Remember this report from SD Times? Linux 6.1 includes what Linus Torvalds called “basic Rust scaffolding.” Although no Rust code currently interacts with any C code, “work has already been done since the 6.1 release to add more infrastructure for Rust in the kernel.”
Additionally, Linux still lacks any true Rust code:
The director of advocacy and operations for the Rust Foundation said, “You need to get all those things that can make sure that Rust can compile, and you can do the debugging and all these things, and make sure that the memory safety is there and all that sort of stuff. And before you can actually build any real code in Rust on the Linux platform, that has to happen first.
Marcey clarified that Linux will implement this inclusion very fragmentarily, with numerous minor integrations here and there over time, so they may assess its effectiveness. When people realize that Rust is actually kind of working, you might be able to, for instance, develop Linux drivers or whatever using Rust, said Marcey. “I would anticipate that over the next year, you’re going to see more tiny incremental modifications to the kernel with Rust,” he added.
The inclusion of Rust in the kernel, according to the executive director of the Rust Foundation, is a “enormous vote of confidence in the Rust programming language.” She mentioned that other languages had previously been intended for the kernel but were not included. She remarked, “I think having someone with the kind of intellectual gravity of Linus Torvalds saying ‘No, it’s going in there’ kind of says an awful lot about how stable Rust already is and how much promise there is for the future as well.
Rumbul anticipates a rise in interest in language. Compared to some of the other languages you can choose from, this one is still rather young (it was first launched in 2010). “Since Rust is now being discussed and is already a part of the kernel, I pondered whether it would be a popular choice for those trying to advance their knowledge and skills. Rumbul also wants to encourage others to contribute to and maintain the language. These are less well-known positions inside open source, but they are crucial to the health of the language.
In order to enforce best practices, the Rust Foundation also established a new security team in September (including a dedicated security engineer). A security audit and threat modeling exercise make up the first initiative. Marcey, Rust’s operations director, said to SD Times.
