How do I clean Rust build artifacts?

Run cargo clean inside a project to remove its target/ folder - a busy workspace's target easily reaches 10-20 GB. For projects you no longer touch, deleting target/ directly is the same thing.

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Rust is filling your disk

Q: How do I clear the cargo cache?

Delete ~/.cargo/registry/cache (downloaded .crate files) and ~/.cargo/registry/src (extracted sources). Everything re-downloads from crates.io on the next build that needs it.

CacheCleaner guides · Updated July 18, 2026

Two culprits: per-project target/ folders and the global ~/.cargo cache. A busy workspace's target folder easily reaches 10-20 GB (debug + release + every dependency's artifacts), and cargo's registry keeps every crate version you ever compiled. Both fully regenerate.

Find the target folders

find ~ -name target -type d -prune -path "*/src/../target" 2>/dev/null | head
# simpler, with sizes (will include some non-Rust 'target' dirs – check paths):
find ~ -name target -type d -prune -exec du -sh {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20

cargo clean                       # inside a project – removes its target/

The global cargo cache

du -sh ~/.cargo/registry ~/.cargo/git
rm -rf ~/.cargo/registry/cache    # downloaded .crate files
rm -rf ~/.cargo/registry/src      # extracted sources

Everything re-downloads from crates.io on the next build that needs it.

Rustup toolchains

rustup toolchain list
rustup toolchain uninstall nightly-2024-03-15   # old pinned nightlies add up, ~1 GB each

Automate the sweep

cargo install cargo-sweep then cargo sweep --time 30 removes artifacts older than 30 days from a target folder – good for the projects you're actively working on.

For everything else, CacheCleaner finds every target/ across the disk (only real Rust projects – it checks for Cargo.toml), plus the cargo registry, git checkouts and old rustup toolchains, with sizes for each.

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