Comment by wongarsu
5 years ago
That's what may happen with the Linux kernel over time, now that it allows parts written in Rust.
The limitation of that approach is that all internal interfaces (which includes most data structures) have to be C-compatible. You can get much of the safety benefits of Rust, but lose a lot of Rust's ergonomics.
I don't think that the Linux kernel has decided (yet) to allow rust code into the kernel proper, has it?
It hasn't. But the attitude towards using Rust for device driver development has now gotten very positive, especially post the recent kernel summit.
An LWN article about Rust in Linux that's very relevant to this discussion: https://lwn.net/Articles/829858/
Google has decided to go forward anyway.
Just like Android Linux compiles just fine with clang for the last five years or so, it now makes use of Rust.
https://source.android.com/setup/build/rust/building-rust-mo...
If upstream ever cares to support clang or Rust, that is another matter.
Unless I'm missing something, that link refers to building Android user-mode components in Rust, not kernel components in Rust.
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