Re: [PATCH 28/33] docs: rust: quick-start: remove GDB/Binutils mention

Gary Guo
2026-04-01T15:15:15Z

On Wed Apr 1, 2026 at 12:45 PM BST, Miguel Ojeda wrote:
> The versions provided nowadays by even a distribution like Debian Stable
> (and Debian Old Stable) are newer than those mentioned [1].
>
> Thus remove the workaround.
>
> Note that the minimum binutils version in the kernel is still 2.30, so
> one could argue part of the note is still relevant, but it is unlikely
> a kernel developer using such an old binutils is enabling Rust on a
> modern kernel, especially when using distribution toolchains, e.g. the
> Rust minimum version is not satisfied by Debian Old Stable.

I suppose people could have been using an old LTS distro + rustup and run into
this issue. Albeit it's probably quite unlikely.

Reviewed-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net>

>
> So we are at the point where keeping the docs short and relevant for
> essentially everyone is probably the better trade-off.
>
> Link: https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=all&searchon=names&keywords=binutils [1]
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CANiq72mCpc9=2TN_zC4NeDMpFQtPXAFvyiP+gRApg2vzspPWmw@mail.gmail.com/
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
> ---
> Documentation/rust/quick-start.rst | 9 ---------
> 1 file changed, 9 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/rust/quick-start.rst b/Documentation/rust/quick-start.rst
> index 5bbe059a8fa3..a6ec3fa94d33 100644
> --- a/Documentation/rust/quick-start.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/rust/quick-start.rst
> @@ -352,12 +352,3 @@ Hacking
> To dive deeper, take a look at the source code of the samples
> at ``samples/rust/``, the Rust support code under ``rust/`` and
> the ``Rust hacking`` menu under ``Kernel hacking``.
> -
> -If GDB/Binutils is used and Rust symbols are not getting demangled, the reason
> -is the toolchain does not support Rust's new v0 mangling scheme yet.
> -There are a few ways out:
> -
> -- Install a newer release (GDB >= 10.2, Binutils >= 2.36).
> -
> -- Some versions of GDB (e.g. vanilla GDB 10.1) are able to use
> - the pre-demangled names embedded in the debug info (``CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO``).