brand-new folder called my_project, already set up with everything a Rust project needs to compile and run.

cargo new my_project
cd my_project

That command creates two important things: a Cargo.toml file at the top level, and a src folder containing main.rs. Cargo.toml is the project's manifest — it lists the package's name, version, the Rust edition it targets, and any external dependencies it needs. src/main.rs is where your actual program code lives, and Cargo starts it off with a working 'Hello, world!' program already written for you.

[package]
name = "my_project"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2021"

[dependencies]

Cargo's project manifest, listing a package's name, version, and dependencies, is called ____.

What does running cargo new my_project create?