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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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146

Canonical is Funding a PhD to Automate C to Rust Translation for Ubuntu (itsfoss.com)

submitted 2 days ago by SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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As part of the collaboration between Canonical and the University of Bristol, the project will target AppArmor and snap-confine as industrial case studies. Both are critical to Ubuntu’s security posture, and provide a substantially harder test than isolated translation examples. They will help us evaluate whether the techniques can cope with the structure and constraints of mature production software.

Note that this is not a commitment to replace AppArmor or snap-confine with what is generated, rather that we have a vested interest in the software and are keen to see the results.

The most optimistic outcome would be a system capable of translating substantial C repositories into Rust with strong evidence of behavioural equivalence and relatively little manual intervention. The research could also produce better methods for decomposing repositories, stronger validation techniques, reusable translation datasets, improved program-repair tools and a more precise understanding of where automated migration stops being reliable.

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[–] NonWonderDog@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

But functioning C code is as good as functioning Rust code right?

Practically yes, but also no. The C pointer aliasing rules limit the optimizations the compiler can apply, since any int * might point to any int in scope. It’s even worse than that in the Linux kernel: since it has to be compiled with -fno-strict-aliasing, the compiler has to assume that any pointer can alias any variable in scope.

In contrast, Rust simply disallows aliases to mutable variables and the compiler prevents them in safe code (you can write them in unsafe code but it’s instantly undefined behavior, which is why unsafe Rust is harder to write than C). Every variable that can change has one and only one name. This can sometimes allow the Rust compiler to optimize in ways that wouldn’t be possible in C.

But in practice the impact of this is pretty close to nil as long as you write smallish functions.