Reinstalling binaries from a crate while specifying fewer features does not remove already installed binaries corresponding to no longer active features

[auno]

Problem

If you first install the binaries of a crate using cargo install, then issue another cargo install specifying fewer features in a way that should result in fewer binaries, those binaries which corresponds to no longer active features are not removed. I'm not sure if this is the intended behavior or not (I could not find anything clear about it), but it was at least not the behavior I expected.

Steps

1. Install a crate with multiple binaries tied to different features and examine result.

   $ cargo install --root cargo-home convert2json
       Updating crates.io index
     Installing convert2json v1.1.4
   ...
      Compiling convert2json v1.1.4
       Finished `release` profile [optimized] target(s) in 14.51s
     Installing cargo-home/bin/cq
     Installing cargo-home/bin/csv2json
     Installing cargo-home/bin/ini2json
     Installing cargo-home/bin/iq
     Installing cargo-home/bin/rq
     Installing cargo-home/bin/rsv2json
     Installing cargo-home/bin/toml2json
     Installing cargo-home/bin/tq
     Installing cargo-home/bin/xml2json
     Installing cargo-home/bin/xq
     Installing cargo-home/bin/yaml2json
     Installing cargo-home/bin/yq
      Installed package `convert2json v1.1.4` (executables `cq`, `csv2json`, `ini2json`, `iq`, `rq`, `rsv2json`, `toml2json`, `tq`, `xml2json`, `xq`, `yaml2json`, `yq`)
   $ ls cargo-home/bin/
   cq  csv2json  ini2json  iq  rq  rsv2json  toml2json  tq  xml2json  xq  yaml2json  yq
   

2. Reinstall the same crate with features disabled and examine the result to see that the same binaries are still installed.

   $ cargo install --root cargo-home --no-default-features --features xml convert2json
       Updating crates.io index
     Installing convert2json v1.1.4
   ...
      Compiling convert2json v1.1.4
       Finished `release` profile [optimized] target(s) in 8.18s
      Replacing cargo-home/bin/xml2json
      Replacing cargo-home/bin/xq
       Replaced package `convert2json v1.1.4` with `convert2json v1.1.4` (executables `cq`, `csv2json`, `ini2json`, `iq`, `rq`, `rsv2json`, `toml2json`, `tq`, `xml2json`, `xq`, `yaml2json`, `yq`)
   $ ls cargo-home/bin/
   cq  csv2json  ini2json  iq  rq  rsv2json  toml2json  tq  xml2json  xq  yaml2json  yq
   

3. Manually remove installed binaries, install again with features disabled, and examine the result to see that only a subset of binaries are installed. This is what I would have expected already at step 2.

   $ rm -r cargo-home/
   $ cargo install --root cargo-home --no-default-features --features xml convert2json
       Updating crates.io index
     Installing convert2json v1.1.4
   ...
       Finished `release` profile [optimized] target(s) in 8.21s
     Installing cargo-home/bin/xml2json
     Installing cargo-home/bin/xq
      Installed package `convert2json v1.1.4` (executables `xml2json`, `xq`)
   $ ls cargo-home/bin/
   xml2json  xq
   

Possible Solution(s)

The straight forward solution, I assume, would be to list installed binaries at the start of the process, then do the compilation and installation, and finally remove any previously installed binaries that where not replaced by the newly compiled crate.

Version

cargo 1.84.0 (66221abde 2024-11-19)
release: 1.84.0
commit-hash: 66221abdeca2002d318fde6efff516aab091df0e
commit-date: 2024-11-19
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
libgit2: 1.8.1 (sys:0.19.0 vendored)
libcurl: 8.9.0-DEV (sys:0.4.74+curl-8.9.0 vendored ssl:OpenSSL/1.1.1w)
ssl: OpenSSL 1.1.1w  11 Sep 2023
os: Linux Mint 21.2.0 (victoria) [64-bit]