Rust in Linux debate

 

 

The Rust programming language getting into the Linux kernel has been coming for a while. At the 2020 Linux Plumbers Conference, developers commenced considering using the Rust language for brand-spanking new Linux inline code. In addition, Google, which helps Rust for developing Android -- itself a Linux distro -- began pushing for Rust inside the Linux kernel in April 2021.

As Wedson Almeida Filho of Google's Android Team stated at the time, "We feel that Rust is now equipped to sign up for C as a sensible language for implementing the kernel. It can assist us to lessen the range of capability bugs and protection vulnerabilities in secret code while playing properly with the middle kernel and retaining its performance traits."

It took a while to persuade the top Linux kernel builders of this. There had been worries about non-popular Rust extensions being had to get it to paintings in Linux. For instance, with the new Rust Linux NVMe driver, over 70 extensions needed to be made to Rust to get it running. But, Torvalds had told me in an advance interview, "We've been using exceptions to conventional C for decades." 

This became still a problem at the invitation-only Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit. But, ultimately, it was determined that Rust is properly sufficiently supported within the Clang -- the C language family compiler the front gave up -- to transport forward. Besides, as Torvalds had said in advance, "Clang does paintings, so merging Rust might probably assist and now not harm the kernel."

At the meeting, Torvalds said, "There became debate at the Maintainers Summit, but it frequently becomes the difficulty of compiler variations, which isn't always new to Rust (we already have the whole trouble on masses of different compiler variations and GCC vs. clang).

It also helped Rust's case that -- thanks to the ground-breaking work of Linux kernel and Rust developer Miguel Ojeda -- Rust on Linux has gotten tons more mature. In addition, Andreas Hindborg, a Western Digital Principal Engineer at the 2022 Linux Plumbers Summit, confirmed you could write           a fantastic driver, an SSD NVM-Express (NVMe) driving force for Linux in Rust. As a result, the maintainers were satisfied it became time to move forward with Rust in Linux. In quick, they agreed that Rust on Linux changed into equipped for work.

Now, Torvalds warns in this first launch that Rust will "simply have the middle infrastructure (i.E. No extreme use case yet)." But, still, this is a first-rate first step for Rust and Linux.