Re: Hard Rust requirements from May onward

[Julian Andres Klode <jak@debian.org>]

On Fri, Oct 31, 2025 at 05:16:23PM -0400, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 31, 2025 at 4:49 PM Julian Andres Klode <jak@debian.org> wrote:
> >
> > I plan to introduce hard Rust dependencies and Rust code into
> > APT, no earlier than May 2026. This extends at first to the
> > Rust compiler and standard library, and the Sequoia ecosystem.
> >
> > In particular, our code to parse .deb, .ar, .tar, and the
> > HTTP signature verification code would strongly benefit
> > from memory safe languages and a stronger approach to
> > unit testing.
> >
> > If you maintain a port without a working Rust toolchain,
> > please ensure it has one within the next 6 months, or
> > sunset the port.
> >
> > It's important for the project as whole to be able to
> > move forward and rely on modern tools and technologies
> > and not be held back by trying to shoehorn modern software
> > on retro computing devices.
> 
> Be careful.  Rust does not support some platforms well.[0]  ANything
> that is not Tier 1 is not guaranteed to actually work.  And
> architectures like m68k and powerpc are Tier 3.
> 
> [0] <https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/rustc/platform-support.html>.

Thank you for your message.

Rust is already a hard requirement on all Debian release
architectures and ports except for alpha, hppa, m68k, and
sh4 (which do not provide sqv).

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