Linus Torvalds: Rust For Linux may be merged into the Linux 5.20 kernel

At the LINUX Foundation-Open Source Summit just held, Linus Torvalds said when talking about the topic "The possibility of Rust in the LINUX kernel": It is expected that the Rust foundation will be merged in the kernel soon (maybe even in the next version of Linux 5.20). facility.

Although no Rust requests for Linux have been sent in or merged yet, we have seen initial support for Rust in the Linux kernel in terms of basic implementations, such as some basic example drivers and so on.

The progress of Rust for Linux has always been the focus of developers.

I still remember the 30th anniversary of Linux last year, when Linus Torvalds responded to the question of "An Interview With Linus Torvalds: Linux and Git - Part 1" in an email from Jeremy Andrews, founding partner and CEO of Tag 1 Consulting. We're not going to use Rust instead of C to develop the kernel".

Of course, Linus Torvalds also stated at the time that Rust may be used to develop some drivers (perhaps the whole driver subsystem, maybe the filesystem), so Rust is not "replacing the C language", but "in some meaningful places C code to extend the Linux kernel".

Until December last year, Miguel Ojeda, the main developer of the Linux kernel/Rust on Linux, submitted a new patch (v2) to the Linux Kernel mailing list, pointing out that support for Rust as a second language would be added to the Linux kernel.

Last month saw the official release of the latest Rust Linux kernel patches, which make more functionality finally possible. As mentioned many times before, this Rust support in the Linux kernel is still optional when the kernel is built, depending on whether the user wants to implement support only in Rust code or any kernel functionality.

It is reported that there are quite a few very exciting performance optimizations in the Linux 5.20 kernel, in addition to new hardware support such as more AMD support work, RDNA3 is also expected to remain in good shape in this kernel version, and may also see the MGLRU mainline and other new highlights.

According to reports, the Linux 5.20 merge window will open around the end of July after the Linux 5.19 stable release, when you will see if the Rust PR has been submitted and will be used for the next kernel release.

Linus Torvalds said last year that he would take a wait-and-see attitude, considering the complexities behind Rust's advantages, and want to see if these advantages really work. But now that the Linux kernel seems to have added Rust as a second language, and Linus Torvalds has also revealed that Rust For Linux is about to be merged into the Linux 5.20 kernel, it seems that things have changed a bit.

Let's look forward to the arrival of the Linux 5.20 kernel version at the end of July. Developers and users who have been following Rust for Linux before can also go to the GitHub repository to check for updates at any time.

Reference link: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Rust-For-Linux-5.20-Possible