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Seems like one of those situations that the "BDFL" will need to (temporarily) drop the "B" to get things moving. Joking aside, Rust for Linux seems to be enter
by sidkshatriya 2y ago
Seems like one of those situations that the "BDFL" will need to (temporarily) drop the "B" to get things moving.
Joking aside, Rust for Linux seems to be entering a phase where rubber is hitting the road and some maintainers who thought that Rust would just go away are having to express their opposition more honestly. There are definitely reasons for and against Rust in the Linux kernel and I feel for them.
Actually this pattern happens in all spheres of life. Some change is introduced. First, people ignore/deny it thinking it won't affect them or they feel that the system is too strong and the change won't really happen. They are (probabilistically) right because successful change requires really superhuman drive which the Rust for Linux maintainers by luck/unluck (depending on who you are) happen to have.
Now real change is coming to the door of some maintainers. Some of them hate the melange of Rust and C the Linux kernel is likely to become in the coming years. So they are hoping that their subsystem can escape. But it can't if Rust is really going to be a viable rather than toy option.
I think Rust has been baking in the kernel for a long time -- The BDFL/DFL needs to informally poll the maintainers and take a definitive decision to cast Linux's lot with Rust (or not!?). The Experimental tag in Rust gives some people the hope that this Rust experiment could be ended. This experimental tag should be replaced with in-progress/not-mature tag to further send the message down the line.
- dralley 2y agoNobody is asking Christoph to maintain Rust code. Just work with the R4L developers occasionally when a breaking change happens, the same way he likely would need to do so with every C-based consumer of those APIs. But he doesn't want to do that, and he also doesn't want to let anyone co-maintain the DMA subsystem. At some point this does need to be called out as gatekeepy and counterproductive behavior by a maintainer who doesn't want to work with others. But working with others is kind of, like, necessary, in a project as large and critical as the Linux project. Developing new kernel talent was one of Linus' express reasons for doing the project in the first place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvuEYtkOH88&t=6m07s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvuEYtkOH88&t=6m07s