On: Linus Torvalds on Rust support in kernel

[GordonS]

Hmm, I would have thought that Rust produces standard ELF binaries that will run on Linux as-is.

Could someone ELI5 why the kernel needs changes to support Rust?

[ajb → GordonS]

Because this is about allowing parts of the kernel itself to be written in rust.

[pta2002 → GordonS]

This is for writing kernel modules, which ideally need to be integrated in the kernel build system.

[dijit → GordonS]

Mostly this is surrounding (as others have mentioned) writing kernel components, such as drivers, in Rust.

Context on the post Linus says is: "If rust cannot report an error without aborting when it runs out of memory, then we can't use it". I have never written any rust code which does not abort when it runs out of memory, but I have never written for hardware (only with userland in mind) and my knowledge isn't that great anyway, so I'm not sure if it's possible or not.

[GordonS → dijit]

Ah, I didn't realise it was about writing bits of the kernel itself in Rust, now it makes sense, thanks!