unable to run updater on `rustup self update`

[Thomasdezeeuw]

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

1. 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

[Thomasdezeeuw]

It seems uninstalling some of my old toolchains helped:

$ rustup toolchain uninstall # ...

info: uninstalling toolchain '1.92-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: toolchain '1.92-aarch64-apple-darwin' uninstalled
info: uninstalling toolchain '1.91-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: toolchain '1.91-aarch64-apple-darwin' uninstalled
info: uninstalling toolchain '1.86-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: toolchain '1.86-aarch64-apple-darwin' uninstalled
info: uninstalling toolchain '1.61-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: toolchain '1.61-aarch64-apple-darwin' uninstalled
info: uninstalling toolchain 'nightly-2025-05-04-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: toolchain 'nightly-2025-05-04-aarch64-apple-darwin' uninstalled
info: uninstalling toolchain 'nightly-2024-06-30-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: toolchain 'nightly-2024-06-30-aarch64-apple-darwin' uninstalled
info: uninstalling toolchain '1.70-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: toolchain '1.70-aarch64-apple-darwin' uninstalled

$ rustup show
Default host: aarch64-apple-darwin
rustup home:  /Users/thomas/.rustup

installed toolchains
--------------------
stable-aarch64-apple-darwin
nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin (active, default)

active toolchain
----------------
name: nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin
active because: it's the default toolchain
installed targets:
  aarch64-apple-darwin
  x86_64-unknown-freebsd

$ rustup update
info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-aarch64-apple-darwin'
info: syncing channel updates for 'nightly-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)

info: cleaning up downloads & tmp directories

It would nice if the error could give some more context on how to deal with this error in the future.

[djc]

Submitted

• self_update: show path to executable in case of updater failure #4781

It's strange because this is a path that should have just been downloaded. The call to run_update() is always preceded by prepare_update(), which ends with utils::make_executable(&setup_path) which apparently did not fail...

[rami3l]

@djc Thanks for the analysis! Very weird to me as well indeed.

OTOH since it's all os error 2 I think it'd be better if I merge this with #4648.

[rami3l]

Hmmm given that the error message is slightly different (unable to run updater vs failed to set permissions) I'm not completely sure if the categorization is accurate... Let's first update the issue description and mark #4648 as related instead of duplicate.

[rami3l]

That said I suspect that those two failures are all related to a case where we think the file should have been downloaded but somehow considered inexistent when we check via the OS.

@djc What do you think? Could there be premature assumption and/or state invalidation somewhere?