[TECH TOPIC] Rust for Linux

Miguel Ojeda
2024-06-22T19:21:03Z

Hi all,

This is https://lpc.events/event/18/abstracts/1937/. This talk could
go into either the Kernel Summit track or the Refereed track.

Rust for Linux [1] is the project adding support for the Rust language
to the Linux kernel. This talk will give a high-level overview of the
status and the latest news around Rust in the kernel since LPC 2023.

We will start with a summary of the new safe abstractions, modules and
architectures that are in mainline or getting upstreamed soon. We will
cover the different strategies subsystems are adopting to ramp up the
Rust support and the policies for dealing with mixing C and Rust code.

Next, we will cover improvements in the infrastructure, including the
new build system: why we need it, how it differs from the C side, what
features it introduces, the `kernel` crate split, etc. In addition, we
will talk about third-party crates, https://rust.docs.kernel.org and
kernel CIs.

Furthermore, we will give an update on the unstable features: we now
support several Rust compiler versions, which allows several Linux
distributions to work out of the box. We are now collaborating with
the Rust project to get the kernel into stable Rust. In particular,
Linux has been included in their 2024h2 project goals and it is being
built-tested in their pre-merge CI.

Finally, we will conclude with what is going on in other related
projects, such as the ones that provide a path to build the kernel
with GCC (`rustc_codegen_gcc` and GCC Rust).

[1] https://rust-for-linux.com

Cheers,
Miguel