The FreeBSD Project is, for the second time this year, engaging in a long-running discussion about the possibility of including Rust in its base system. The sequel to the first discussion included some work by Alan Somers to show what it might look like to use Rust code in the base tree. Support for Rust code does not appear much closer to being included in FreeBSD’s base system, but the conversation has been enlightening.

But Rust is not allowed in the base system. Somers noted this fact with disappointment in a discussion about a commit to fusefs tests in January. Enji Cooper asked Somers why he had not used smart pointers in the change, to which Somers said “it’s because I’m not real great with C++”. He added that he had stopped trying to improve his C++ skills in 2016, and had focused on Rust instead:

Even when I wrote these tests in 2019, I strongly considered using Rust instead of C++. In the end, the only thing that forced me to use C++ is because I wanted them to live in the base system, rather than in ports.

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Reference:

  1. FreeBSD considers Rust in the base system