Install Rust and compile your first program

1. Understand the idea

Rust normally compiles before it runs. A .rs file is text; editing it does not update an executable you already built. rustc reads the saved source, checks it, then creates a separate binary. main is the entry point. println! is a macro that writes a line; its exclamation mark is part of the syntax. A VPS is optional: start on your own computer.

Install using the official Rust installation page for your operating system. Linux/macOS use rustup; Windows usually needs the MSVC C++ build tools described there. Read the installer prompts and restart your terminal if commands are not found. On Ubuntu a linker may require the build-essential package; do not assume the distribution rustc package is the same version as rustup.

rustc --version
cargo --version

The commands print installed versions; exact build identifiers vary.

2. Save, run and observe

Save this complete program as lesson.rs in a fresh practice folder. It replaces that lesson file only; keep earlier examples separately. Compile it with rustc, then run the executable. Rust source goes in the editor; rustc and cargo commands go in the terminal.

fn main() {
    println!("Hello, OpenViST!");
}

Hello, OpenViST!

rustc --edition=2024 lesson.rs -o lesson
./lesson

3. Explain the result

The braces contain the body of main. The string inside quotation marks is data, not a terminal command. The semicolon ends the println! statement. After changing the greeting, compile again before running; otherwise you may run the old executable. There is no browser, API call or remote server in this example.