Hacker News with Generative AI: Kernel Development

Bounded Flexible Arrays in C (kernel.org)
Large projects written in C, especially those written close to the hardware layer like Linux, have long treated the language as a high-level assembler.
Fitting a Forth in 512 bytes (2021) (compilercrim.es)
Software is full of circular dependencies if you look deep enough. Compilers written in the language they compile are the most obvious example, but not the only one. To compile a kernel, you need a running kernel. Linkers, build systems, shells. Even text editors, if you want to write the code instead of just downloading it.
Rust in enterprise kernels (lwn.net)
At the recently concluded Maintainers Summit, it was generally agreed that the Rust experiment would continue, and that the path was clear for more Rust code to enter the kernel.
FFI type mismatches in Rust for Linux (lwn.net)
At Kangrejos, Gary Guo wanted to discuss three problems with the way Rust and C code in the kernel interact: mismatched types, too many type casts, and the overhead of helper functions.
Linus Torvalds is fed up with bcachefs (kernel.org)
Several more filesystems repaired, thank you to the users who have been providing testing. The snapshots + unlinked fixes on top of this are posted here:
What's new with io_uring in 6.11 and 6.12 (github.com/axboe)
What's new with io_uring in 6.11 and 6.12
Booting into Rust and deadlocking right away – a gnarly bug in my hobby kernel (jannestimm.com)
After adding the few lines of code to parse the fdt and obtain amount of cores and memory, I reran the kernel and observed my kmain function getting stuck right at the point of locking the global KMEM (line 22), the physical page allocator (which needs to know the amount of memory to initialize the datastructure that records all the free pages).
Linux 6.12 Features Super Real-Time, Sched_ext, Intel Xe2 and Pi 5 (phoronix.com)
The Linux 6.12 merge window is wrapping up today with the release of Linux 6.12-rc1 in the coming hours. This is going to be a heck of an exciting kernel. There's real-time PREEMPT_RT finally in mainline, the much anticipated sched_ext code also was merged, QR codes for DRM panic messages, initial out-of-the-box support for Intel Xe2 graphics with Lunar Lake and Battlemage, initial Raspberry Pi 5 support, and a ton of other hardware support additions and new innovative kernel software features.
CrowdStrike's Blue Screen blunder: Could eBPF have saved the day? (theregister.com)
"Interview The CrowdStrike chaos was caused by software running riot in the Windows kernel after an update tripped up the code. eBPF is a useful tool for kernel tracing and observability, but could it have mitigated the CrowdStrike incident?"
Committing to Rust in the Kernel (lwn.net)
The project to enable the writing of kernel code in Rust has been underway for several years, and each kernel release includes more Rust code.
Linux Close to Enabling Real-Time "Preempt_rt" Support (phoronix.com)
We're very close to the finish line for the mainline Linux kernel being able to enable real-time "PREEMPT_RT" kernel support.
Retiring from the Rust for Linux Project – Wedson Almeida Filho (kernel.org)
Offload-friendly network encryption in the kernel (lwn.net)
Create Unified Kernel Image from Scratch (izissise.net)
Fiwix: Unix-like kernel for the i386 architecture (github.com/mikaku)
Kernel developer write a USB driver in 3h for Apple Xserve front-panel [video] (youtube.com)
What Is RCU? – "Read, Copy, Update" (kernel.org)
Linux 6.10 Will Print the Number of Populated Memory Slots at Boot Time (phoronix.com)
Giving Rust a chance for in-kernel codecs (lwn.net)
Giving Rust a chance for in-kernel codecs (lwn.net)