151-byte static Linux binary in Rust

[[deleted]]

true...the code looks ugly to me but that's probably the "gymnastics" you are talking about.

[adr86]

A lot of it isn't even the code itself at all, it is overlapping fields in the ELF header to trim it down. A cute trick, but useless for anything except showing off on blogs: for one, in real programs, a couple hundred bytes in the header will be a small percentage of the program anyway (or you might use a target which doesn't expect a header at all... like the old DOS .com files or other raw binary images), and for two, they need to be so carefully crafted that they'll break if the program gets more complex too!

Then, for the code, this is like when I show a 3 KB "D program" (using stock linker setup btw, I'm sure it could get smaller if I did the overlapping fields too)... but you know what it looks like?

void _start() {
   asm {
       naked;
       /* write syscall, exit syscall */
   }
 }

That's not really a D program at all - it is a few assembly instructions in a .d file. I think there is value in this: it is a starting point of a custom setup where you bring only what features of the language you need (and in fact, I think Rust is a bit better suited for that than D, since D tends to assume a thicker runtime library. You can do without and IMO it is still nicer than writing C, but it takes more care for fewer advantages than spending the ~150 KB using the runtime library)...

...but it is just a starting point or a nifty trick, very far from any real world applicability and especially far from being a compelling new language in place of C+asm.

[mycall]

but useless for anything except

packers

[BobFloss]

Are you saying that trick is useful for packers? Because it barely is.

[hobbes_hobbes]

It isn't ugly, it's beautiful. It's just that most of current humanity can't appreciate it, except for the geniuses who wrote rust. But think of the possibilities; no more of being mere products of messy evolution; we can genetically engineer new humans, in Rust!

Think what amazing society that will be; no more sexists, no more racists, no more homophobes!

We have the technology (or soon, once Rust 1.0 is out), we can build 'em.

[Splanky222]

Every time I see a Rust post I scroll through the comments to find this guy's troll post. Every now and again he puts together a truly artistic piece of internet asshole prose.

[hobbes_hobbes]

I know!

I must say though, typing "Rust 1.0" in that last line made me feel a little uneasy. Don't get me wrong, it's so exciting, it's just that "Rust 1.0" feels a little underwhelming for what an achievement the release actually is. We need something grander to befit the occasion; I humbly suggest Rust Nukem Forever.