[PATCH v4 00/16] Enable rust support for linux kernel

Harish.Sadineni
2026-01-20T18:31:28Z

From: Harish Sadineni <Harish.Sadineni@windriver.com>

v4:
- Resolved patchtest failures.

v3:
- Removed the DISTRO_FEATURES dependency for installing Rust library sources in the Rust recipe,
- Extended support for on target rust kernel module developmet by installing Rust library sources and
introduced packaging of the Rust standard library sources in a dedicated ${PN}-src-lib package.
- Integrated Alistair Francis's patch(https://lists.openembedded.org/g/openembedded-core/message/229091)
that uses the Rust bootstrap tool to install Rust library sources for rust-native.
- Dropped the patch that added rust-kernel to native/nativesdk feature filters in bitbake.conf.
- Updated flags in the make-mod-scripts recipe to fix build failures when building Rust out-of-tree
module recipes.
- Dropped the bindgen-cli patch extending BBCLASSEXTEND to include nativesdk, as it has been merged
into oe-core.

v2:
- Combined [PATCH 05/16][0] & [PATCH 06/16][1] from v1.
- Updated commit message and added in code comments for patch "[PATCH 09/15] kernel-devsrc: copying
rust-kernel source to $kerneldir/build"

[0] https://lists.openembedded.org/g/openembedded-core/message/228559
[1] https://lists.openembedded.org/g/openembedded-core/message/228560

v1:
The previous series was RFC v4, "Enable Rust support for Linux kernel"
(https://lists.openembedded.org/g/openembedded-core/message/226623).

In addition, Yoann Congal posted RFC v2, "Kernel Rust out-of-tree module support"
(https://lists.openembedded.org/g/openembedded-core/message/227281), which builds on top of RFC v4.

The current patch series is a unified version that combines both efforts.
Compared to the earlier series, the main changes are:

-Kernel configuration fragments have been moved to yocto-kernel-cache.
-The kernel fragments have been removed from SRC_URI and from the files directory previously stored under
recipes-kernel/linux/files.
-Updated the "[PATCH 11/16] selftest/cases/runtime_test: Add test for Linux Rust sample" by appending
KERNEL_EXTRA_FEATURES:append = ' features/kernel-sample/kernel-rust-sample.scc' instead of adding this
directly in the linux-yocto recipe.

This patch series introduces Rust support into the linux-yocto kernel recipe
and related build infrastructure in the Yocto Project. The goal is to enable
building the Linux kernel with Rust components and provide support for building
kernel module which is written in rust and also provide support to build
rust kernel modules in sdk.

And this series adds test for Linux Rust sample and also added support for out-of-tree kernel
module written in Rust as well as associated test.

Summary of patches:

- Patch 01: Add required dependencies ('clang-native', 'rust-native', 'bindgen-cli-native') to the kernel to support Rust binding generation.
- Patch 02: Using the Rust bootstrap tool to install Rust library sources for rust-native
- Patch 03: Install the Rust standard library source ('library/') into target and sdk
- Patch 04: Updated `kernel-yocto.bbclass` to invoke `make rustavailable` during 'do_kernel_configme', ensuring Rust readiness.
- Patch 05: Add kernel configuration support for Rust (via 'kernel-rust.scc'), enabling the Rust build options in kernel config.
- Patch 06: Fixed buildpaths errors when rust is enabled for kernel by appending --remap-path-prefix to RUST_DEBUG_REMAP
- Patch 07: split `HOSTCC` flag to align with to linux-yocto and fix build issue with make-mod-scripts recipe.
- Patch 08: Disabling ccache when rust-kernel is enabled for linux-yocto.
- Patch 09: Copy Rust kernel sources into kernel-devsrc build directory which will be required while running 'make prepare' in sdk.
- Patch 10: Added oe-selftest case for the Linux Rust sample.
- patch 11: Copying include/config/auto.conf in STAGING_KERNEL_BUILDDIR
- patch 12: Export artifacts needed for out-of-tree Rust compilation
- patch 13: Prepare out-of-tree rust module compilation
- patch 14: Added rust-out-of-tree-module recipe in meta-skeleton layer
- Patch 15: Fixed buildpaths errors for rust-out-of-tree-module recipe by appending --remap-path-prefix to RUST_DEBUG_REMAP
- patch 16: Added rust-out-of-tree selftest

Patches have been build-tested successfully on:
- qemuarm64
- qemux86-64

Benchmark test-result for x86-64:
+-------------------------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| DISTRO_FEATURES | real | user | sys | FS usage |
+-------------------------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| rust-kernel (enabled) | 46m1.720s | 0m28.864s | 0m3.696s | 58 GB |
| rust-kernel (disabled) | 30m1.053s | 0m20.091s | 0m2.748s | 33 GB |
+-------------------------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

The increased in time & fs is due to kernel rust dependencies in
linux-yocto.

Alistair Francis (1):
rust: Install the Rust source

Harish Sadineni (8):
linux-yocto: conditionally add clang/rust/bindgen-cli-native to
DEPENDS
rust: install Rust library sources for target & sdk
kernel-yocto: enable Rust kernel support via 'make rustavailable'.
linux-yocto: enable Rust support in kernel configuration
kernel-yocto: Fix for buildpaths errors when rust is enabled for
kernel
make-mod-scripts: split `HOSTCC` flag to align with to linux-yocto
kernel-devsrc: copying rust-kernel source to $kerneldir/build
make-mod-scripts: fix for buildpath issues with rust-out-of-tree
compilation

Yoann Congal (7):
kernel-yocto.bbclass: Disable ccache when rust-kernel is enabled
selftest/cases/runtime_test: Add test for Linux Rust sample
kernel.bbclass: Copy include/config/auto.conf in
STAGING_KERNEL_BUILDDIR
kernel.bbclass: Export artifacts needed for out-of-tree Rust
compilation
module.bbclass: Prepare out-of-tree rust module compilation
meta-skeleton: Add rust-out-of-tree-module recipe
runtime_test: Add rust-out-of-tree selftest

.../rust-out-of-tree-module_git.bb | 18 ++++++
meta/classes-recipe/kernel-yocto.bbclass | 22 +++++++
meta/classes-recipe/kernel.bbclass | 19 ++++++
meta/classes-recipe/module.bbclass | 8 +++
meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/runtime_test.py | 35 +++++++++++
...-host-documentation-is-built-before-.patch | 60 +++++++++++++++++++
meta/recipes-devtools/rust/rust-source.inc | 1 +
meta/recipes-devtools/rust/rust_1.92.0.bb | 15 ++++-
meta/recipes-kernel/linux/kernel-devsrc.bb | 9 +++
meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-yocto.inc | 2 +
meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-yocto_6.16.bb | 1 +
meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-yocto_6.18.bb | 1 +
.../make-mod-scripts/make-mod-scripts_1.0.bb | 10 +++-
13 files changed, 199 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 meta-skeleton/recipes-kernel/rust-out-of-tree-module/rust-out-of-tree-module_git.bb
create mode 100644 meta/recipes-devtools/rust/files/0001-bootstrap-Ensure-host-documentation-is-built-before-.patch

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2.49.0