From: Gary Guo <gary@kernel.org>
To: "Benno Lossin" <lossin@kernel.org>, "Gary Guo" <gary@garyguo.net>,
"Miguel Ojeda" <ojeda@kernel.org>,
"Boqun Feng" <boqun@kernel.org>,
"Björn Roy Baron" <bjorn3_gh@protonmail.com>,
"Andreas Hindborg" <a.hindborg@kernel.org>,
"Alice Ryhl" <aliceryhl@google.com>,
"Trevor Gross" <tmgross@umich.edu>,
"Danilo Krummrich" <dakr@kernel.org>
Cc: rust-for-linux@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] rust: pin_init: internal: use `loop {}` to produce never value
Date: Fri, 8 May 2026 16:29:49 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260508152950.833635-1-gary@kernel.org> (raw)
From: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net>
In the `init!`/`pin_init!` macros, we rely on a trick that assigns never
(`!`) values to all mentioned fields in never-executed code to let the
compiler check that all fields have been initialized.
Currently we use `::core::panic!()` to produce this value, but before Rust
1.91.0, it creates outlined `panic_cold_explicit` functions which do not
get removed by the optimizer, thus leaving dead code behind in the binary.
This has been fixed by [1], which lands in Rust 1.91.0+, higher than the
kernel minimum version 1.85.0.
This causes ~200 dead `panic_cold_explicit` instances being included in the
binary, with ~90 of them from nova-core's usage of pin-init.
Work around the issue by using `loop {}` which creates the never value
without macro expansion or function call at all. All instances of
`panic_cold_explicit` outside libcore are removed by this change in my
kernel build.
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/145304 [1]
Signed-off-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net>
---
rust/pin-init/internal/src/init.rs | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/rust/pin-init/internal/src/init.rs b/rust/pin-init/internal/src/init.rs
index fbc8286263b2..b1cb2e53ee6f 100644
--- a/rust/pin-init/internal/src/init.rs
+++ b/rust/pin-init/internal/src/init.rs
@@ -338,7 +338,7 @@ fn make_field_check(
::core::ptr::write(slot, #path {
#(
#(#field_attrs)*
- #field_name: ::core::panic!(),
+ #field_name: loop {},
)*
#zeroing_trailer
})
--
2.51.2
next reply other threads:[~2026-05-08 15:30 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-05-08 15:29 Gary Guo [this message]
2026-05-09 6:48 ` [PATCH] rust: pin_init: internal: use `loop {}` to produce never value Onur Özkan
2026-05-09 12:15 ` Gary Guo
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