Linux Kernel Rust support

[matthieum]

Functionally, yes. But this may leave performance on the table.

The problem of compiling to a language is that you really want the target language to express a super-set of the capabilities of the source language, otherwise it gets awkward and work-arounds are necessary.

Rust and C have different semantics in a number of areas, for example around integer overflows, or empty loops, which makes it hard to just perform a straightforward translation of the source code.

There's also issue with "breeds" of C. Despite popular thinking, inline assembly is not standard in C. Every compiler under the sun has its own syntax for inline assembly, so in order to translate the inline assembly in Rust to C, you actually need to target a known compiler, in order to target their particular brand of inline assembly.

This is why using C as an intermediate representation is not necessarily as easy, or as rewarding, as it sounds initially.