From: "brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste•net>
To: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr•com>
Cc: Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail•com>,
git@vger•kernel.org, Elijah Newren <newren@gmail•com>,
Ezekiel Newren <ezekielnewren@gmail•com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/7] RFC: Accelerate xdiff and begin its rustification
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:29:16 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <aHmVXDOiKzfKU8nb@fruit.crustytoothpaste.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <aHl4U98BBvpA5eKF@nand.local>
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On 2025-07-17 at 22:25:23, Taylor Blau wrote:
> I agree. I don't think that there is ever going to be a "perfect" time
> to introduce a hard dependency on Rust, and I don't think that should
> hold the project back from adopting it.
>
> I am far from a Rust expert, but I think that a more modern, memory-safe
> language will attract newer contributors who may have a fresher
> perspective on the project, and I think that's a good thing.
Yes, I think that's true. Rust is by far the most admired programming
language to work with, according to the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer
Survey. We will likely attract new contributors who find C intimidating
or a bit of a hassle[0] but are excited about working on Rust,
especially in a project as compelling as Git[1].
> The alternative, of course, is to continue to use C and not take any
> dependency on Rust. I think there is a middle-ground in there somewhere
> to be able to build with (e.g.) "make" or "make RUST=1", but I would
> really like to see the project take a firmer stance here.
>
> I worry that having build support for both "with Rust" and "C only" will
> create a headache not just at the build system level, but also in the
> code itself. Having a patchwork of features, optimizations, or bug fixes
> that either are or aren't supported depending on whether Rust support
> was specified at build-time seems like a worst-of-all-worlds outcome.
I definitely agree. I already find it terribly inconvenient when I end
up when `git grep` doesn't support `-P` and I imagine that having lots
of features that weren't available would be bothersome.
I also think that using a combination of C and Rust will end up with us
still writing a lot of unsafe Rust code to interoperate with C. If we
want to reap the benefits in terms of memory and thread safety[2], we'll
be better off sticking with just Rust.
I will also say that while it may be more challenging to compile Git at
first on Windows, as we move more towards an all-Rust codebase, Git may
end up being easier to maintain there as we depend more on the standard
library.
> Agreed. Of course, I think we would all like Git to be able to build and
> run on as many platforms as is reasonably possible. But we cannot
> support all platforms for all time. It is also not the Git project's
> responsibility to ensure that every platform is Rust-friendly.
>
> Hopefully the platforms that we currently support but won't after this
> patch series have niche enough workloads that they do not need the
> absolute latest-and-greatest Git release at all times.
I will also point out that many OS and CPU architectures are actually
supported in Rust upstream. `rustc --print target-list` includes things
like the following:
* m68k-unknown-linux-gnu (Amiga and other 68000 processors on Linux)
* wasm32-unknown-unknown (Git in your browser?)
* armv7a-nuttx-eabi (ARM processors running the embedded NuttX OS)
* x86_64-pc-cygwin (Cygwin[3])
* sparc64-unknown-openbsd (OpenBSD on UltraSPARC)
All Debian release architectures are supported, for instance, as well as
several non-release architectures. The only Debian architectures that I
don't believe are supported are alpha, hppa, ia64, sh4, and x32 (which
is an amd64 variant that can run amd64 code just fine).
> Yeah, I think that this is the most interesting part of the discussion
> here. I am not knowledgeable enough about Rust's release cadence and
> platform compatibility to have an opinion here. But I trust brian's
> judgement ;-).
I'll see what Ezekiel thinks about this and I can send out a patch for
review if that's desired.
[0] I've been writing C for three-quarters of my life and I still find
debugging segfaults and other memory problems to be annoying and
tiresome, so I'm very interested in getting out of that business while
working on Git. While the limiting factor for my contributions to Git
is often time, I would feel more excited about working on Git in Rust
than in C and I'm confident I'd write better quality code and more unit
tests as well (which benefits us and our users as well).
[1] I definitely think there's a cool factor to working on Git.
[2] Having more thread-safe code might allow us to more easily add
threading to other parts of Git that would benefit from it and thus
improve performance in many cases.
[3] This was missing for a long time, but it's finally here now, which
is also good news for Git for Windows.
--
brian m. carlson (they/them)
Toronto, Ontario, CA
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-07-18 0:29 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 206+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-07-17 20:32 [PATCH 0/7] RFC: Accelerate xdiff and begin its rustification Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 20:32 ` [PATCH 1/7] xdiff: introduce rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 21:30 ` brian m. carlson
2025-07-17 21:54 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-17 22:39 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-18 23:15 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-07-23 21:57 ` brian m. carlson
2025-07-23 22:26 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-28 19:11 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-07-31 22:37 ` brian m. carlson
2025-07-22 22:02 ` Mike Hommey
2025-07-22 23:52 ` brian m. carlson
2025-07-17 22:38 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-17 20:32 ` [PATCH 2/7] xdiff/xprepare: remove superfluous forward declarations Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 22:41 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-17 20:32 ` [PATCH 3/7] xdiff: delete unnecessary fields from xrecord_t and xdfile_t Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 20:32 ` [PATCH 4/7] xdiff: make fields of xrecord_t Rust friendly Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 22:46 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-17 23:13 ` brian m. carlson
2025-07-17 23:37 ` Elijah Newren
2025-07-18 0:23 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-18 0:21 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-18 13:35 ` Phillip Wood
2025-07-28 19:34 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-07-28 19:52 ` Phillip Wood
2025-07-28 20:14 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-07-31 14:20 ` Phillip Wood
2025-07-31 20:58 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-01 9:14 ` Phillip Wood
2025-07-28 20:53 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-28 20:00 ` Collin Funk
2025-07-20 1:39 ` Johannes Schindelin
2025-07-17 20:32 ` [PATCH 5/7] xdiff: separate parsing lines from hashing them Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 22:59 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-18 13:34 ` Phillip Wood
2025-07-17 20:32 ` [PATCH 6/7] xdiff: conditionally use Rust's implementation of xxhash Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 23:29 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-18 19:00 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-31 21:13 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-02 7:53 ` Matthias Aßhauer
2025-07-19 21:53 ` Johannes Schindelin
2025-07-20 10:14 ` Phillip Wood
2025-09-23 9:57 ` gitoxide-compatible licensing of Git's Rust code, was " Johannes Schindelin
2025-09-23 17:48 ` Jeff King
2025-09-24 13:48 ` Phillip Wood
2025-09-25 2:25 ` Jeff King
2025-09-25 5:42 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-26 10:06 ` Phillip Wood
2025-10-03 3:18 ` Jeff King
2025-10-03 9:51 ` Phillip Wood
2025-10-07 9:11 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-11-17 13:37 ` Johannes Schindelin
2025-10-05 5:32 ` Yee Cheng Chin
2025-07-17 20:32 ` [PATCH 7/7] github_workflows: install rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-07-17 21:23 ` brian m. carlson
2025-07-18 23:01 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-07-25 23:56 ` Ben Knoble
2025-07-19 21:54 ` Johannes Schindelin
2025-07-17 21:51 ` [PATCH 0/7] RFC: Accelerate xdiff and begin its rustification brian m. carlson
2025-07-17 22:25 ` Taylor Blau
2025-07-18 0:29 ` brian m. carlson [this message]
2025-07-22 12:21 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-07-22 15:56 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-22 16:03 ` Sam James
2025-07-22 21:37 ` Elijah Newren
2025-07-22 21:55 ` Sam James
2025-07-22 22:08 ` Collin Funk
2025-07-18 9:23 ` Christian Brabandt
2025-07-18 16:26 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-19 0:32 ` Elijah Newren
2025-07-18 13:34 ` Phillip Wood
2025-07-18 21:25 ` Eli Schwartz
2025-07-19 0:48 ` Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier
2025-07-22 12:21 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-07-22 14:24 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-07-22 15:14 ` Eli Schwartz
2025-07-22 15:56 ` Sam James
2025-07-23 4:32 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-07-24 9:01 ` Pierre-Emmanuel Patry
2025-07-24 10:00 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-07-28 9:06 ` Pierre-Emmanuel Patry
2025-07-18 14:38 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-18 21:56 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-07-21 10:14 ` Phillip Wood
2025-07-21 18:33 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-07-19 21:53 ` Johannes Schindelin
2025-07-20 8:45 ` Matthias Aßhauer
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 00/17] " Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 01/17] doc: add a policy for using Rust brian m. carlson via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 17:03 ` Matthias Aßhauer
2025-08-15 21:31 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-16 8:06 ` Matthias Aßhauer
2025-08-19 2:06 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 02/17] xdiff: introduce rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 03/17] xdiff/xprepare: remove superfluous forward declarations Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 04/17] xdiff: delete unnecessary fields from xrecord_t and xdfile_t Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 05/17] xdiff: make fields of xrecord_t Rust friendly Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 06/17] xdiff: separate parsing lines from hashing them Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 07/17] xdiff: conditionally use Rust's implementation of xxhash Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 08/17] github workflows: install rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 09/17] Do support Windows again after requiring Rust Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 17:12 ` Matthias Aßhauer
2025-08-15 21:48 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-15 22:11 ` Johannes Schindelin
2025-08-15 23:37 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-15 23:37 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-16 8:53 ` Matthias Aßhauer
2025-08-17 15:57 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-19 2:22 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 10/17] win+Meson: allow for xdiff to be compiled with MSVC Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 11/17] win+Meson: do allow linking with the Rust-built xdiff Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 12/17] github workflows: define rust versions and targets in the same place Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 13/17] github workflows: upload Cargo.lock Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 14/17] xdiff: implement a white space iterator in Rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 15/17] xdiff: create line_hash() and line_equal() Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 16/17] xdiff: optimize case where --ignore-cr-at-eol is the only whitespace flag Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 1:22 ` [PATCH v2 17/17] xdiff: use rust's version of whitespace processing Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-15 15:07 ` [-SPAM-] [PATCH v2 00/17] RFC: Accelerate xdiff and begin its rustification Ramsay Jones
2025-08-19 2:00 ` Elijah Newren
2025-08-24 16:52 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-08-18 22:31 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-18 23:52 ` Ben Knoble
2025-08-19 1:52 ` Elijah Newren
2025-08-19 9:47 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 00/15] RFC: Cleanup " Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 01/15] doc: add a policy for using Rust brian m. carlson via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 02/15] xdiff: introduce rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 13:43 ` rsbecker
2025-08-23 14:26 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2025-08-23 15:06 ` rsbecker
2025-08-23 18:30 ` Elijah Newren
2025-08-23 19:24 ` brian m. carlson
2025-08-23 20:04 ` rsbecker
2025-08-23 20:36 ` Sam James
2025-08-23 21:17 ` Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier
2025-08-27 1:57 ` Taylor Blau
2025-08-27 14:39 ` rsbecker
2025-08-27 17:06 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-27 17:15 ` rsbecker
2025-08-27 20:12 ` Taylor Blau
2025-08-27 20:22 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-09-02 11:16 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-02 11:30 ` Sam James
2025-09-02 17:27 ` brian m. carlson
2025-09-02 18:47 ` Sam James
2025-09-03 18:22 ` Collin Funk
2025-09-03 5:40 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-03 16:22 ` Ramsay Jones
2025-09-03 22:10 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-09-03 22:48 ` Josh Steadmon
2025-09-04 11:10 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-04 15:45 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-09-05 8:23 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-04 0:57 ` brian m. carlson
2025-09-04 11:39 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-04 13:53 ` Sam James
2025-09-05 3:55 ` Elijah Newren
2025-09-04 23:17 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-09-05 3:54 ` Elijah Newren
2025-09-05 6:50 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-07 4:10 ` Elijah Newren
2025-09-07 16:09 ` rsbecker
2025-09-08 10:12 ` Phillip Wood
2025-09-08 15:32 ` rsbecker
2025-09-08 15:10 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-09-08 15:41 ` rsbecker
2025-09-08 15:31 ` Elijah Newren
2025-09-08 15:36 ` rsbecker
2025-09-08 16:13 ` Elijah Newren
2025-09-08 17:01 ` rsbecker
2025-09-08 6:40 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-05 10:31 ` Phillip Wood
2025-09-05 11:32 ` Sam James
2025-09-05 13:14 ` Phillip Wood
2025-09-05 13:23 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-09-05 15:37 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-09-08 6:40 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2025-08-23 14:29 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 03/15] github workflows: install rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 04/15] win+Meson: do allow linking with the Rust-built xdiff Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 05/15] github workflows: upload Cargo.lock Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 06/15] ivec: create a vector type that is interoperable between C and Rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 8:12 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2025-08-23 9:29 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-23 16:14 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-23 16:37 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-23 18:05 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-23 20:29 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-25 19:16 ` Elijah Newren
2025-08-26 5:40 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-08-24 13:31 ` Ben Knoble
2025-08-25 20:40 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-26 13:30 ` D. Ben Knoble
2025-08-26 18:47 ` Ezekiel Newren
2025-08-26 22:01 ` brian m. carlson
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 07/15] xdiff/xprepare: remove superfluous forward declarations Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 08/15] xdiff: delete unnecessary fields from xrecord_t and xdfile_t Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 09/15] xdiff: make fields of xrecord_t Rust friendly Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 10/15] xdiff: use one definition for freeing xdfile_t Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 11/15] xdiff: replace chastore with an ivec in xdfile_t Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 12/15] xdiff: delete nrec field from xdfile_t Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 13/15] xdiff: delete recs " Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 14/15] xdiff: make xdfile_t more rust friendly Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
2025-08-23 3:55 ` [PATCH v3 15/15] xdiff: implement xdl_trim_ends() in Rust Ezekiel Newren via GitGitGadget
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2025-07-25 23:53 [PATCH 0/7] RFC: Accelerate xdiff and begin its rustification Ben Knoble
2025-07-25 23:53 Ben Knoble
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