rust-lang/cargo · error · anyhow::Error

Cannot specify both 'bin' and 'bin:<name>' binary artifacts,

Error message

Cannot specify both 'bin' and 'bin:<name>' binary artifacts, as 'bin' selects all available binaries.

What it means

ArtifactKind::validate rejects a dependency artifact list that contains both `bin` (AllBinaries — selects every binary the crate provides) and any `bin:<name>` (SelectedBinary — a specific binary). Combining them is contradictory: `bin` already covers the named one, so specifying both is ambiguous and almost always a user mistake.

Source

Thrown at src/workspace/dependency.rs:666

            "staticlib" => ArtifactKind::Staticlib,
            _ => {
                return kind
                    .strip_prefix("bin:")
                    .map(|bin_name| ArtifactKind::SelectedBinary(bin_name.into()))
                    .ok_or_else(|| {
                        anyhow::anyhow!("'{}' is not a valid artifact specifier", kind)
                    });
            }
        })
    }

    fn validate(kinds: Vec<ArtifactKind>) -> CargoResult<Vec<ArtifactKind>> {
        if kinds.iter().any(|k| matches!(k, ArtifactKind::AllBinaries))
            && kinds
                .iter()
                .any(|k| matches!(k, ArtifactKind::SelectedBinary(_)))
        {
            anyhow::bail!(
                "Cannot specify both 'bin' and 'bin:<name>' binary artifacts, as 'bin' selects all available binaries."
            );
        }
        let mut kinds_without_dupes = kinds.clone();
        kinds_without_dupes.sort();
        kinds_without_dupes.dedup();
        let num_dupes = kinds.len() - kinds_without_dupes.len();
        if num_dupes != 0 {
            anyhow::bail!(
                "Found {} duplicate binary artifact{}",
                num_dupes,
                (num_dupes > 1).then(|| "s").unwrap_or("")
            );
        }
        Ok(kinds)
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0e07a15537)

Solutions

1. Choose one strategy: use `bin` for all binaries, or list each with `bin:<name>`.
2. Remove the blanket `bin` entry when you list specific `bin:<name>` artifacts.
3. Re-read RFC 3452: `bin` and `bin:<name>` are mutually exclusive within one dependency.

Example fix

# Cargo.toml before
[dependencies.mycrate]
artifact = ["bin", "bin:mybin"]

# after (specific binaries only)
[dependencies.mycrate]
artifact = ["bin:mybin"]
# or all binaries
[dependencies.mycrate]
artifact = ["bin"]

fn validate_artifact_list(kinds: &[String]) -> Result<(), String> {
    let has_all = kinds.iter().any(|k| k == "bin");
    let has_named = kinds.iter().any(|k| k.starts_with("bin:") && k.len() > 4);
    if has_all && has_named {
        return Err("cannot mix 'bin' with 'bin:<name>'; choose one".into());
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn artifact_list_is_consistent(kinds: &[String]) -> bool {
    let all = kinds.iter().any(|k| k == "bin");
    let named = kinds.iter().any(|k| k.starts_with("bin:"));
    !(all && named)
}

match ArtifactKind::validate(parsed_kinds) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("Cannot specify both 'bin' and 'bin:") => {
        eprintln!("pick either 'bin' (all) or specific 'bin:<name>' entries");
        return Err(e);
    }
    r => r,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Writing `artifact = ["bin", "bin:mybin"]` (or multiple entries mixing `bin` with one or more `bin:<name>`) in a single Cargo.toml dependency.

Common situations: Misunderstanding that `bin` means all binaries; copy-pasting artifact entries together; incrementally adding a named binary while leaving a blanket `bin`.

Related errors

• '{}' is not a valid artifact specifier
• dependency `{}` in package `{}` requires a `{}` artifact to
• Deprecated dependency sections are unsupported: {}
• could not compile due to {error_count} previous target resol
• {manifest_key_name} `{}` does not appear to exist{}.

AI-assisted analysis of rust-lang/cargo@0e07a15537 (2026-08-06). Data as JSON: /data/errors/482a2ea857c1875d.json. Report an issue: GitHub.