this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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One Of The Rust Linux Kernel Maintainers Steps Down - Cites "Nontechnical Nonsense" (www.phoronix.com)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Wedson Almeida Filho is a Microsoft engineer who has been prolific in his contributions to the Rust for the Linux kernel code over the past several years. Wedson has worked on many Rust Linux kernel features and even did a experimental EXT2 file-system driver port to Rust. But he's had enough and is now stepping away from the Rust for Linux efforts.

From Wedon's post on the kernel mailing list:

I am retiring from the project. After almost 4 years, I find myself lacking the energy and enthusiasm I once had to respond to some of the nontechnical nonsense, so it's best to leave it up to those who still have it in them.

...

I truly believe the future of kernels is with memory-safe languages. I am no visionary but if Linux doesn't internalize this, I'm afraid some other kernel will do to it what it did to Unix.

Lastly, I'll leave a small, 3min 30s, sample for context here: https://youtu.be/WiPp9YEBV0Q?t=1529 -- and to reiterate, no one is trying force anyone else to learn Rust nor prevent refactorings of C code."

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Who the fuck is this little shit? Can't they even be a little considerate towards rust? Just because they have 15 years worth of inertia for C doesn't mean they can close their eyes and say "nope, I'm not interested". I do not see how the kernel can survive without making rust a first class citizen

[–] [email protected] 83 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s Ted Ts’o, the maintainer of the ext4 filesystem amongst other things.

little shit

Though you’re still accurate despite his seniority.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

There's really only one valid response to Ted Ts'o:

If you think you can do better with C, prove it.

CVE-2024-42304 — crash from undocumented function parameter invariants
CVE-2024-40955 — out of bounds read
CVE-2024-0775 — use-after-free
CVE-2023-2513 — use-after-free
CVE-2023-1252 — use-after-free
CVE-2022-1184 — use-after-free
CVE-2020-14314 — out of bounds read
CVE-2019-19447 — use-after-free
CVE-2018-10879 — use-after-free
CVE-2018-10878 — out of bounds write
CVE-2018-10881 — out of bounds read
CVE-2015-8324 — null pointer dereference
CVE-2014-8086 — race condition
CVE-2011-2493 — call function pointer in uninitialized struct
CVE-2009-0748 — null pointer dereference

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You seem really invested in pointing out those shortcomings. I respect that.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 months ago

Arrogant hypocrites are a pet peeve of mine. If someone is going to act like progressive technology changes are beneath them and unnecessary, they should be able to put their money where their mouth is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Somebody needs to send a public email to the kernel mailing lists with this

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How many vulnerabilities have the kernel Rust team introduced in the same time period on the same code?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Let me know when you find one?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Memory ownership isn't the only source of vulnerabilities. It's a big issue, sure, but don't think rust code is invulnerable.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Of course. Rust isn't immune to logic errors, off-by-one mistakes, and other such issues. Nor is it memory safe in unsafe blocks.

Just by virtue of how memory safety issues account for 50%+ of vulnerabilities, it's worth genuinely considering as long as the bindings don't cause maintainability issues.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

The bindings cause maintainability issues. That's the problem.