Incorrect toolchain check when running cross with active or default toolchain

[Rileran]

Checklist

• I've looked through the issues and pull requests for similar reports

Describe your issue

When running any cross command, cross tries to download the stable version while it is already installed.

This is because when running rustup toolchain list, my toolchain stable has a suffix (active, default), which makes the check fail. I believe adding the --quiet flag at the end of the command should fix the issue.

I have tried both the latest stable 0.2.5 version and the lastet version on the main branch (9e2298e at the time of writing)

Two months ago, on a version not released yet, the command rustup toolchain list was replaced with rustup --quiet toolchain list. This however does not fix the issue as the --quiet flag applies to the rustup command and not the list command.

What target(s) are you cross-compiling for?

No response

Which operating system is the host (e.g computer cross is on) running?

• macOS
• Windows
• Linux / BSD
• other OS (specify in description)

What architecture is the host?

• x86_64 / AMD64
• arm32
• arm64 (including Mac M1)

What container engine is cross using?

• docker
• podman
• other container engine (specify in description)

cross version

cross 0.2.5

Example

$ cross --help -v
+ cargo metadata --format-version 1
+ rustc --print sysroot
+ rustup toolchain list
+ rustup --verbose toolchain add stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --profile minimal
debug: read metadata version: '12'
debug: updating existing install for 'stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu'
debug: toolchain directory: '/home/user/.rustup/toolchains/stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu'
debug: creating temp file: /home/user/.rustup/tmp/yivvct2ihzgg02o9_file
debug: downloading file from: 'https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/channel-rust-stable.toml.sha256'
debug: downloading with reqwest
debug: deleted temp file: /home/user/.rustup/tmp/yivvct2ihzgg02o9_file
debug: toolchain is already up to date

  stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu unchanged - rustc 1.86.0 (05f9846f8 2025-03-31)

info: checking for self-update
+ rustup target list --toolchain stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
+ rustup component list --toolchain stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
[cross] note: Falling back to `cargo` on the host.
+ cargo --help -v
Rust's package manager

Usage: cargo [+toolchain] [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]
       cargo [+toolchain] [OPTIONS] -Zscript <MANIFEST_RS> [ARGS]...
...

Example of rustup toolchain list result

$ rustup toolchain list
stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (active, default)
nightly-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Additional information / notes

No response

[Emilgardis]

Thats strange, i was sure this fixed the issue, will have a look again

[reneleonhardt]

@Rileran can you try #1681 to see if it fixes your problem?

[Rileran]

@reneleonhardt This fix works for me, thanks!

[wcampbell0x2a]

Hey! I'm seeing issues that may be related to this fix? I build cargo-cross from git.

https://github.com/wcampbell0x2a/backhand/actions/runs/15177787965/job/42681187474

Error: 
   0: `rustup toolchain list --quiet` failed with exit status: 1

Location:
   src/errors.rs:147

Stdout:
   error: unexpected argument '--quiet' found

   Usage: rustup toolchain list [OPTIONS]

   For more information, try '--help'.

[reneleonhardt]

Thank you for the report!
Could you please add new commands before the failing one and rebuild it?

https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/tags

rustup --version # rustup 1.28.2 (2025-04-28)
rustup toolchain list --help
rustup self update

1.28.0 added --quiet
https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#1280---2025-03-04

[ueda-soma]

Hi,

I also encountered an error with rustup v1.26.0 (ubuntu noble 1.26.0-5build1).
FYI: Rustup is installed with APT.

$ cross build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
Error: 
   0: `rustup toolchain list --quiet` failed with exit status: 1

Location:
   src/errors.rs:147

Stdout:
   error: Found argument '--quiet' which wasn't expected, or isn't valid in this context

        If you tried to supply `--quiet` as a value rather than a flag, use `-- --quiet`

   USAGE:
       rustup toolchain list [OPTIONS]

   For more information try --help
$ rustup --version
rustup 1.26.0 (2024-04-01)
info: This is the version for the rustup toolchain manager, not the rustc compiler.
info: The currently active `rustc` version is `rustc 1.87.0 (17067e9ac 2025-05-09)`
$ rustup self update
error: self-update is disabled for this build of rustup
error: you should probably use your system package manager to update rustup

Of course, this error should be fixed after installing rustup by non-APT methods.

[reneleonhardt]

Thanks! rustup will only be available from Debian 13 onwards... but also only an outdated version like Ubuntu 24.04 provides 😞
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=rustup

Thank you for your report, I prepared another fix for legacy rustup versions.
#1683

Interestingly enough, rustup self update has not only been disabled for package managers, but also in CI runs since 1.28.0. So there's no easy way anymore to self-heal in such cases.
rust-lang/rustup#3907

Despite installing rustup in the official way yourself of course... 😄
https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install

[reneleonhardt]

@wcampbell0x2a @ueda-soma my "backport" of --quiet has been merged if you want to try cross main again with legacy rustup versions 😅

[ueda-soma]

@reneleonhardt Thanks, it seems to work with 51f46f2!

$ cargo install cross --git https://github.com/cross-rs/cross
  Installing cross v0.2.5 (https://github.com/cross-rs/cross#51f46f29)
$ cross build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
    Finished `release` profile [optimized] target(s) in 41.39s
$ cross --version
cross 0.2.5 (51f46f2 2025-05-24)
$ rustup --version
rustup 1.26.0 (2024-04-01)