Rust: Compiling the alloc crate - Status Report 4
Developer reports progress on compiling Rust's alloc crate with GCCRS, completing the testsuite and identifying missing language items.
Enes Cevik provides the fourth status report on compiling Rust’s alloc crate using GCC’s Rust compiler (GCCRS). Progress includes completing the alloc testsuite, enabling compilation up to name resolution with a mock core module, and identifying four missing language items: ‘range_inclusive_new’, ‘pin’, ‘unpin’, and ‘unsafe_cell’. The immediate priority is to fully implement these, while also working to compile the mock core module as an external library.
In Details
GCCRS is an ongoing effort to implement a Rust frontend for GCC. This report details progress specifically on compiling the alloc crate, a foundational part of Rust's standard library. The challenge involves implementing numerous Rust language features (lang items, intrinsics) within GCC's infrastructure and handling complex trait bound interactions, especially when aiming to compile code independently. The use of a mock 'core' module illustrates the dependency chain for standard library components.
- GCCRS
- The Rust frontend for the GNU Compiler Collection.
- alloc crate
- A core crate in the Rust standard library that provides memory allocation primitives and data structures.
- lang item
- A special item in Rust that is recognized by the compiler and can be implemented by different crates. These are fundamental to Rust's language features.
- intrinsics
- Special functions or operations that are directly supported by the compiler, often mapping to specific machine instructions.
- nameresolution
- The compiler phase where identifiers (like variables and functions) are associated with their declarations.