Installation

Supported Operating Systems

Linux
macOS

Windows / MSVC is not supported. See architecture.md for the full scope.

Install Methods

From crates.io. Cabin is published as the cabinpkg package on crates.io. With a Rust toolchain on $PATH, run:
```
cargo install cabinpkg
```
The installed command is cabin.
From a third-party package manager. Community-maintained packages — not provided or endorsed by the Cabin maintainers. Repology tracks downstream availability as it appears.
From source. See INSTALL.md for the prerequisites and build steps. Use this when you need an unreleased revision or want to verify a build locally.

Runtime Requirements

cabin itself has no required runtime dependencies, but the subcommands that drive the C/C++ toolchain need the relevant tools installed on $PATH. Each tool only matters for the subcommand it backs:

Tool	Required by	Override
GCC- or Clang-style C++ compiler (`c++`, `clang++`, `g++`)	`cabin build` / `cabin run` / `cabin test` / `cabin tidy` / `cabin metadata` / `cabin explain build-config`	`CXX`
GCC- or Clang-style C compiler (`cc`, `clang`, `gcc`)	the same commands when the selected targets contain `.c` sources	`CC`
`ar` archiver	`cabin build` / `cabin run` / `cabin test` / `cabin tidy` / `cabin metadata` / `cabin explain build-config`	`AR`
Ninja (≥ 1.10)	`cabin build` / `cabin run` / `cabin test`	`NINJA`
`pkg-config`	targets that declare `system = true` dependencies	`CABIN_PKG_CONFIG`
`clang-format`	`cabin fmt`	`CABIN_FMT`
`run-clang-tidy`	`cabin tidy`	`CABIN_TIDY`

cabin resolve, cabin update, cabin tree, and the graph-only cabin explain subcommands (package, target, source, and feature) do not require a compiler, archiver, or Ninja.

The C++ compiler and archiver are resolved when Cabin renders or plans a build configuration. The C compiler is resolved opportunistically and becomes required when the selected targets contain .c sources. cabin metadata and cabin explain build-config report toolchain details, so they need the required tool slots for that build configuration to be resolvable; their --version capability probes are fail-soft after resolution succeeds. Ninja is only invoked by commands that actually run the Ninja backend. See toolchains.md for compiler selection precedence and capability detection.