From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS, URIBL_BLOCKED autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ECEB3C433E1 for ; Mon, 13 Jul 2020 18:14:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D31162067D for ; Mon, 13 Jul 2020 18:14:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1730437AbgGMSOI (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Jul 2020 14:14:08 -0400 Received: from out03.mta.xmission.com ([166.70.13.233]:49998 "EHLO out03.mta.xmission.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1729687AbgGMSOI (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Jul 2020 14:14:08 -0400 Received: from in02.mta.xmission.com ([166.70.13.52]) by out03.mta.xmission.com with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1jv2xn-0007Rg-FJ; Mon, 13 Jul 2020 12:14:03 -0600 Received: from ip68-227-160-95.om.om.cox.net ([68.227.160.95] helo=x220.xmission.com) by in02.mta.xmission.com with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from ) id 1jv2xm-0007g5-AT; Mon, 13 Jul 2020 12:14:03 -0600 From: ebiederm@xmission.com (Eric W. Biederman) To: Nick Desaulniers Cc: alex.gaynor@gmail.com, geofft@ldpreload.com, jbaublitz@redhat.com, Masahiro Yamada , Linus Torvalds , Greg KH , Miguel Ojeda , Josh Triplett , Steven Rostedt , LKML , clang-built-linux References: Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2020 13:11:13 -0500 In-Reply-To: (Nick Desaulniers's message of "Thu, 9 Jul 2020 11:41:47 -0700") Message-ID: <875zarb7zy.fsf@x220.int.ebiederm.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.1 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-XM-SPF: eid=1jv2xm-0007g5-AT;;;mid=<875zarb7zy.fsf@x220.int.ebiederm.org>;;;hst=in02.mta.xmission.com;;;ip=68.227.160.95;;;frm=ebiederm@xmission.com;;;spf=neutral X-XM-AID: U2FsdGVkX1+fZqLDEdkWFk+UGPM1iZj0UVDopGAeX9M= X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: 68.227.160.95 X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: ebiederm@xmission.com Subject: Re: Linux kernel in-tree Rust support X-SA-Exim-Version: 4.2.1 (built Thu, 05 May 2016 13:38:54 -0600) X-SA-Exim-Scanned: Yes (on in02.mta.xmission.com) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Nick Desaulniers writes: > Hello folks, > I'm working on putting together an LLVM "Micro Conference" for the > upcoming Linux Plumbers Conf > (https://www.linuxplumbersconf.org/event/7/page/47-attend). It's not > solidified yet, but I would really like to run a session on support > for Rust "in tree." I suspect we could cover technical aspects of > what that might look like (I have a prototype of that, was trivial to > wire up KBuild support), but also a larger question of "should we do > this?" or "how might we place limits on where this can be used?" > > Question to folks explicitly in To:, are you planning on attending plumbers? > > If so, would this be an interesting topic that you'd participate in? I have two big concerns about actually using rust. 1) How large is the rust language support, and will each rust module need to duplicate it. I seem to remember someone mentioning it is noticable in size. 2) What is rust usable for? The rust type system will not admit doubly linked lists (or anything where two pointers point at the same memory) unless you are using an unsafe block. Now maybe all of that can be wrapped up in libraries written in C that Rust can just call, so rust might be useful for building drivers. What I am certain of is that in the core kernel where I tend to spend my time not being able to use doubly linked lists looks like a non-starter. Eric