Re: Patch "kbuild: rust: force `alloc` extern to allow "empty" Rust files" has been added to the 6.1-stable tree

[Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>]

On Fri, May 03, 2024 at 07:10:35PM +0200, Miguel Ojeda wrote:
>On Fri, May 3, 2024 at 6:42 PM Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org> wrote:
>>
>> If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree,
>> please let <stable@vger.kernel.org> know about it.
>
>I don't think it should be added since it requires upgrading the
>compiler to Rust 1.71 (from 1.62) at least, given:
>
>>     be fairly confusing for kernel developers [1], thus use the unstable
>>     `force` option of `--extern` [2] (added in Rust 1.71 [3]) to force the
>>     compiler to resolve `alloc`.
>
>Now, we have upgraded the compiler in the past (in 6.6 LTS), so it
>could be done, but the issue here was small enough (it should only
>really affect kernel developers if they happen to create a new file or
>similar) that it felt too minor to warrant it (especially since it
>would a bigger compiler jump this time, with more changes required
>too), so I asked for doing it only in 6.6 and 6.8 since those were
>straightforward:
>
>    https://lore.kernel.org/stable/2024042909-whimsical-drapery-40d1@gregkh/
>
>If someone is actually doing development in 6.1 LTS with Rust enabled,
>we may create bigger problems for them (even if it is just time used)
>by upgrading the compiler than what this fix fixes here (which is an
>issue they may not even care about or ever notice).

Dropped, thanks!

In general, it would be nice to have a mechanism that matches supported
Rust compilers with whatever is in the kernel tree. This logic of "6.6
is ok but 6.1 is too old" feels so 90s.

-- 
Thanks,
Sasha