Bootstrapping rust from source on Slackware The README describes the official way to bootstrap rust from source by using the mozilla binary stage0 compiler and binary cargo from rust-lang.org. If you'd rather bootstap rust completely from source, there is an experimental, alternative rust compiler written in C++, mrustc. A slackbuild for it is also available on slackbuilds.org. For stability against rust's 6 week release cycle, mrustc is frozen to support building rust 1.19.0 from source. Once this is done, you can use this rust to continue building each successive rust version until you get to the most recent one. Here is a rough guide to bootstrap rust completely from source: * Build and install mrustc (from slackbuilds.org). You now have a fully functional rust 1.19.0. * Now build for rust 1.20.0, 1.21.0, 1.22.1, 1.23.0, 1.24.1, and finally 1.25.0. This slackbuild is currently compatible with each of those versions. Since we are building completely from source, you only need the source tarball of each version and not all the other binary files listed in rust.info. Simply replace the version in the url. Example: VERSION=1.20.0 FULL_BOOTSTRAP=yes LOCAL_BOOTSTRAP=yes ./rust.SlackBuild VERSION=1.21.0 FULL_BOOTSTRAP=no LOCAL_BOOTSTRAP=yes ./rust.SlackBuild VERSION=1.22.1 FULL_BOOTSTRAP=no LOCAL_BOOTSTRAP=yes ./rust.SlackBuild VERSION=1.23.0 FULL_BOOTSTRAP=no LOCAL_BOOTSTRAP=yes ./rust.SlackBuild VERSION=1.24.1 FULL_BOOTSTRAP=no LOCAL_BOOTSTRAP=yes ./rust.SlackBuild VERSION=1.25.0 FULL_BOOTSTRAP=no LOCAL_BOOTSTRAP=yes ./rust.SlackBuild You might prefer to do a full bootstrap for 1.20.0, which is what mrustc's own bootstrap script suggests. The versions after that do not need a full bootstrap. After building the first version (1.20.0), remove mrustc and install rust-1.20.0. Then build the next version and upgrade rust with the result and carry on until you have built the final version. Additionally, I currently have a shell script which automates this whole process to end up with the current rust package version: https://github.com/aclemons/slack-rust-bootstrap