The Rust programming language, renowned for its focus on memory safety and performance, continues to evolve on multiple fronts. In a recent project goals update, the Rust core team outlined important advancements in two major areas: improving the async programming experience and stabilizing tooling for Linux kernel development.
Smoother Async Experience Ahead
One of Rust’s flagship goals for 2025 is to reduce the friction in asynchronous programming and make it feel closer to the synchronous model. Key developments include:
- Enhanced support for async functions in traits, aiming to eliminate the need for third-party crates like
async-trait. - Progress on both sync and async generators, enabling easier creation of iterators and asynchronous data streams.
- Improved ergonomics around
Pin, making lower-level async code more accessible and safer to write.
Together, these efforts are laying the groundwork for a new generation of async libraries, unblocking development that had been stalled due to unstable language features.
Rust for Linux Kernel Gets Closer to Production
Following the introduction of experimental Rust support in the Linux kernel, the Rust team is working to stabilize critical compiler flags and tooling for a more seamless developer experience. The current roadmap includes:
- Implementing ABI-modifying compiler flags, such as
retpolineandharden-sls, to meet the security demands of kernel development. - Steps toward stabilizing
build-std, allowing rebuilds of thecorecrate with custom compiler options. - Extending
rustdoc,clippy, and the Rust compiler to better integrate with external build systems, such as the Linux kernel’s native build tools.
Additionally, the asm_goto syntax has been stabilized, which is vital for certain low-level kernel routines. Some ongoing discussions include better support for arbitrary self types, particularly in conjunction with Pin.
Rust at Ten: A Growing Ecosystem
This month marks the 10-year anniversary of Rust 1.0, first released in May 2015. From just six subteams and two dozen contributors at the time, Rust has grown to 57 teams and 166 members, solidifying its position as a leading modern language in open-source development.
The recent RustWeek 2025 event, organized alongside RustNL, brought together contributors to reflect on the language’s evolution and begin shaping the next strategic vision for Rust’s future.
A Call for Contributors
The Rust team continues to encourage community involvement, particularly in areas such as:
- Reproducing and testing deadlock scenarios.
- Helping to resolve key compiler issues that are blocking other improvements.
Rust remains a vibrant, community-driven language—and with these improvements, it’s poised to become even more integral to systems programming and kernel-level development in the years ahead.
via: phoronix y blog.rust-lang.org
