Add '-C' flag for changing current dir before build

This implements the suggestion in #10098 to make cargo change cwd before
completing config processing and starting the build. It is also an
alternative to --manifest-path that resolves the issue described
in #2930.

src/bin/cargo/cli.rs

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-use anyhow::anyhow;
+use anyhow::{anyhow, Context as _};
 use cargo::core::shell::Shell;
 use cargo::core::{features, CliUnstable};
 use cargo::{self, drop_print, drop_println, CliResult, Config};
@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ lazy_static::lazy_static! {
 pub fn main(config: &mut LazyConfig) -> CliResult {
     let args = cli().try_get_matches()?;
 
+    // Update the process-level notion of cwd
+    if let Some(new_cwd) = args.get_one::<std::path::PathBuf>("directory") {
+        std::env::set_current_dir(&new_cwd).context("could not change to requested directory")?;
+    }
+
     // CAUTION: Be careful with using `config` until it is configured below.
     // In general, try to avoid loading config values unless necessary (like
     // the [alias] table).
@@ -467,6 +472,14 @@ See 'cargo help <command>' for more information on a specific command.\n",
                 .value_name("WHEN")
                 .global(true),
         )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::new("directory")
+                .help("Change to DIRECTORY before doing anything")
+                .short('C')
+                .value_name("DIRECTORY")
+                .value_hint(clap::ValueHint::DirPath)
+                .value_parser(clap::builder::ValueParser::path_buf()),
+        )
         .arg(flag("frozen", "Require Cargo.lock and cache are up to date").global(true))
         .arg(flag("locked", "Require Cargo.lock is up to date").global(true))
         .arg(flag("offline", "Run without accessing the network").global(true))

tests/testsuite/build.rs

@@ -159,6 +159,44 @@ fn cargo_compile_manifest_path() {
     assert!(p.bin("foo").is_file());
 }
 
+#[cargo_test]
+fn cargo_compile_directory_not_cwd() {
+    let p = project()
+        .file("Cargo.toml", &basic_bin_manifest("foo"))
+        .file("src/foo.rs", &main_file(r#""i am foo""#, &[]))
+        .file(".cargo/config.toml", &"")
+        .build();
+
+    p.cargo("-C foo build")
+        .cwd(p.root().parent().unwrap())
+        .run();
+    assert!(p.bin("foo").is_file());
+}
+
+#[cargo_test]
+fn cargo_compile_directory_not_cwd_with_invalid_config() {
+    let p = project()
+        .file("Cargo.toml", &basic_bin_manifest("foo"))
+        .file("src/foo.rs", &main_file(r#""i am foo""#, &[]))
+        .file(".cargo/config.toml", &"!")
+        .build();
+
+    p.cargo("-C foo build")
+        .cwd(p.root().parent().unwrap())
+        .with_status(101)
+        .with_stderr_contains(
+            "\
+Caused by:
+  TOML parse error at line 1, column 1
+    |
+  1 | !
+    | ^
+  Unexpected `!`
+  Expected key or end of input",
+        )
+        .run();
+}
+
 #[cargo_test]
 fn cargo_compile_with_invalid_manifest() {
     let p = project().file("Cargo.toml", "").build();