Hector Martin (@marcan@treehouse.systems)
social.treehouse.systems
Behold, a Linux maintainer openly admitting to attempting to sabotage the entire Rust for Linux project: https://lwn.net/ml/all/20250131075751.GA16720@lst.de/ **Edit for the Reddit peanut gallery: The reason this is sabotaging the entire R4L project is that DMA abstractions are critical for 99% of drivers, and without them, the R4L project is dead in its tracks. Christoph is fundamentally opposed to the goals and technical plan behind R4L, and offers no viable technical alternatives. If his demands are met, the R4L project is effectively dead with no way out, and that is what he wants. This is the dictionary definition of sabotage.** The good news is this doesn't affect drm/asahi, our GPU driver. The bad news is it does affect all the *other* drivers we're (re)writing in Rust, two so far with a third one coming. Another choice quote, calling R4L "cancer": https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250128092334.GA28548@lst.de/ (**R4L is the "cross-language codebase" he mentions, it's the whole point of R4L, and what he calls cancer. He's clarifying Rust itself isn't cancer, R4L is. Which is just as bad.**) Personally, I would consider this grounds for removal of Christoph from the Linux project on Code of Conduct violation grounds, but sadly I doubt much will happen other than draining a lot of people's energy and will to continue the project until Linus says "fuck you" or something. As for how to move forward, if I were one of the Rust maintainers, I would just merge the patch (which does *not* touch code formally maintained by the dissenter). Either Linus takes the pull, and whatever Christoph says is irrelevant, or he doesn't, and R4L dies. Everything else is a waste of everyone's time and energy. Edit: Sent in my 2 cents: https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/2b9b75d1-eb8e-494a-b05f-59f75c92e6ae@marcan.st/T/#m1944b6d485070970e359bbc7baa71b04c86a30af

Behold, a Linux maintainer openly admitting to attempting to sabotage the entire Rust for Linux project:

https://lwn.net/ml/all/20250131075751.GA16720@lst.de/

The good news is this doesn’t affect drm/asahi, our GPU driver. The bad news is it does affect all the other drivers we’re (re)writing in Rust, two so far with a third one coming.

Another choice quote, calling R4L “cancer”: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250128092334.GA28548@lst.de/

Personally, I would consider this grounds for removal of Christoph from the Linux project on Code of Conduct violation grounds, but sadly I doubt much will happen other than draining a lot of people’s energy and will to continue the project until Linus says “fuck you” or something.

As for how to move forward, if I were one of the Rust maintainers, I would just merge the patch (which does not touch code formally maintained by the dissenter). Either Linus takes the pull, and whatever Christoph says is irrelevant, or he doesn’t, and R4L dies. Everything else is a waste of everyone’s time and energy.

Edit: Sent in my 2 cents: https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/2b9b75d1-eb8e-494a-b05f-59f75c92e6ae@marcan.st/T/#m1944b6d485070970e359bbc7baa71b04c86a30af

  • Viri4thus@feddit.org
    415·
    16 hours ago

    Ok, this is made to sound worse than it is. You guys really huff too much drama.

  • MNByChoice@midwest.social
    282·
    16 hours ago

    Phrasing.

    A Linux maintainer wants to keep quality high. Objects to adding complexity to codebase.

    Right or wrong, we want the maintainers focused on quality and maintainability.

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          61·
          13 hours ago

          Well this code would be maintained by developers who know rust, so it sounds like a good merge to me!

          • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            32·
            9 hours ago

            Does the rust code not depend on any C code?

            It’s not so simple to say “it’s separate” if there are still dependencies and if the rust code can be broken by C changes.

            I’m not defending either position.

  • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    173·
    16 hours ago

    Looks like Paolo served you a slice of humble pie there at the end.

    Please keep this kind of FUD elsewhere, thank you.

    • moomoomoo309@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      12 minutes ago

      Yeah…until Christoph replied and confirmed what Hector was saying was true and not FUD. He didn’t mince words, he said he did not want Rust in Linux whatsoever, only for new codebases, not existing ones like Linux.