[PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment

Miguel Ojeda posted 1 patch 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Documentation/rust/index.rst | 18 ------------------
1 file changed, 18 deletions(-)
[PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Miguel Ojeda 1 month, 3 weeks ago
The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help
determine whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel,
i.e. worth the tradeoffs, technically, procedurally and socially.

At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
been deemed concluded [1].

Thus remove the section -- it was not fully true already anyway, since
there are already uses of Rust in production out there, some well-known
Linux distributions enable it and it is already in millions of devices
via Android.

Obviously, this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
configuration, architecture, toolchain etc., or that there won't be
new issues. There is still a ton of work to do in all areas, from the
kernel to upstream Rust, GCC and other projects. And, in fact, certain
combinations (such as the mixed GCC+LLVM builds and the upcoming GCC
support) are still quite experimental but getting there.

But the experiment is done, i.e. Rust is here to stay.

I hope this signals commitment from the kernel to companies and other
entities to invest more into it, e.g. into giving time to their kernel
developers to train themselves in Rust.

Thanks to the many kernel maintainers that gave the project their
support and patience throughout these years, and to the many other
developers, whether in the kernel or in other projects, that have
made this possible. I had a long list of 173 names in the credits of
the original pull that merged the support into the kernel [2], and now
such a list would be way longer, so I will not even try to compose one,
but again, thanks a lot, everybody.

Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]
Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
---
I could update the first link to the full LWN article when published.

 Documentation/rust/index.rst | 18 ------------------
 1 file changed, 18 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/rust/index.rst b/Documentation/rust/index.rst
index ec62001c7d8c..e61524959dbc 100644
--- a/Documentation/rust/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/rust/index.rst
@@ -7,24 +7,6 @@ Documentation related to Rust within the kernel. To start using Rust
 in the kernel, please read the quick-start.rst guide.
 
 
-The Rust experiment
--------------------
-
-The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help in
-determining whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel, i.e. worth
-the tradeoffs.
-
-Currently, the Rust support is primarily intended for kernel developers and
-maintainers interested in the Rust support, so that they can start working on
-abstractions and drivers, as well as helping the development of infrastructure
-and tools.
-
-If you are an end user, please note that there are currently no in-tree
-drivers/modules suitable or intended for production use, and that the Rust
-support is still in development/experimental, especially for certain kernel
-configurations.
-
-
 Code documentation
 ------------------
 

base-commit: cb015814f8b6eebcbb8e46e111d108892c5e6821
-- 
2.52.0
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Miguel Ojeda 2 weeks, 5 days ago
On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 1:01 AM Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help
> determine whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel,
> i.e. worth the tradeoffs, technically, procedurally and socially.
>
> At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
> been deemed concluded [1].
>
> Thus remove the section -- it was not fully true already anyway, since
> there are already uses of Rust in production out there, some well-known
> Linux distributions enable it and it is already in millions of devices
> via Android.
>
> Obviously, this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
> configuration, architecture, toolchain etc., or that there won't be
> new issues. There is still a ton of work to do in all areas, from the
> kernel to upstream Rust, GCC and other projects. And, in fact, certain
> combinations (such as the mixed GCC+LLVM builds and the upcoming GCC
> support) are still quite experimental but getting there.
>
> But the experiment is done, i.e. Rust is here to stay.
>
> I hope this signals commitment from the kernel to companies and other
> entities to invest more into it, e.g. into giving time to their kernel
> developers to train themselves in Rust.
>
> Thanks to the many kernel maintainers that gave the project their
> support and patience throughout these years, and to the many other
> developers, whether in the kernel or in other projects, that have
> made this possible. I had a long list of 173 names in the credits of
> the original pull that merged the support into the kernel [2], and now
> such a list would be way longer, so I will not even try to compose one,
> but again, thanks a lot, everybody.
>
> Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>

Applied to `rust-next`.

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I really appreciated them :)

Cheers,
Miguel
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Miguel Ojeda 3 weeks, 4 days ago
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 01:00:42 +0100 Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org> wrote:
>
>  Documentation/rust/index.rst | 18 ------------------

When I apply the patch soon I will also remove this one as well which
I recalled we had (Cc docs/Jon):

diff --git a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
index bc56dee6d0bc..f39d1d3dd9ce 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Please refer to ``include/linux/compiler_attributes.h`` for more information.
 Rust
 ----

-The kernel has experimental support for the Rust programming language
+The kernel has support for the Rust programming language
 [rust-language]_ under ``CONFIG_RUST``. It is compiled with ``rustc`` [rustc]_
 under ``--edition=2021`` [rust-editions]_. Editions are a way to introduce
 small changes to the language that are not backwards compatible.

Cheers,
Miguel
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Boqun Feng 1 month, 3 weeks ago
On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 01:00:42AM +0100, Miguel Ojeda wrote:
> The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help
> determine whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel,
> i.e. worth the tradeoffs, technically, procedurally and socially.
> 
> At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
> been deemed concluded [1].
> 
> Thus remove the section -- it was not fully true already anyway, since
> there are already uses of Rust in production out there, some well-known
> Linux distributions enable it and it is already in millions of devices
> via Android.
> 
> Obviously, this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
> configuration, architecture, toolchain etc., or that there won't be
> new issues. There is still a ton of work to do in all areas, from the
> kernel to upstream Rust, GCC and other projects. And, in fact, certain
> combinations (such as the mixed GCC+LLVM builds and the upcoming GCC
> support) are still quite experimental but getting there.
> 
> But the experiment is done, i.e. Rust is here to stay.
> 
> I hope this signals commitment from the kernel to companies and other
> entities to invest more into it, e.g. into giving time to their kernel
> developers to train themselves in Rust.
> 
> Thanks to the many kernel maintainers that gave the project their
> support and patience throughout these years, and to the many other
> developers, whether in the kernel or in other projects, that have
> made this possible. I had a long list of 173 names in the credits of
> the original pull that merged the support into the kernel [2], and now
> such a list would be way longer, so I will not even try to compose one,
> but again, thanks a lot, everybody.
> 

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you, Miguel. Like what Dan
Williams said during the Maintainers Summit, I also cannot imagine a
better person to lead this than you. Thank you for all the hard work,
commmunication, collaboration and most importantly, keeping yourself
postive despite all the other factors.

Reviewed-by: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com>

Regards,
Boqun

> Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
> ---
[...]
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Danilo Krummrich 1 month, 3 weeks ago
On 12/13/25 1:00 AM, Miguel Ojeda wrote:
> At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
> been deemed concluded [1].

Acked-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Andreas Hindborg 1 month, 3 weeks ago
"Miguel Ojeda" <ojeda@kernel.org> writes:

> The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help
> determine whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel,
> i.e. worth the tradeoffs, technically, procedurally and socially.
>
> At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
> been deemed concluded [1].
>
> Thus remove the section -- it was not fully true already anyway, since
> there are already uses of Rust in production out there, some well-known
> Linux distributions enable it and it is already in millions of devices
> via Android.
>
> Obviously, this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
> configuration, architecture, toolchain etc., or that there won't be
> new issues. There is still a ton of work to do in all areas, from the
> kernel to upstream Rust, GCC and other projects. And, in fact, certain
> combinations (such as the mixed GCC+LLVM builds and the upcoming GCC
> support) are still quite experimental but getting there.
>
> But the experiment is done, i.e. Rust is here to stay.
>
> I hope this signals commitment from the kernel to companies and other
> entities to invest more into it, e.g. into giving time to their kernel
> developers to train themselves in Rust.
>
> Thanks to the many kernel maintainers that gave the project their
> support and patience throughout these years, and to the many other
> developers, whether in the kernel or in other projects, that have
> made this possible. I had a long list of 173 names in the credits of
> the original pull that merged the support into the kernel [2], and now
> such a list would be way longer, so I will not even try to compose one,
> but again, thanks a lot, everybody.
>
> Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>

An important milestone. Congratulations to all!

Acked-by: Andreas Hindborg <a.hindborg@kernel.org>


Best regards,
Andreas Hindborg
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Benno Lossin 1 month, 3 weeks ago
On Sat Dec 13, 2025 at 1:00 AM CET, Miguel Ojeda wrote:
> The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help
> determine whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel,
> i.e. worth the tradeoffs, technically, procedurally and socially.
>
> At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
> been deemed concluded [1].
>
> Thus remove the section -- it was not fully true already anyway, since
> there are already uses of Rust in production out there, some well-known
> Linux distributions enable it and it is already in millions of devices
> via Android.
>
> Obviously, this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
> configuration, architecture, toolchain etc., or that there won't be
> new issues. There is still a ton of work to do in all areas, from the
> kernel to upstream Rust, GCC and other projects. And, in fact, certain
> combinations (such as the mixed GCC+LLVM builds and the upcoming GCC
> support) are still quite experimental but getting there.
>
> But the experiment is done, i.e. Rust is here to stay.
>
> I hope this signals commitment from the kernel to companies and other
> entities to invest more into it, e.g. into giving time to their kernel
> developers to train themselves in Rust.
>
> Thanks to the many kernel maintainers that gave the project their
> support and patience throughout these years, and to the many other
> developers, whether in the kernel or in other projects, that have
> made this possible. I had a long list of 173 names in the credits of
> the original pull that merged the support into the kernel [2], and now
> such a list would be way longer, so I will not even try to compose one,
> but again, thanks a lot, everybody.

It's been a blast making the experiment a success! I remember the
beginning of my RfL journey very fondly. I did not expect the warm
welcome I received for my very naive issue that I created about mutex
initialization. I think it is your open-mindedness and kindness that
lead the experiment to the great success we have today. It would not
have been possible without you to assemble all of the experts we needed
to make this work. So thank you for that!

Now looking ahead, we have lots of more fun work to do in all sorts of
areas. I will continue with my work on the Rust side of things,
pin-init and reviewing.

> Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>

Acked-by: Benno Lossin <lossin@kernel.org>

Cheers,
Benno
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Greg KH 1 month, 3 weeks ago
On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 01:00:42AM +0100, Miguel Ojeda wrote:
> The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help
> determine whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel,
> i.e. worth the tradeoffs, technically, procedurally and socially.
> 
> At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
> been deemed concluded [1].
> 
> Thus remove the section -- it was not fully true already anyway, since
> there are already uses of Rust in production out there, some well-known
> Linux distributions enable it and it is already in millions of devices
> via Android.
> 
> Obviously, this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
> configuration, architecture, toolchain etc., or that there won't be
> new issues. There is still a ton of work to do in all areas, from the
> kernel to upstream Rust, GCC and other projects. And, in fact, certain
> combinations (such as the mixed GCC+LLVM builds and the upcoming GCC
> support) are still quite experimental but getting there.
> 
> But the experiment is done, i.e. Rust is here to stay.
> 
> I hope this signals commitment from the kernel to companies and other
> entities to invest more into it, e.g. into giving time to their kernel
> developers to train themselves in Rust.
> 
> Thanks to the many kernel maintainers that gave the project their
> support and patience throughout these years, and to the many other
> developers, whether in the kernel or in other projects, that have
> made this possible. I had a long list of 173 names in the credits of
> the original pull that merged the support into the kernel [2], and now
> such a list would be way longer, so I will not even try to compose one,
> but again, thanks a lot, everybody.
> 
> Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
> ---

Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Gary Guo 1 month, 3 weeks ago
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 01:00:42 +0100
Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org> wrote:

> The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help
> determine whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel,
> i.e. worth the tradeoffs, technically, procedurally and socially.
> 
> At the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, the experiment has just
> been deemed concluded [1].
> 
> Thus remove the section -- it was not fully true already anyway, since
> there are already uses of Rust in production out there, some well-known
> Linux distributions enable it and it is already in millions of devices
> via Android.
> 
> Obviously, this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
> configuration, architecture, toolchain etc., or that there won't be
> new issues. There is still a ton of work to do in all areas, from the
> kernel to upstream Rust, GCC and other projects. And, in fact, certain
> combinations (such as the mixed GCC+LLVM builds and the upcoming GCC
> support) are still quite experimental but getting there.

Indeed. This is not the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning
:)

> 
> But the experiment is done, i.e. Rust is here to stay.
> 
> I hope this signals commitment from the kernel to companies and other
> entities to invest more into it, e.g. into giving time to their kernel
> developers to train themselves in Rust.
> 
> Thanks to the many kernel maintainers that gave the project their
> support and patience throughout these years, and to the many other
> developers, whether in the kernel or in other projects, that have
> made this possible. I had a long list of 173 names in the credits of
> the original pull that merged the support into the kernel [2], and now
> such a list would be way longer, so I will not even try to compose one,
> but again, thanks a lot, everybody.

I would like to say a huge thank you tyo you, Miguel.

RfL won't be possible without your tireless effort in working with all
other maintainers, connecting with the Rust projects and all relevant
parties. Your leadership truly excels.

> 
> Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]

RE: your later reply, the non-subscriber link
https://lwn.net/Articles/1050174/ should be fine if you pick this up a week later.

> Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>

Probably not needed, but if you want a tag:

Reviewed-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net>

Best,
Gary

> ---
> I could update the first link to the full LWN article when published.
> 
>  Documentation/rust/index.rst | 18 ------------------
>  1 file changed, 18 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/rust/index.rst b/Documentation/rust/index.rst
> index ec62001c7d8c..e61524959dbc 100644
> --- a/Documentation/rust/index.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/rust/index.rst
> @@ -7,24 +7,6 @@ Documentation related to Rust within the kernel. To start using Rust
>  in the kernel, please read the quick-start.rst guide.
>  
>  
> -The Rust experiment
> --------------------
> -
> -The Rust support was merged in v6.1 into mainline in order to help in
> -determining whether Rust as a language was suitable for the kernel, i.e. worth
> -the tradeoffs.
> -
> -Currently, the Rust support is primarily intended for kernel developers and
> -maintainers interested in the Rust support, so that they can start working on
> -abstractions and drivers, as well as helping the development of infrastructure
> -and tools.
> -
> -If you are an end user, please note that there are currently no in-tree
> -drivers/modules suitable or intended for production use, and that the Rust
> -support is still in development/experimental, especially for certain kernel
> -configurations.
> -
> -
>  Code documentation
>  ------------------
>  
> 
> base-commit: cb015814f8b6eebcbb8e46e111d108892c5e6821
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Miguel Ojeda 1 month, 3 weeks ago
On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 1:01 AM Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049831/ [1]
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/linus/8aebac82933f [2]
> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
> ---
> I could update the first link to the full LWN article when published.

It was just published, so the tag will be:

Link: https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/1050174/6b6d55c90ce1100f/ [1]

(LWN is OK with it being a subscriber link -- thanks!)

Cheers,
Miguel
Re: [PATCH] rust: conclude the Rust experiment
Posted by Miguel Ojeda 1 month, 3 weeks ago
On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 1:01 AM Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> it is already in millions of devices
> via Android.

Thanks to Google for confirming this, by the way.

Cheers,
Miguel