Rust WQ Abstractions, Rust Toolchain Upgrade & Android Kernel Builds For Linux 6.7

Written by Michael Larabel in Programming on 31 October 2023 at 06:34 AM EDT. 32 Comments
PROGRAMMING
Merged one year ago was the initial Rust code for the Linux kernel back in Linux 6.1. We're now up to the Linux 6.7 development cycle and the enabling of more kernel functionality so it can be used/accessed from Rust code remains ongoing along with continuing to bump the base toolchain requirements and other functionality to make it more practical to write future Linux device drivers within this memory safe programming language.

The latest batch of Rust updates have been merged for Linux 6.7. The main Rust pull for the Linux 6.7 merge window is fairly small but includes upgrading to the Rust 1.73 toolchain. On the infrastructure side another notable Rust change are some Rust Makefile alterations so that it can be used with Toybox tools to in turn allow Rust to be used with Android kernel builds. The Rust code will also now enable Indirect Branch Tracking (IBT) if enabled in C for x86, there's a new "Rust experiment" section on the Rust index documentation area, and other mostly small additions.

Separately, merged via an additional pull are the Rust workqueue bindings. This allows Rust code to schedule work items within kernel workqueues. For Linux 6.7 this allows basic workqueue API support and is to be extended in the future.

Rust for Linux


At some point in 2024 we'll likely see the first notable Rust Linux kernel drivers mainlined and the Rust toolchain/infrastructure stabilized.
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Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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