Linus Torvalds would override maintainer veto on Rust kernel code
The founder of the Linux kernel wants to bypass maintainers of the Linux kernel code who are reluctant to support Rust in their subsystem.
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Linus Torvalds would accept code for programming the kernel in Rust, even if the maintainer of the relevant part of Linux blocked its inclusion. However, the founder and lead developer of the kernel known as Linux has not publicly announced this – and has not commented on Christoph Hellwig's blocking stance on Rust DMA kernel interfaces, which has been causing a great deal of fuss and controversy in the Linux scene for the past two weeks.
Clarification of the stance in private
Hellwig himself, however, recently mentioned a private exchange with Torvalds in passing. In it, the latter clarified that he would definitely accept Rust code in case of doubt if a subsystem maintainer opposed the integration (“[…] Linus in private said that he absolutely is going to merge Rust code over a maintainers objection”).
As indicated in our first report, such an approach had been expected – However, similar to disputes in companies, this sometimes happens in smaller rounds or one-to-one discussions with the boss. However, nothing has actually happened yet – so it remains to be seen whether Torvalds will directly accept the Rust DMA code after further review and fine-tuning in the coming months or whether Hellwig will wave it through himself after all.
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New discussion about Rust and other approaches
Hellwig also makes it clear in his email that he thinks it would be good to bring the kernel into the world of secure programming languages. At the same time, however, he also reiterates his fear of an uncontrollable, multilingual code base. This has led to a discussion where the pros and cons of Rust and other programming language approaches to improving security are currently being debated again.
(olb)
