On 1/29/24 14:17, Andreas Hindborg (Samsung) wrote:
Hi All,
I would like to propose a session on the Rust block device driver APIs.
I submitted the APIs along with a simple null block driver as an RFC last year
[1]. Since then I have kept the code in sync with latest mainline release [2],
cleaned up the code, and added a few features.
After talking to some of you at various meetups over the past year, I think we
have reached a point where we can potentially agree on merging initial Rust
block layer support, along with the null block driver. To that end, I plan to
send a few iterations of the patch set before LSF in May, so that we can use the
session to discuss any remaining details.
Since Kent has also proposed a dedicated Rust session, we might find some
synergy with this topic [3].
I also maintain an NVMe driver based on the Rust block APIs [4]. Due to
community feedback, I have no plans for upstreaming this driver at the moment.
However, it is a valuable tool for designing a sensible Rust block device API
that is suitable real hardware.
Part of the NVMe patches are abstractions for PCI. Other users (drm) have
expressed interest in these, so I plan to separate these in their own tree to
make them easier to pick up for those users.
As a last note, I have recently become aware of ongoing work on
implementing nbd in Rust. The work looks promising, and I hope the
author will decide to send the patches, when they are ready to be
shared.
And I had an intern converting nbd to rust, which I could present as a
proof-of-concept.
Or, rather, as a showcase how a (pretty basic) Rust driver would look
like. Idea is to have a side-by-side comparison and figure out if
a) writing driver in Rust would simplify the code
b) existing/requiring functionality can be matched
or, in short, if Rust lives up to its promises.
Cheers,
Hannes
--
Dr. Hannes Reinecke Kernel Storage Architect
hare@xxxxxxx +49 911 74053 688
SUSE Software Solutions GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg
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