# rustup

14 Hacker News commenters recommended rustup and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Installs and switches Rust compilers and toolchains, with quick setup and easy switching between compiler versions. Critics point to its curl-to-shell install script.

## Why people recommend it

- Standard, quick way to install Rust (4 comments): "Installing the toolchain with rustup is quick and painless, even on Windows." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882285)) "Hasn’t the right way to install rust has always been using rust up?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47128594)) "Execute the one-liner here: https://rustup.rs/" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869600))
- Fetches toolchains without issue (2 comments): "The easy path is downloading binary toolchains with rustup and not using your disto package manager." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47128278)) "rustup does a great job of fetching the required toolchains without issue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47023456))
- Easy switching between compiler versions (2 comments): "Rustup makes it easy to switch compiler versions to get back to the same one you used, too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47997402)) "downloading a specific nightly version is only a single rustup command" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46215468))

## What people warn about

- Install relies on curl-to-shell script (3 comments): "an unsigned "curl | sh" style magic script" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47723230)) "Rustup teaches people to do curl | sh." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937821)) "attackers have the work done for them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48059390))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [mise](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mise.md): 137 recommend
- [asdf version manager](https://hackerapproved.com/p/asdf.md): 17 recommend
- [SDKMAN](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sdkman.md): 12 recommend
- [nvm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvm.md): 7 recommend
- [pyenv](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pyenv.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "rustup", https://hackerapproved.com/p/rustup/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).