unable to run updater on `rustup self update`
Open
Nobody has claimed this yet.
bug
- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 7k
- Forks
- 1.1k
- Avg merge
- 22h 40m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 46
Description
Verification
- I searched for recent similar issues at https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/issues?q=is%3Aissue and found no duplicates.
- I am on the latest version of Rustup according to https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/tags and am still able to reproduce my issue.
Problem
I'm trying to update my rustc versions and the following error occurred:
$ rustup update
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: latest update on 2026-03-26, rust version 1.94.1 (e408947bf 2026-03-25)
info: downloading component 'rustfmt'
info: downloading component 'cargo'
info: downloading component 'rust-std'
info: downloading component 'rustc'
61.3 MiB / 61.3 MiB (100 %) 40.8 MiB/s in 1s
info: removing previous version of component 'rustfmt'
info: removing previous version of component 'cargo'
info: removing previous version of component 'rust-std'
info: removing previous version of component 'rustc'
info: installing component 'rustfmt'
info: installing component 'cargo'
info: installing component 'rust-std'
info: installing component 'rustc'
61.3 MiB / 61.3 MiB (100 %) 29.1 MiB/s in 2s
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: latest update on 2026-03-26, rust version 1.96.0-nightly (80d0e4be6 2026-03-25)
info: downloading component 'rustc-dev'
94.6 MiB / 94.6 MiB (100 %) 4.3 MiB/s in 21s
info: downloading component 'rust-std' for 'x86_64-unknown-freebsd'
27.6 MiB / 27.6 MiB (100 %) 4.2 MiB/s in 6s
info: downloading component 'rustfmt'
info: downloading component 'miri'
info: downloading component 'rust-src'
info: downloading component 'rust-docs'
info: downloading component 'clippy'
info: downloading component 'cargo'
info: downloading component 'rust-std'
info: downloading component 'rustc'
46.8 MiB / 46.8 MiB (100 %) 39.9 MiB/s in 1s
info: removing previous version of component 'rustc-dev'
info: removing previous version of component 'rust-std' for 'x86_64-unknown-freebsd'
info: removing previous version of component 'rustfmt'
info: removing previous version of component 'miri'
info: removing previous version of component 'rust-src'
info: removing previous version of component 'rust-docs'
info: removing previous version of component 'clippy'
info: removing previous version of component 'cargo'
info: removing previous version of component 'rust-std'
info: removing previous version of component 'rustc'
info: installing component 'rustc-dev'
94.6 MiB / 94.6 MiB (100 %) 26.6 MiB/s in 4s
info: installing component 'rust-std' for 'x86_64-unknown-freebsd'
27.6 MiB / 27.6 MiB (100 %) 27.3 MiB/s in 1s
info: installing component 'rustfmt'
info: installing component 'miri'
info: installing component 'rust-src'
info: installing component 'rust-docs'
21.3 MiB / 21.3 MiB (100 %) 3.4 MiB/s in 4s
info: installing component 'clippy'
info: installing component 'cargo'
info: installing component 'rust-std'
info: installing component 'rustc'
46.8 MiB / 46.8 MiB (100 %) 28.4 MiB/s in 1s
info: syncing channel updates for '1.61-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for '1.70-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for '1.86-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: latest update on 2025-04-03, rust version 1.86.0 (05f9846f8 2025-03-31)
info: syncing channel updates for '1.91-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for '1.92-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: checking for self-update
info: downloading self-update
stable-aarch64-apple-darwin updated - rustc 1.94.1 (e408947bf 2026-03-25) (from rustc 1.94.0 (4a4ef493e 2026-03-02))
nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin updated - rustc 1.96.0-nightly (80d0e4be6 2026-03-25) (from rustc 1.96.0-nightly (69370dc4a 2026-03-05))
1.61-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.61.0 (fe5b13d68 2022-05-18)
1.70-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.70.0 (90c541806 2023-05-31)
1.86-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - (error reading rustc version)
1.91-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.91.1 (ed61e7d7e 2025-11-07)
1.92-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.92.0 (ded5c06cf 2025-12-08)
error: unable to run updater
Caused by:
No such file or directory (os error 2)
Stack backtrace:
0: std::backtrace::Backtrace::capture
1: rustup::cli::self_update::unix::run_update
2: rustup::cli::rustup_mode::update::{{closure}}
3: rustup::cli::rustup_mode::main::{{closure}}::{{closure}}
4: rustup_init::run_rustup_inner::{{closure}}::{{closure}}
5: rustup_init::run_rustup::{{closure}}::{{closure}}
6: rustup_init::main::{{closure}}
7: rustup_init::main
8: std::sys::backtrace::__rust_begin_short_backtrace
9: _main
Running it again:
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for '1.61-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for '1.70-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for '1.86-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: latest update on 2025-04-03, rust version 1.86.0 (05f9846f8 2025-03-31)
info: syncing channel updates for '1.91-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for '1.92-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: checking for self-update
info: downloading self-update
stable-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.94.1 (e408947bf 2026-03-25)
nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.96.0-nightly (80d0e4be6 2026-03-25)
1.61-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.61.0 (fe5b13d68 2022-05-18)
1.70-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.70.0 (90c541806 2023-05-31)
1.86-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - (error reading rustc version)
1.91-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.91.1 (ed61e7d7e 2025-11-07)
1.92-aarch64-apple-darwin unchanged - rustc 1.92.0 (ded5c06cf 2025-12-08)
error: unable to run updater
Caused by:
No such file or directory (os error 2)
Stack backtrace:
0: std::backtrace::Backtrace::capture
1: rustup::cli::self_update::unix::run_update
2: rustup::cli::rustup_mode::update::{{closure}}
3: rustup::cli::rustup_mode::main::{{closure}}::{{closure}}
4: rustup_init::run_rustup_inner::{{closure}}::{{closure}}
5: rustup_init::run_rustup::{{closure}}::{{closure}}
6: rustup_init::main::{{closure}}
7: rustup_init::main
8: std::sys::backtrace::__rust_begin_short_backtrace
9: _main
Steps
- run
rustup update.
Possible Solution(s)
No response
Notes
No response
Rustup version
rustup 1.28.2 (e4f3ad6f8 2025-04-28)
info: This is the version for the rustup toolchain manager, not the rustc compiler.
info: The currently active `rustc` version is `rustc 1.96.0-nightly (80d0e4be6 2026-03-25)`
Installed toolchains
Default host: aarch64-apple-darwin
rustup home: /Users/thomas/.rustup
installed toolchains
--------------------
stable-aarch64-apple-darwin
nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin (active, default)
nightly-2024-06-30-aarch64-apple-darwin
nightly-2025-05-04-aarch64-apple-darwin
1.61-aarch64-apple-darwin
1.70-aarch64-apple-darwin
1.86-aarch64-apple-darwin
1.91-aarch64-apple-darwin
1.92-aarch64-apple-darwin
active toolchain
----------------
name: nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin
active because: it's the default toolchain
installed targets:
aarch64-apple-darwin
x86_64-unknown-freebsd
OS version
macOS 15.7.4
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start at the self-update entry point named in the backtrace, rustup::cli::self_update::unix::run_update, and reproduce the failure with rustup update on macOS. Trace the updater's missing-path error for the reported toolchain setup; done means rustup update completes without the unable-to-run-updater error.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- cli
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100