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What kind of performance hit is rewriting part of the kernel in Rust going to entail when it comes to compiling the kernel? How many platforms will cease to be
by msla 6y ago
What kind of performance hit is rewriting part of the kernel in Rust going to entail when it comes to compiling the kernel? How many platforms will cease to be able to compile their own kernels? The article says there will be some, but doesn't give numbers.
More worryingly, the article also says that only some platforms will be "Rusted" in this manner, splitting the codebase into "mainline Rust" and "obscure platform C" as far as these sections are concerned; this seems like it will fracture the development community between people who know Rust and those who don't, and those who can work on mainstream platforms and those who can't. Fewer eyes on this code seems like the wrong way to go.
- sanxiyn 6y agoArchitectures supported by Linux kernel but not supported by Rust are tracked at https://github.com/fishinabarrel/linux-kernel-module-rust/issues/112 https://github.com/fishinabarrel/linux-kernel-module-rust/is.... It currently lists 14 architecutres (as opposed to 10 supported architectures), so it's less than half.
- mlindner 6y agoThe point is that if you implement a driver for a device that only exists on hardware that supports LLVM then there is no problem.
- msla 6y agoNo, the point is that increasing the number of languages in the kernel imposes restrictions. (The further point is that it's impossible to have this discussion here.)