diff options
| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-09-05 11:59:05 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-09-05 11:59:05 -0700 |
| commit | 9f0346dcbea363787186c94ef94dd01aaa215afa (patch) | |
| tree | b81c168f4d0dbe4c7f4750f4598d48a6deb72094 /Documentation/process/programming-language.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-9f0346dcbea363787186c94ef94dd01aaa215afa.tar.gz linux-stable-9f0346dcbea363787186c94ef94dd01aaa215afa.zip | |
Merge tag 'driver-core-7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/driver-core/driver-coregrafted
Pull driver core fixes from Danilo Krummrich:
- Fix kernfs listxattr() not returning security xattr names (e.g.
SELinux labels) when the kernfs node has no allocated kernfs_iattrs
- Fix silent truncation of IRQ vector indices in the Rust PCI
abstractions
- Don't select OF from DRIVER_PE_KUNIT_TEST; skip the test when OF is
disabled instead of silently enabling extra kernel functionality
- Russ Weight is retiring from kernel development; update the Firmware
Loader sysfs contact to the driver-core mailing list, add a CREDITS
entry for Firmware Upload, and update MAINTAINERS accordingly
* tag 'driver-core-7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/driver-core/driver-core:
MAINTAINERS: Remove Russ Weight from Firmware Loader
CREDITS: Add CREDITS entry for Firmware Upload
firmware_loader: Change contact for sysfs nodes
rust: pci: reject IRQ vector indices that do not fit in u32
kernfs: preserve security xattrs without allocating iattrs
drivers: base: test: DRIVER_PE_KUNIT_TEST should not select OF
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/process/programming-language.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/process/programming-language.rst | 58 |
1 files changed, 58 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c18e307cc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +.. _programming_language: + +Programming Language +==================== + +The Linux kernel is written in the C programming language [c-language]_. +More precisely, it is typically compiled with ``gcc`` [gcc]_ +under ``-std=gnu11`` [gcc-c-dialect-options]_: the GNU dialect of ISO C11. +``clang`` [clang]_ is also supported; see documentation on +:ref:`Building Linux with Clang/LLVM <kbuild_llvm>`. + +This dialect contains many extensions to the language [gnu-extensions]_, +and many of them are used within the kernel as a matter of course. + +Attributes +---------- + +One of the common extensions used throughout the kernel are attributes +[gcc-attribute-syntax]_. Attributes allow to introduce +implementation-defined semantics to language entities (like variables, +functions or types) without having to make significant syntactic changes +to the language (e.g. adding a new keyword) [n2049]_. + +In some cases, attributes are optional (i.e. a compiler not supporting them +should still produce proper code, even if it is slower or does not perform +as many compile-time checks/diagnostics). + +The kernel defines pseudo-keywords (e.g. ``__pure``) instead of using +directly the GNU attribute syntax (e.g. ``__attribute__((__pure__))``) +in order to feature detect which ones can be used and/or to shorten the code. + +Please refer to ``include/linux/compiler_attributes.h`` for more information. + +Rust +---- + +The kernel has support for the Rust programming language +[rust-language]_ under ``CONFIG_RUST``. It is compiled with ``rustc`` [rustc]_ +under ``--edition=2021`` [rust-editions]_. Editions are a way to introduce +small changes to the language that are not backwards compatible. + +On top of that, some unstable features [rust-unstable-features]_ are used in +the kernel. Unstable features may change in the future, thus it is an important +goal to reach a point where only stable features are used. + +Please refer to Documentation/rust/index.rst for more information. + +.. [c-language] http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/standards +.. [gcc] https://gcc.gnu.org +.. [clang] https://clang.llvm.org +.. [gcc-c-dialect-options] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-Dialect-Options.html +.. [gnu-extensions] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-Extensions.html +.. [gcc-attribute-syntax] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html +.. [n2049] http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2049.pdf +.. [rust-language] https://www.rust-lang.org +.. [rustc] https://doc.rust-lang.org/rustc/ +.. [rust-editions] https://doc.rust-lang.org/edition-guide/editions/ +.. [rust-unstable-features] https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/linux/issues/2 |
