netdev - Re: Seeking guidance on Rust porting for network driver as a learning project

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Message-ID: <20250815101155.0c777734@kernel.org>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2025 10:11:55 -0700
From: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>
To: Guilherme Novaes Lima <acc.guilhermenl@...il.com>
Cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Seeking guidance on Rust porting for network driver as a
 learning project

On Fri, 15 Aug 2025 12:05:14 -0300 Guilherme Novaes Lima wrote:
> I’m a computer science student working on a graduation project
> focused on learning more about the Linux kernel and Rust. I
> understand that the kernel maintainers have been cautious about
> integrating Rust, and my intention is not to push for any immediate
> changes, but rather to explore Rust porting as a learning exercise.
> 
> Specifically, I’m interested in working with a network driver to get
> hands-on experience. My goal is to comply fully with the community’s
> expectations and guidelines, and to better understand the technical
> and cultural aspects before considering any real contributions in the
> future.
> 
> If there are any maintainers or experienced folks willing to offer
> guidance or suggest a suitable driver for this kind of project, I’d
> be very grateful. I’m not asking anyone to do the work, just hoping
> to learn and engage respectfully with the community.

You are specifically asking about in-kernel network driver code,
which, well, perhaps this is too blunt but personally feels like
a significant waste of community/reviewer time.

If you're open to kernel-related but user space coding - a port of YNL
to Rust would be most useful:
https://docs.kernel.org/next/userspace-api/netlink/intro-specs.html#ynl-lib
We have sort-of-a-port from C to C++ here:
https://github.com/linux-netdev/ynl-cpp
But nobody to my knowledge attempted a Rust version.