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Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

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Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#231

if the argument is "but bugs!" then that's a nothing burger. Your old code is more battle-tested, but that doesn't inherently make it better. I wish more companies thought like this.

It may not inherently make it better (for some meanings of "better") but it certainly makes it more secure and more stable. Those are attributes which I would value very highly in coreutils.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#232
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're specifically frustrated about unbounded stack recursion exhausting the stack, triggered by multiple thousands of directories? It doesn't sound like this is about multi-thousand-deep directory structures, it sounds like it's about something else. Because even diving into it, I would agree with a prioritisation decision that puts this bug down the bottom of a priority list.

This isn't the first issue with uutils. Canonical is just rushing the switch because they want to get rid of software with GPLv3 license, not because there is any technical merit for doing so.

That's a better thing to discuss, and I'd expect there to be better bugs to talk about to go with it. Stack exhaustion in an unrealistic environment should be fixed, but a "stop everything" bug it ain't.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#233

Whether you like Rust or not, it's questionable as to why Canonical would push this so much and do it in such a cavalier way. Will this really make coreutils more secure? I doubt it, if anything there will be a river of new bugs. So, again, why are they pushing Rust so much? Having Microsoft make Rust a 'Tier-1' language also doesn't bode well.

It removes a GPLv3 dependency that might stop some companies from adopting Ubuntu Core.

Even more reason not to use it. Its clear that user freedom is under greater threat than it ever has been.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#234
They should do like Solaris did and offer multiple different core tools in different paths, until they're up to par at least. It's not that complex of a workaround.

I don't use Ubuntu but this is huge, it's just as big as when FreeBSD switched to all BSD licensed user tools, I remember having to learn how tar worked again.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#235
Manny comments I agree with - it's a mistake, it's a reason to leave the distro...

I'd like to point out that Ubuntu/Canonical is now seemingly philosophically separate from the origins of GNU and Linux. If you're curious, read "Hackers" by Stephen Levy. They've lost the plot, so to speak, about the core spirit of open software and hardware, which is what gave the projects life in the first place. A philosophical understanding and unity between many, many top notch independent developers.

Another note is how AI contributions to such libraries and programs is going to have an unknown effect on quality. It's almost like there's a business case to rip all the good FOSS written by humans out of the hands of github and apt, and curate all the best source code to ensure it remains in circulation, and extant copies are available that are not washed out by loose standards WRT AI contribs. Or if not a business case, perhaps a reasonable reaction and a good personal vendetta.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#236

I really don't understand why Canonical rushes this. If 'rm' can't remove all possible directory entries, that is a big issue: $ podman run --rm -it ubuntu:26.10 $ apt update -y; apt upgrade -y $ rm --version rm (uutils coreutils) 0.10.0 $ gnumkdir -p $(yes a/ | head -n $((32 * 1024)) | tr -d '\n') $ rm -rf a Segmentation fault (core dumped) rm -rf a $ ls a a $ gnurm -rf a $ ls a ls: cannot access 'a': No such file o…

It is Year of the Linux Desktop, not Year of the Linux Cli.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#237
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They need to kill snap ...

I think ubuntu wants to kill desktop linux. No other explaination of why they push firefox inside snap, which then proceeds to constantly crash, when firefox used normally works completely fine. I haven't tried chromium but I presume it's the same issue. At work I'm forced to use ubuntu and I placed snapd on hold and added mozilla's own apt repository to my configuration to get firefox. At least in the past few month…

> I haven't tried chromium but I presume it's the same issue

No issues with snap Chromium.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#238
post #52

Has the code quality in that repo gotten to a good point then? I haven't followed it much, but last I looked[1] (which was a few years ago) almost every tool I looked at in detail had pretty bad performance or correctness issues. [1] https://jackson.dev/post/rust-coreutils-dd/

The reason for existence of uutils is ideological, not technical. Thus code quality is of no use for the objective.

> The reason for existence of uutils is ideological, not technical.

which ideology? Are people saying that there's an ideology of pushing rust for things without concern for quality? Sincere question, because I'm seeing that on this thread and I wasn't aware that that was a thing beyond the "re-write it in Rust" meme.

Re: Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

#239

I really don't understand why Canonical rushes this. If 'rm' can't remove all possible directory entries, that is a big issue: $ podman run --rm -it ubuntu:26.10 $ apt update -y; apt upgrade -y $ rm --version rm (uutils coreutils) 0.10.0 $ gnumkdir -p $(yes a/ | head -n $((32 * 1024)) | tr -d '\n') $ rm -rf a Segmentation fault (core dumped) rm -rf a $ ls a a $ gnurm -rf a $ ls a ls: cannot access 'a': No such file o…

but it segfaulted in a memory safe way.

sarcasm detected here :D
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