Installing the Rust compiler and toolchain

The Rust toolchain has two major components: the compiler, rustc, and the package manager, cargo, which helps manage Rust projects. The toolchain comes in three release channels:

• Nightly: The daily successful build from the master development branch. This contains all the latest features, many of which are unstable.
• Beta: This is released every six weeks. A new beta branch is taken from nightly. It contains only features that are flagged as stable.
• Stable: This is released every six weeks. The previous beta branch becomes the new stable release.

Developers are encouraged to use the stable release channel. However, the nightly version enables bleeding edge features, and some libraries and programs require it. You can change to the nightly toolchain easily with rustup. We'll see how we can do that in a moment.