New Linux Kernel Patches Begin Plumbing Rust Support Into Bcachefs Driver

[Brane215]

I like it. Yes, it will cause some rumble, but using rust in kernel makes plenty of sense, and sooner the transition is made, the better.
Especially now that practically no one is seriously using it yet.

WRT to Clang compilability issues, these are fringe problem. Clang works just fine with all the main architectures and then some.
For the remaining niche archs, how important is bcachefs support for them really ?
And even there, useable gcc_rs might emerge, before they really start caring.

[wswartzendruber]

Watching everyone flame for and against Rust is amusing.

I wrote a HDR10-to-HLG video converter in Rust. It's an all right language. The naming's kind of quirky and even the simplest stuff requires importing crates. Idioms for error handling in libraries wasn't standardized until just a few years back, which took a really long time, but it's really nice now that it's there.

The claims of superior memory management would appear to be true as I never once saw a memory error while developing the project. This also means that safe Rust wrappers around fundamentally unsafe C code seem to be quite a reliable approach.

I give the language a solid 4/5 stars. Props for memory handling and a con for having a chaotically-structured API.

[ehansin]

Rust is already a dependency for bcachefs-tools. So you can't use bcachefs without rustc.

To be fair, "bcachefs-tools" is likely not an issue for most users in that they would just install the binary package via the package manager from their distro of choice (yes, would not count on Gentoo... or would it now?) Of course, compiling your own kernel would be another issue.

Side note, Fedora 39 just made the first 6.7.x series kernel (6.7.3 is what I got yesterday when upgrading) available via their default enabled repos. I installed bcachefs-tools right away (via DNF5, which so far seems good.) And having followed Bcachefs a bit and Kent's input on it, clearly he has been pro using Rust for some time. Anyway, just tossing this out there.

[Weasel]

Disagree with what, exactly? Some developers have decided to give Rust a try. What's there to disagree about?

About it being inconsequential to users? Look at marios' posts. It does affect users in a negative way, even if they don't code a single line of Rust.

[Weasel]

Now you're the one claiming that people are trolls. Disagreeing isn't the issue, it's doing so in a way that intentionally tries to incite arguments. Did you have to misuse "circlejerk" and "troll"? No. That was something you chose to do to incite a reaction.

So what part of this post is troll? or the first one? The guy got called a troll btw.

And yes I use circlejerk since he literally got lynched for zero reason other than you (you = plural here) sucking up to Rust, despite his arguments. Sure maybe you don't care of what his complaints are, which is understandable. But calling him a troll? Who are you kidding?

Once again: you here is plural, hence why i said circle jerk.

[CommunityMember]

About it being inconsequential to users? Look at marios' posts. It does affect users in a negative way, even if they don't code a single line of Rust.

Individuals have always had the ability to hobble themselves by not installing recent toolchains and choosing to run older kernels and apps that support their existing tools, or to choose to rewrite code in ways to meet their own preferences. That continues to be their right. Their rights to do their own thing should not be interpreted such that their rights imply others have to agree to do what they want.

[kpedersen]

since he literally got lynched for zero reason other than you.

These weird guys are the reason the industry is keeping its distance with rust. Its sad but they are undermining themselves.

Honestly, I have come to the opinion that we have much better things to do than arguing with (probably) 14 year old coder kids. To be fair, it is great that they are passionate about nerd stuff (as are we).

Just, for a chuckle, I hope everyone makes sure to revisit these posts in a couple of years when the next "annoying" generation are talking about how cool "Wazoo" or whatever the next fad language is.

[Myownfriend]

So what part of this post is troll? or the first one? The guy got called a troll btw.

They're saying they lost interest in this project because the maintainers decided to transition it to Rust which is apparently something that Marios thinks they should have a say in because they made the decision to never use a pre-compiled version of the kernel and they don't want to have rustc on their computer.

Its a variation of the the response you see whenever support for some hardware that hasn't been produced in 25 years gets removed from the kernel. Someone who still runs an Itanium machine in their garage will complain like they're being harmed by the decision even though:

• they don't maintain the code they're complaining about
• It only effects them because they opted to continue using old hardware (in this case always pre-compile the kernel)
• they're not actually losing any actual functionality

And yes I use circlejerk since he literally got lynched for zero reason other than you (you = plural here) sucking up to Rust, despite his arguments. Sure maybe you don't care of what his complaints are, which is understandable. But calling him a troll? Who are you kidding?

Nobody was "sucking up to Rust" in this topic though. Everyone was talking about how this person is making up a problem.

Once again: you here is plural, hence why i said circle jerk.

The term "circle jerk" in this context would refer to people congratulating people for having the same opinion that they do. That's not happening here.

About it being inconsequential to users? Look at marios' posts. It does affect users in a negative way, even if they don't code a single line of Rust.

It really don't effect him in a negative way. His complaint is that may effect his ability to use it on an ARM SBC in the future which is won't.

[jacob]

These weird guys are the reason the industry is keeping its distance with rust. Its sad but they are undermining themselves.

Honestly, I have come to the opinion that we have much better things to do than arguing with (probably) 14 year old coder kids. To be fair, it is great that they are passionate about nerd stuff (as are we).

Just, for a chuckle, I hope everyone makes sure to revisit these posts in a couple of years when the next "annoying" generation are talking about how cool "Wazoo" or whatever the next fad language is.

Aha, another "founded" prediction fromkpedersen who, so far, managed to be wrong about... basically everything. And yeah, "the industry" is certainly keeping its distance with rust. Well except Linux, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Cloudflare, NASA, apparently soon FreeBSD and other equally irrelevant entities. No serious l33t k0d3R living with his parents there.

[mdedetrich]

I was interested at bcachefs at first. No I am no longer interested. Well, it is better to have my expectations refuted earlier rather than later, so I can be thankful for that at least.

Concern trolling at its finest