rustix vs fs-err

Short answerBy steady daily use, rustix is bigger: 3,390,892 real downloads a day against 422,324 for fs-err (8.0x). 1,684 crates depend on rustix and 474 on fs-err. rustix last shipped 38 days ago, fs-err 20 days ago.

rustix

Widely used

Widely used and steady.

1,684 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.

Safe Rust bindings to POSIX/Unix/Linux/Winsock-like syscalls

fs-err

Established

Established and steady.

474 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.

A drop-in replacement for std::fs with more helpful error messages.

rustixfs-err · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic

Every number, side by side

Same window, same method	rustix	fs-err
Real downloads a day	3,390,892	422,324
Crates that depend on it	1,684	474
Last release	1.1.5, 38 days ago	3.3.2, 20 days ago
Trend vs the field	+1%	-8%
Release-window share	2.4%	2.0%
Downloads in the window	314,948,187	35,997,307
All-time downloads	1,293,003,640	150,012,939
Versions published	170	30
License	Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception OR Apache-2.0 OR MIT	MIT OR Apache-2.0
MSRV	1.65	not set
First published	Oct 29, 2021	Feb 2, 2020

Which to pick

Downloads tell you what is common, not what fits. Each crate's own description above says what it is for; when the jobs differ, pick by the job.
When both fit, prefer the one more crates depend on (rustix, 1,684 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
Check the release dates against your own pace: rustix 38 days ago, fs-err 20 days ago.

Also in this space

socket2Widely usedUtilities for handling networking sockets with a maximal amount of configuration possible intended4,034,112 a day, 1,539 dependents ipnetEstablishedProvides types and useful methods for working with IPv4 and IPv6 network addresses, commonly called IP...2,000,731 a day, 780 dependents ipnetworkEstablishedA library to work with IP CIDRs in Rust268,630 a day, 284 dependents same-fileEstablishedA simple crate for determining whether two file paths point to the same file1,902,047 a day, 290 dependents

Compare 4 of them side by side →

Method

Real downloads = the median day with no release that day or the day before, from the crates.io API (Jul 27, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026). Raw crates.io counts include CI and bots and run high (why); the method is from our 90-day study.

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