cargo-no-dev-deps

March 24, 2026 · View on GitHub

Cargo subcommand for running cargo without dev-dependencies.

This is an extraction of the cargo-hack's --no-dev-deps flag to be used as a stand-alone cargo subcommand.

Usage
Installation
Related Projects
License

Usage

Complete list of options (click to show)

$ cargo no-dev-deps --help
cargo-no-dev-deps

Cargo subcommand for running cargo without dev-dependencies.

USAGE:
    cargo no-dev-deps <CARGO_SUBCOMMAND> [OPTIONS] [CARGO_OPTIONS]

OPTIONS:
        --no-private    Perform without `publish = false` crates

CARGO_SUBCOMMANDS:
    build
    check
    ...

To run cargo check without dev-deps:

cargo no-dev-deps check

Note

cargo-no-dev-deps modifies Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock while running and restores it when finished. Any changes you made to those files during running will not be preserved.

If you want exclude publish = false crates, you can exclude these crates by using --no-private flag.

cargo no-dev-deps --no-private check

This flag is more powerful than cargo-hack's --ignore-private flag, because this also prevents private crates from affecting lockfile and metadata.

Installation

From source

cargo +stable install cargo-no-dev-deps --locked

Currently, installing cargo-no-dev-deps requires rustc 1.85+.

cargo-no-dev-deps is usually runnable with Cargo versions older than the Rust version required for installation (e.g., cargo +1.59 no-dev-deps check).

You can download prebuilt binaries from the Release page. Prebuilt binaries are available for Linux (x86_64 gnu/musl, aarch64 gnu/musl, powerpc64le gnu/musl, riscv64gc gnu/musl, and s390x gnu, musl binaries are static executable), macOS (x86_64, aarch64, and universal), Windows (x86_64 and aarch64, static executable), FreeBSD (x86_64), and illumos (x86_64). All releases are immutable and releases since 0.2.23 publish artifact attestations.

Example of script to install from the Release page with verifications (click to show)

# Get host target.
host=$(rustc -vV | grep '^host:' | cut -d' ' -f2)
# Download binary.
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL -o cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz "https://github.com/taiki-e/cargo-no-dev-deps/releases/latest/download/cargo-no-dev-deps-${host}.tar.gz"
# Verify release attestations.
gh release -R https://github.com/taiki-e/cargo-no-dev-deps verify-asset cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz
# Verify artifact attestations.
gh attestation verify --repo taiki-e/cargo-no-dev-deps --signer-workflow taiki-e/github-actions/.github/workflows/rust-release.yml cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz
# Install to $CARGO_HOME/bin (or $HOME/.cargo/bin if CARGO_HOME is unset).
tar xf cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz -C "${CARGO_HOME:-"$HOME/.cargo"}"/bin
# Remove archive.
rm cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz

gh release -R .. verify-asset should output messages like the following (<hash256>/<hash1>/<version> contains the actual SHA-256 digest of the downloaded file / the actual SHA-1 digest of tag / the actual version number):

Calculated digest for cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz: sha256:<hash256>
Resolved tag v<version> to sha1:<hash1>
Loaded attestation from GitHub API

✓ Verification succeeded! cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz is present in release v<version>

gh attestation verify should output messages like the following (<hash256> contains the actual SHA-256 digest of the downloaded file):

Loaded digest sha256:<hash256> for file://cargo-no-dev-deps.tar.gz
Loaded 1 attestation from GitHub API

The following policy criteria will be enforced:
- Predicate type must match:................ https://slsa.dev/provenance/v1
- Source Repository Owner URI must match:... https://github.com/taiki-e
- Subject Alternative Name must match regex: (?i)^https://github.com/taiki-e/
- OIDC Issuer must match:................... https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com

✓ Verification succeeded!

The following 1 attestation matched the policy criteria

- Attestation #1
  - Build repo:..... taiki-e/cargo-no-dev-deps
  - Build workflow:. .github/workflows/release.yml@refs/heads/main
  - Signer repo:.... taiki-e/github-actions
  - Signer workflow: .github/workflows/rust-release.yml@refs/heads/main

Example of script to install from the Release page without verification (click to show)

# Get host target.
host=$(rustc -vV | grep '^host:' | cut -d' ' -f2)
# Download binary and install to $CARGO_HOME/bin (or $HOME/.cargo/bin if CARGO_HOME is unset).
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL "https://github.com/taiki-e/cargo-no-dev-deps/releases/latest/download/cargo-no-dev-deps-$host.tar.gz" \
  | tar xzf - -C "${CARGO_HOME:-"$HOME/.cargo"}"/bin

On GitHub Actions

You can use taiki-e/install-action to install prebuilt binaries on Linux, macOS, and Windows. This makes the installation faster and may avoid the impact of problems caused by upstream changes.

- uses: taiki-e/install-action@cargo-no-dev-deps

Via Homebrew

You can install cargo-no-dev-deps from the Homebrew tap maintained by us (x86_64/AArch64 macOS, x86_64/AArch64 Linux):

brew install taiki-e/tap/cargo-no-dev-deps

Via Scoop (Windows)

You can install cargo-no-dev-deps from the Scoop bucket maintained by us:

scoop bucket add taiki-e https://github.com/taiki-e/scoop-bucket
scoop install cargo-no-dev-deps

Via cargo-binstall

You can install cargo-no-dev-deps using cargo-binstall:

cargo binstall cargo-no-dev-deps

cargo-hack: Cargo subcommand to provide various options useful for testing and continuous integration.
cargo-llvm-cov: Cargo subcommand to easily use LLVM source-based code coverage.
cargo-minimal-versions: Cargo subcommand for proper use of -Z minimal-versions.
cargo-config2: Library to load and resolve Cargo configuration.

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT license at your option.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.