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authorMiguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>2021-07-03 17:02:21 +0200
committerMiguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>2022-09-28 08:57:01 +0200
commit057b8d2571071da05d06810ca70f26c6316f6ea7 (patch)
tree646cd717212e215a82d5ad1bb8c574962f4f8d9b /rust/alloc/README.md
parent753dece88d70a23b015e01674a662e683235c08f (diff)
rust: adapt `alloc` crate to the kernel
This customizes the subset of the Rust standard library `alloc` that was just imported as-is, mainly by: - Adding SPDX license identifiers. - Skipping modules (e.g. `rc` and `sync`) via new `cfg`s. - Adding fallible (`try_*`) versions of existing infallible methods (i.e. returning a `Result` instead of panicking). Since the standard library requires stable/unstable attributes, these additions are annotated with: #[stable(feature = "kernel", since = "1.0.0")] Using "kernel" as the feature allows to have the additions clearly marked. The "1.0.0" version is just a placeholder. (At the moment, only one is needed, but in the future more fallible methods will be added). Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> Co-developed-by: Alex Gaynor <alex.gaynor@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Alex Gaynor <alex.gaynor@gmail.com> Co-developed-by: Wedson Almeida Filho <wedsonaf@google.com> Signed-off-by: Wedson Almeida Filho <wedsonaf@google.com> Co-developed-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net> Signed-off-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net> Co-developed-by: Matthew Bakhtiari <dev@mtbk.me> Signed-off-by: Matthew Bakhtiari <dev@mtbk.me> Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
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+# `alloc`
+
+These source files come from the Rust standard library, hosted in
+the <https://github.com/rust-lang/rust> repository, licensed under
+"Apache-2.0 OR MIT" and adapted for kernel use. For copyright details,
+see <https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/COPYRIGHT>.
+
+Please note that these files should be kept as close as possible to
+upstream. In general, only additions should be performed (e.g. new
+methods). Eventually, changes should make it into upstream so that,
+at some point, this fork can be dropped from the kernel tree.
+
+
+## Rationale
+
+On one hand, kernel folks wanted to keep `alloc` in-tree to have more
+freedom in both workflow and actual features if actually needed
+(e.g. receiver types if we ended up using them), which is reasonable.
+
+On the other hand, Rust folks wanted to keep `alloc` as close as
+upstream as possible and avoid as much divergence as possible, which
+is also reasonable.
+
+We agreed on a middle-ground: we would keep a subset of `alloc`
+in-tree that would be as small and as close as possible to upstream.
+Then, upstream can start adding the functions that we add to `alloc`
+etc., until we reach a point where the kernel already knows exactly
+what it needs in `alloc` and all the new methods are merged into
+upstream, so that we can drop `alloc` from the kernel tree and go back
+to using the upstream one.
+
+By doing this, the kernel can go a bit faster now, and Rust can
+slowly incorporate and discuss the changes as needed.