Rust Null Block Driver Published To Begin Experimenting With Rust For Linux Storage

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Rust Null Block Driver Published To Begin Experimenting With Rust For Linux Storage

To help facilitate the exploration of the Rust programming language for Linux storage purposes within the kernel, Samsung engineer Andreas Hindborg has published a null block driver written in this memory-safe programming language...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Rust-Null-Block-Driver

[Sergey Podobry]

There are 217 usages of `unsafe` keyword in this Rust driver implementation

[piotrj3]

There are 217 usages of `unsafe` keyword in this Rust driver implementation

The driver is implemented entirely in safe Rust, with all unsafe code fully contained in wrappers for C APIs.

From patch message.

[waxhead]

Why not rewrite the Bible in Rust, newspapers, parking tickets, C, the dead sea scrolls, lord of the rings and the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy... It all needs to be rewritten in rust because some people believe everything will be better, the grass greener, the air fresher... Even Greta Thunberg should be rewritten in Rust especially if you believe Rust is a typo for Trust...

[TheMightyBuzzard]

"The driver is implemented entirely in safe Rust, with all unsafe code fully contained in wrappers for C APIs."

From patch message.

Yes, that's generally why you use the "unsafe" keyword. That patch line is horribly misleading though. All it says is "none of the Rust code is in unsafe keyworded bits, only the C". Which is better than having Rust code in unsafe keyworded blocks but the C that the driver uses is still just as able to shoot itself in the foot as any other C code is.

[TheMightyBuzzard]

Why not rewrite the Bible in Rust, newspapers, parking tickets, C, the dead sea scrolls, lord of the rings and the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy... It all needs to be rewritten in rust because some people believe everything will be better, the grass greener, the air fresher... Even Greta Thunberg should be rewritten in Rust especially if you believe Rust is a typo for Trust...

Heh, the world would probably be better off if political types had less memory issues.

[wswartzendruber]

There are 217 usages of `unsafe` keyword in this Rust driver implementation

You may wish to examine the situation more carefully.

Why not rewrite the Bible in Rust,

The English Standard Version suffices quite well for my needs.

newspapers,

Does this make them safer to read?

parking tickets,

If there's one thing I actually want to malfunction, it's parking tickets.

C,

YES!!!

the dead sea scrolls,

These are already written in Hebrew with some being Aramaic.

lord of the rings

As an alternative, you can read The Lord of the Rings in Esperanto.

and the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy...

I have neither seen nor read this, but I'm told I should.

It all needs to be rewritten in rust because some people believe everything will be better, the grass greener, the air fresher...

Not everything will be better, but there will be far fewer security issues with peoples's code.

Even Greta Thunberg should be rewritten in Rust especially if you believe Rust is a typo for Trust...

How dare you!

[TheMightyBuzzard]

Not everything will be better, but there will be far fewer security issues with peoples's code.

Using a slower, fatter language for convenience in instances where speed and memory usage matter greatly is not the answer or the Linux kernel would be written in Java. The answer to bad coders is not putting training wheels on bits of the kernel where they're a big detriment, it's not allowing bad coders to contribute code to those areas in the first place.

[dremon_nl]

Using a slower, fatter language for convenience

Rust is neither slower nor fatter.

it's not allowing bad coders to contribute code

If we only allow unicorns to contribute then nothing will ever be done.

[TheMightyBuzzard]

Rust is neither slower nor fatter.

See, that tells me you're unqualified to participate in this discussion. It absolutely is provably both and every Rust dev who knows anything about their language knows this and will tell you so. Is it as slow as Java or other high level languages? No. But absolute adherence to memory safety on every allocation absolutely does come at a cost that can not be avoided.