this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Behold, a Linux maintainer openly admitting to attempting to sabotage the entire Rust for Linux project:

https://lwn.net/ml/all/[email protected]/

The good news is this doesn't affect drm/asahi, our GPU driver. The bad news is it does affect all the other drivers we're (re)writing in Rust, two so far with a third one coming.

Another choice quote, calling R4L "cancer": https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/[email protected]/

Personally, I would consider this grounds for removal of Christoph from the Linux project on Code of Conduct violation grounds, but sadly I doubt much will happen other than draining a lot of people's energy and will to continue the project until Linus says "fuck you" or something.

As for how to move forward, if I were one of the Rust maintainers, I would just merge the patch (which does not touch code formally maintained by the dissenter). Either Linus takes the pull, and whatever Christoph says is irrelevant, or he doesn't, and R4L dies. Everything else is a waste of everyone's time and energy.

Edit: Sent in my 2 cents: https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/[email protected]/T/#m1944b6d485070970e359bbc7baa71b04c86a30af

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Christoph is an engineer and has been for a long time. There are probably considerations he is making that you either cannot or are refusing to fathom. He's clearly not against rust in general, just in mixing languages in one codebase.

To be clear though, I personally don't have a horse in this race, I am speaking somewhat as an outside observer, so i gain nothing from you getting your way or Christoph his.

Stop and think without attributing malice to why someone in his position would make the statements and decisions he's making. He's not an idiot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I didn't attribute it to malice, I said that the OP's post is correct that Christoph's stance is hardline and a complete showstopper for the R4L project. His reasoning is likely one of pragmatism, by the sounds of it, and it's reasonable, but I simply don't agree given Rust's history as a language used in a codebase historically using another language (Firefox). The success stories there are already written, the language has developed with that in mind already. He's not being ridiculous or malicious, he's just being conservative and playing it safe, but that still gets in the way.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We should be looking at his given reasons, not making assumptions based on some ineffable set of considerations that he might have.

Christof's given reason of complexity is sensible, it's also one already considered when allowing R4L in the first place; adding rust language support has been deemed worth the additional complexity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Either Linus or Greg K-H, likely after feedback from many others.