Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
memorysafety.org
Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
1–10 of 62 posts
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#2So, when Rust is actually in the kernel would it be possible for some C based routines to call them? Like the article seems to mention things I've seen as "helper" functions, so a mostly C module can get some memory safe benefits? Or do whole components need to be rewritten?
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#3So, when Rust is actually in the kernel would it be possible for some C based routines to call them? Like the article seems to mention things I've seen as "helper" functions, so a mostly C module can get some memory safe benefits? Or do whole components need to be rewritten?
Theoretically yes, rust binaries can have C-apis and other code can call them just fine.
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#4So, when Rust is actually in the kernel would it be possible for some C based routines to call them? Like the article seems to mention things I've seen as "helper" functions, so a mostly C module can get some memory safe benefits? Or do whole components need to be rewritten?
Yep! At our company, for example, we have built a plugin for PAM in Rust which exposes all the necessary functions with a C interface.
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#5So, when Rust is actually in the kernel would it be possible for some C based routines to call them? Like the article seems to mention things I've seen as "helper" functions, so a mostly C module can get some memory safe benefits? Or do whole components need to be rewritten?
Theoretically yes, rust binaries can have C-apis and other code can call them just fine.
With the caveat that, naturally, these APIs can only expose concepts that C can understand, so you're a bit limited. No generics, for example.
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#6So, when Rust is actually in the kernel would it be possible for some C based routines to call them? Like the article seems to mention things I've seen as "helper" functions, so a mostly C module can get some memory safe benefits? Or do whole components need to be rewritten?
The RUST FFI is just the C function interface. You can completely fool the C code that you are also C code.
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#7So, when Rust is actually in the kernel would it be possible for some C based routines to call them? Like the article seems to mention things I've seen as "helper" functions, so a mostly C module can get some memory safe benefits? Or do whole components need to be rewritten?
Not only is it possible, being able to do so well is a design constraint on the language.
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#8I’m so excited for this project. I feel like this is going to bring in a new generation of programmers to kernel development.
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#9Can we talk about “world’s largest”? This seems extremely unlikely by any measure.
Re: Memory safety for the world’s largest software project
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Theoretically yes, rust binaries can have C-apis and other code can call them just fine.
With the caveat that, naturally, these APIs can only expose concepts that C can understand, so you're a bit limited. No generics, for example.
Also, no memory safety...