Linux Kernel Prepares Rust Toolchain Upgrade To v1.71

Linux 6.5 upgraded its Rust toolchain against Rust 1.68.2. This was the first upgrade of the Rust toolchain from the original v1.62 requirements when the first Rust kernel code was mainlined. A second upgrade is now planned to take it to Rust 1.71.

The Linux kernel developers wokring on the Rust kernel integration plan to continue to upgrade the Rust toolchain until reaching a minimum version of the toolchain where the necessary features have all been stabilized. The Linux kernel developers continue leveraging some "unstable" Rust features so for the near-term further compiler toolchain upgrades will be warranted.

Miguel Ojeda on Saturday sent out the patch upgrading the Rust code to the Rust 1.7.1 state. From 1.68 to 1.71 series, no unstable features used by the kernel were stabilized. THis upgrade though did require some small kernel code changes.

See this patch if interested in the Rust 1.71 upgrade for the Linux kernel. Given the timing it's possible and likely this Rust toolchain upgrade will happen for the upcoming Linux 6.6 kernel cycle.