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The GCC story isn’t that far behind - there are two complementary efforts to get GCC support into the Rust ecosystem. One is a Rust frontend to GCC (https://gi

The GCC story isn’t that far behind - there are two complementary efforts to get GCC support into the Rust ecosystem. One is a Rust frontend to GCC (https://github.com/Rust-GCC/gccrs https://github.com/Rust-GCC/gccrs) while the other is a GCC backend to the existing Rust compiler (https://blog.antoyo.xyz/rustc_codegen_gcc-progress-report-12 https://blog.antoyo.xyz/rustc_codegen_gcc-progress-report-12). It might take a while for these to bear fruit, but it’ll be awesome when they do. That should address the very valid concern that the full Linux kernel won’t compile for all supported architectures. And it’s not really a problem that the GCC effort will take time. The headline of this article implies that the Rust integration is nearly done but it’s only the beginning. Based on the issue tracker there’s years of work left to get everything working perfectly. That’s enough time to get GCC supported well.

arinlen 4y ago
> It might take a while for these to bear fruit, (...) That's the problem. There are no GCC-based Rust compilers, nor is there a fixed timeline for one to be delivered, specially in the short term. Therefore, as the OP pointed out, as things stand either Rust in the Linux kernel is dead in the water or it poses a major problem for the Linux community.
- nindalf 4y ago
  I don’t know who this “Linux community” is that doesn’t include Linus or Greg or other senior developers that have been working with the Rust for Linux folks for more than a year. They don’t think it’s “dead in the water”. Let’s assume for a second that Linus knows what he’s doing. Now look at his mail from April 2021 on what he views as show stoppers (https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/4/14/1099 https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/4/14/1099) - OOM panics and 128-bit floating point. The former has been fixed now, which is why Linus appears bullish on adding Rust support to the kernel. Check that mail for the number of times Linus mentions GCC - 0. It’s not a priority for him. It’s easy to see why. He (and everyone else involved) are very clear that this will only be used for driver code on architectures that were already supported. So therefore, there is no need to supply a GCC compiler in the short term. I pointed out two long term efforts to get GCC Rust support. These could unblock more widespread use of Rust in the kernel, but that’s jumping the gun. Let’s see even one real driver merged before thinking about that. Whatever happens, the Linux developers won’t let the project break for millions of users overnight. That’s not how they operate. Your “Linux community” should know that.

arinlen 4y ago

> It might take a while for these to bear fruit, (...) That's the problem. There are no GCC-based Rust compilers, nor is there a fixed timeline for one to be delivered, specially in the short term. Therefore, as the OP pointed out, as things stand either Rust in the Linux kernel is dead in the water or it poses a major problem for the Linux community.

nindalf 4y ago
I don’t know who this “Linux community” is that doesn’t include Linus or Greg or other senior developers that have been working with the Rust for Linux folks for more than a year. They don’t think it’s “dead in the water”. Let’s assume for a second that Linus knows what he’s doing. Now look at his mail from April 2021 on what he views as show stoppers (https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/4/14/1099 https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/4/14/1099) - OOM panics and 128-bit floating point. The former has been fixed now, which is why Linus appears bullish on adding Rust support to the kernel. Check that mail for the number of times Linus mentions GCC - 0. It’s not a priority for him. It’s easy to see why. He (and everyone else involved) are very clear that this will only be used for driver code on architectures that were already supported. So therefore, there is no need to supply a GCC compiler in the short term. I pointed out two long term efforts to get GCC Rust support. These could unblock more widespread use of Rust in the kernel, but that’s jumping the gun. Let’s see even one real driver merged before thinking about that. Whatever happens, the Linux developers won’t let the project break for millions of users overnight. That’s not how they operate. Your “Linux community” should know that.