Linus Torvalds Clearly Lays Out Linux Maintainer Roles Around Rust Code

lore.kernel.org

50 points·mustache_kimono··4 comments

I do not envy Linus position, but he had too much trust on others to see things in a constructive way. The tenet of his argument is that you can't at the same time say that you do not care about something, and then turn around and dictate how that something is done. Have your cake and eat it too seems to be the analogy here.

It was pretty clear and something that was repeated ad nauseam that Rust side can be broken with C patches, that Rust devs will deal with it. C developers do not have to worry about how their changes affect the Rust side of things. That for Linus is sufficient to create a separation of concerns between C developers that do not want to touch Rust and those that do.

I guess this is the response that some expected from Linus alongside his criticism of Hector Martin's brigading.

Hector Martin was a bit dramatic, but the mistreatment of the R4L team can't be denied. This isn't even the same email thread where Christoff outright rejected the patch. This is from a second email thread where Miguel Ojeda published a draft policy for Rust code in the kernel. Christoff was the first one to respond here too, with a somewhat hostile take. Torvalds allowed multiple mails from both of them before deciding to respond. It can't be considered as reactionary or a balancing act.

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43123104

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