Interrupted transaction could get rustup stuck in loop

Verification

I searched for recent similar issues at https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen%2Cclosed 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

rustup, cargo, and rustc are unusable after clean install.

Steps

Install 1.28.2
Run any command from toolchain (e.g. rustup update, rustc --version, cargo check)
See error

Possible Solution(s)

No response

Notes

Clean install was done, because of #4213

Terminal

PS C:\Users\shauh\exam-creator> rustup toolchain install nightly-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
  1.0 MiB /   1.0 MiB (100 %)  75.2 KiB/s in 16s
info: latest update on 2025-07-03, rust version 1.90.0-nightly (667787527 2025-07-02)
info: downloading component 'cargo'
  4.0 MiB /   8.7 MiB ( 46 %) 400.0 KiB/s in 30s ETA: 12s
info: retrying download for 'https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/2025-07-03/cargo-nightly-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc.tar.xz'
  5.6 MiB /   8.7 MiB ( 65 %)  91.8 KiB/s in 30s ETA: 34s
info: retrying download for 'https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/2025-07-03/cargo-nightly-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc.tar.xz'
351.8 KiB /   8.7 MiB (  4 %) 143.8 KiB/s in  4s ETA: 59s
PS C:\Users\shauh\exam-creator> rustup update
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
840.6 KiB / 855.0 KiB ( 98 %)  28.8 KiB/s in 30s
error: could not download file from 'https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/channel-rust-stable.toml' to 'C:\Users\shauh\.rustup\tmp\1xi17qo53_6z50tk_file.toml'
info: checking for self-update
info: downloading self-update
error: could not download file from 'https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup/archive/1.28.2/aarch64-pc-windows-msvc/rustup-init.exe' to 'C:\Users\shauh\.cargo\bin\rustup-init.exe': error decoding response body: request or response body error: operation timed out
PS C:\Users\shauh\exam-creator> rustup self --help
Modify the rustup installation

Usage: rustup[EXE] self <COMMAND>

Commands:
  update        Download and install updates to rustup
  uninstall     Uninstall rustup
  upgrade-data  Upgrade the internal data format
  help          Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help  Print help
PS C:\Users\shauh\exam-creator> rustup self uninstall


Thanks for hacking in Rust!

This will uninstall all Rust toolchains and data, and remove
%USERPROFILE%\.cargo/bin from your PATH environment variable.

Continue? (y/N) y

info: removing rustup home
error: could not remove 'rustup_home' directory: 'C:\Users\shauh\.rustup': Access is denied. (os error 5)
PS C:\Users\shauh\exam-creator> 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: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: The currently active `rustc` version is `(timeout reading rustc version)`
PS C:\Users\shauh\exam-creator> rustc --version
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'

Rustup version

`1.28.2`

Installed toolchains

Cannot run, but should only be `stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc`, because it is a clean install

OS version

Edition	Windows 11 Home Single Language
Version	24H2
Installed on	‎2024/‎06/‎17
OS build	26100.4351
Experience	Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.107.0

@ShaunSHamilton

@ShaunSHamilton Hello!

I am sorry but I cannot help you with your Access is denied error on your machine because it has so many possible reasons. Please make sure to stop everything Rust-related (such as VSCode if you have rust-analyzer) before running the uninstallation. Sometimes a simple restart of the operating system will work.

That said, have you tried downloading the latest rustup-init.exe from https://rustup.rs and re-installing rustup?

Please make sure to stop everything Rust-related (such as VSCode if you have rust-analyzer) before running the uninstallation.

I did this.

Sometimes a simple restart of the operating system will work.

Also did this.

That said, have you tried downloading the latest rustup-init.exe from https://rustup.rs/ and re-installing rustup?

Yes. As mentioned, I did a clean install.

I manually rm .cargo, and the issue persisted. The only thing to allow me to continue developing is installing 1.27.1

I'm seeing:

error: could not download file from 'https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/channel-rust-stable.toml' to 'C:Users\shauh\.rustup\tmp\1xi17qo53_6z50tk_file.toml
error: could not download file from 'https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup/archive/1.28.2/aarch64-pc-windows-msvc/rustup-init.exe' to 'C:\Users\shauh\.cargo\bin\rustup-init.exe': error decoding response body: request or response body error: operation timed out

so perhaps also internet connection issues?

I'm seeing:

error: could not download file from 'https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/channel-rust-stable.toml' to 'C:Users\shauh\.rustup\tmp\1xi17qo53_6z50tk_file.toml
error: could not download file from 'https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup/archive/1.28.2/aarch64-pc-windows-msvc/rustup-init.exe' to 'C:\Users\shauh\.cargo\bin\rustup-init.exe': error decoding response body: request or response body error: operation timed out

so perhaps also internet connection issues?

Again, this was a consequence of:

Clean install was done, because of #4213

The point of the terminal output shows the "stuck in loop" error on version 1.28.2.

@ShaunSHamilton

I manually rm .cargo, and the issue persisted. The only thing to allow me to continue developing is installing 1.27.1

@ShaunSHamilton Could you try deleting $HOME/.rustup and try installing Rustup again? My guess would be that your previously half-uninstalled installation might have put Rustup into a inconsistent state.

Now that we have been running the full test suite on Windows ARM64 CI runners for months, I'm very curious about why we haven't encountered any report like this until now.

I did not find a .rustup left over after uninstalling. I did uninstall 1.27.1 and install latest again, and it appears to have worked.

The only thing left over is some gc version of rustup-init from the last time I was installing/uninstalling.

Commands

PS C:\Users\shauh> rustup self --help
Modify the rustup installation

Usage: rustup[EXE] self <COMMAND>

Commands:
  update        Download and install updates to rustup
  uninstall     Uninstall rustup
  upgrade-data  Upgrade the internal data format
  help          Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help  Print help
PS C:\Users\shauh> rustup self uninstall


Thanks for hacking in Rust!

This will uninstall all Rust toolchains and data, and remove
%USERPROFILE%\.cargo/bin from your PATH environment variable.

Continue? (y/N) y

info: removing rustup home
info: removing cargo home
info: removing rustup binaries
info: rustup is uninstalled
PS C:\Users\shauh> where.exe rustup
INFO: Could not find files for the given pattern(s).
PS C:\Users\shauh> Get-Command rustup
Get-Command : The term 'rustup' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path
is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1
+ Get-Command rustup
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (rustup:String) [Get-Command], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCommandCommand

PS C:\Users\shauh> ls $HOME


    Directory: C:\Users\shauh


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----        2025/07/03     19:55       13551616 rustup-gc-4e0ac568.exe

Downloaded latest rustup-init.exe:

Welcome to Rust!

This will download and install the official compiler for the Rust
programming language, and its package manager, Cargo.

Rustup metadata and toolchains will be installed into the Rustup
home directory, located at:

  C:\Users\shauh\.rustup

This can be modified with the RUSTUP_HOME environment variable.

The Cargo home directory is located at:

  C:\Users\shauh\.cargo

This can be modified with the CARGO_HOME environment variable.

The cargo, rustc, rustup and other commands will be added to
Cargo's bin directory, located at:

  C:\Users\shauh\.cargo\bin

This path will then be added to your PATH environment variable by
modifying the PATH registry key at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment.

You can uninstall at any time with rustup self uninstall and
these changes will be reverted.

Current installation options:


   default host triple: aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
     default toolchain: stable (default)
               profile: default
  modify PATH variable: yes

1) Proceed with standard installation (default - just press enter)
2) Customize installation
3) Cancel installation
>1

info: profile set to 'default'
info: default host triple is aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'
855.0 KiB / 855.0 KiB (100 %) 525.8 KiB/s in  2s
info: latest update on 2025-06-26, rust version 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
info: downloading component 'cargo'
  8.6 MiB /   8.6 MiB (100 %) 808.0 KiB/s in 13s
info: downloading component 'clippy'
  3.9 MiB /   3.9 MiB (100 %) 758.2 KiB/s in  7s
info: downloading component 'rust-docs'
 20.1 MiB /  20.1 MiB (100 %) 688.6 KiB/s in 32s
info: downloading component 'rust-std'
 19.4 MiB /  19.4 MiB (100 %) 783.2 KiB/s in 32s
info: downloading component 'rustc'
 79.4 MiB /  79.4 MiB (100 %) 430.6 KiB/s in  2m 36s
info: downloading component 'rustfmt'
  2.7 MiB /   2.7 MiB (100 %) 482.8 KiB/s in  7s
info: installing component 'cargo'
info: installing component 'clippy'
info: installing component 'rust-docs'
 20.1 MiB /  20.1 MiB (100 %)   3.5 MiB/s in  5s
info: installing component 'rust-std'
 19.4 MiB /  19.4 MiB (100 %)  17.1 MiB/s in  1s
info: installing component 'rustc'
 79.4 MiB /  79.4 MiB (100 %)  17.5 MiB/s in  4s
info: installing component 'rustfmt'
info: default toolchain set to 'stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc'

  stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc installed - rustc 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)


Rust is installed now. Great!

To get started you may need to restart your current shell.
This would reload its PATH environment variable to include
Cargo's bin directory (%USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin).

Press the Enter key to continue.

PS C:\Users\shauh> 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 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)`
PS C:\Users\shauh> rustc --version
rustc 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
PS C:\Users\shauh> cargo --version
cargo 1.88.0 (873a06493 2025-05-10)

As it appears no one else is experiencing this, I will close.

Thank you for your patience.

I got the exact same issue when I canceled an install at the wrong time:

Details

$ cargo
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: downloading component 'rustc'
info: downloading component 'cargo'
info: downloading component 'rust-std'
info: downloading component 'rust-docs'
info: downloading component 'rustfmt'
info: downloading component 'clippy'
info: removing previous version of component 'rustc'
warn: during uninstall component rustc was not found
info: removing previous version of component 'cargo'
warn: during uninstall component cargo was not found
info: removing previous version of component 'rust-std'
warn: during uninstall component rust-std was not found
info: removing previous version of component 'rust-docs'
warn: during uninstall component rust-docs was not found
info: removing previous version of component 'rustfmt'
warn: during uninstall component rustfmt was not found
info: removing previous version of component 'clippy'
warn: during uninstall component clippy was not found
info: installing component 'rustc'
^C
$ cargo
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: latest update on 2026-01-27, rust version 1.95.0-nightly (474276961 2026-01-26)
error: Missing manifest in toolchain 'nightly-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'

@rami3l

Might this have something to do with BACKTRACK_LIMIT_DEFAULT?
This seems to match the reported output; it tried syncing 21 times, which matches the default value of BACKTRACK_LIMIT_DEFAULT.

It looks like the error is triggered here:

rustup/src/dist/mod.rs

Lines 1069 to 1075 in 78947c4

    
           if let Some(backtrack_limit) = backtrack_limit 
        
               && backtrack_limit < 1 
        
           { 
        
               // This unwrap is safe because we can only hit this if we've 
        
               // had a chance to set first_err 
        
               break Err(first_err.unwrap()); 
        
           }

CC @rami3l

@FranciscoTGouveia

@FranciscoTGouveia Yes, exactly. Thanks for pointing that out.

@bjorn3 I think the current transaction system (introduced before my arrival to the project) is actually quite broken, a revamp is on my radar.

In your particular case, the manifest file is missing from the toolchain because you interrupted the copy right before it arrived. Thus, rustup has no idea what should be done next.

In theory, this should be marked as corrupted internal state. Or, at least similarly to APT and Git, a placeholder file should point out the existence of an ongoing transaction that never finished, and the user should be able to decide what to do next.

I am now actively working on this issue and the progress is being tracked at rust-lang/goals#736.

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Interrupted transaction could get rustup stuck in loop #4400

Verification

Problem

Steps

Possible Solution(s)

Notes

Rustup version

Installed toolchains

OS version

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	if let Some(backtrack_limit) = backtrack_limit
	&& backtrack_limit < 1
	{
	// This unwrap is safe because we can only hit this if we've
	// had a chance to set first_err
	break Err(first_err.unwrap());
	}

Interrupted transaction could get rustup stuck in loop #4400

Description

Verification

Problem

Steps

Possible Solution(s)

Notes

Rustup version

Installed toolchains

OS version

Activity

rami3l commented on Jul 4, 2025

ShaunSHamilton commented on Jul 4, 2025

hkBst commented on Jul 11, 2025

ShaunSHamilton commented on Jul 11, 2025

rami3l commented on Jul 11, 2025

ShaunSHamilton commented on Jul 11, 2025

bjorn3 commented on Jan 27, 2026

FranciscoTGouveia commented on Jan 27, 2026

rami3l commented on Jan 27, 2026

rami3l commented on Aug 31, 2026

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