Developers behind the Git distributed revision control system are debating whether to make Rust programming language support mandatory.
Earlier this year with Git 2.49 was a Rust foreign function interface introduced while a patch series floated earlier this month is debating the merits of requiring Rust support as part of building Git. So far the Rust support for Git is optional but could change in the future. Notable though is that this would restrict the architectures and platforms where Git could be deployed compared to the current C code.
Patrick Steinhardt started the request for comments (RFC) on the Git mailing list:
“This small patch series introduces Rust into the core of Git. This patch series is designed as a test balloon, similar to how we introduced test balloons for C99 features in the past. The goal is threefold:
– Give us some time to experiment with Rust and introduce proper build infrastructure.
– Give distributors time to ease into the new toolchain requirements. Introducing Rust is impossible for some platforms and hard for others.
– Announce that Git 3.0 will make Rust a mandatory part of our build infrastructure.”
Git 3.0 is also the milestone where SHA-256 will be used by default.
The discussion over Rust in the Git codebase remains ongoing and will be interesting to see what they ultimately decide. Those wanting to track the discussion can do so via the Git mailing list.
