Rust in the Linux kernel (Google security blog)

Posted Apr 16, 2021 15:32 UTC (Fri) by cesarb (subscriber, #6266)
In reply to: Rust in the Linux kernel (Google security blog) by mpr22
Parent article: Rust in the Linux kernel (Google security blog)

> "If it's so simple, why haven't you done it already?"

They have. Quoting the LKML FAQ: "[...] the kernel was once modified to be compiled under g++. That lasted for a few revisions. People complained about the performance drop. [...]"

Rust in the Linux kernel (Google security blog)

Posted Apr 17, 2021 12:46 UTC (Sat) by mss (subscriber, #138799) [Link]

> the kernel was once modified to be compiled under g++. That lasted for a few revisions. People complained about the performance drop

It is worth noting that this happened back in 90s.
C++ compilers and C++ language itself today and back then are very different animals.

Also, it is not necessary to compile all of the existing C code files with C++ compiler in order to make use of C++.
It is enough to just import / export API between them via extern "C".