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2:21 PM

Q: Why does the Linux kernel not use rust?

I have heard that the Linux Kernel uses rust. I don't know much about the programming language except that it has the potential to run faster than C. According to websites Rust is more safe than C because it's compilation process detects errors and imposes some restrictions. However if the compil...

@Kusalananda I had a hopefully non-opinionated answer ready for

I literally was moving my mouse to click on the “Post Your Answer” button when the question was closed :-(

Kusalananda

@StephenKitt Reopened.

I still fear we'll get opinion-based answers too, but if that happens we'll just protect the question.

Stephen Kitt

2:39 PM

@Kusalananda thanks!

Kusalananda

@StephenKitt Thanks for a good answer to that question.

Stephen Kitt

@Kusalananda you’re welcome!

1 hour later…

Faheem Mitha

3:54 PM

@StephenKitt Though the poster does not specifically ask for it, a description of why one might want to use Rust in the kernel would be of interest. It seems to me a question like that divides naturally into pros vs cons.

Mercurial has been adding Rust in recent years. Or possibly replacing C with Rust. Or both. I'm not sure. Apparently it's much less brittle than C, but has a similar domain applicability. I.e. low level and fast.

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha I wanted to avoid that since that’s the sort of content that would lead to opinions; the pros and cons are covered in the linked material

also, many of Rust’s advantages are either already supported by the kernel’s variant of C (but it’s still better to have it in the compiler), or irrelevant for the kernel