Rust dependencies

Chris98 · 2026-02-12 21:50:00

Hi everyone,
I’ve been out the loop for a few years and looking to get back into Arch, I’m aware that some things have changed and I just wanted to see the state of current things in play.

I’m aware of the story discussing the fact Arch was paid €500,000 by the German government to allegedly rewrite what appears to be Pac-Man in Rust.
I have grave concerns over this, and I don’t really want Rust in my system.

To what extent has this been achieved, and what kind of dependence will Rust have on the system going forward?
What are the plans with introducing this?
Will it be possible for instance to retain the current legacy Pac-Man, or are you going to replace this in its entirety?

If so, what kind of timeframe are things looking at for the replacement and will the legacy Pac-Man continue to work or will it require/need updating?
What happens also about the current AUR, and any future packages which are submitted to the AUR? Will future changes or packages continue to be backwards compatible with Pac-Man?

If anyone else could bring me up to speed on the current status of Rust, ie what packages require/depend on it and how easy it would be to keep my system free of this, I would be most grateful.
Thank you.

stu · 2026-02-12 22:51:15

Chris98 wrote:

what packages require/depend on it and how easy it would be to keep my system free of this

A package written in rust doesn't "depend" on rust.
Same as a c programm doesn't depend on c or its compiler.
So, unless the package explicitly states it's written in rust, you might not even know, and keeping your system "free" of it could be quite a bit of work, since you'd need to inspect every package to see what it contains.

Just as example, let's assume you'd want to use certbot, installing it pulls in python-cryptography which contains openssl bindings written in rust, which the package descritpion doesn't mention, because why should it?

And with rust making its way into the kernel, I'd say realistically the chances to keep your system "free" of it, basically will go to 0.

Last edited by stu (2026-02-12 22:57:24)

seth · 2026-02-12 22:53:38

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=311668

I don’t really want Rust in my system.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.0-Rust
The Rust-zealots are turning this into a religious thing enough for the rest of the world.
I suggest to stay on the secular side of things.

Also being secular allows for profanities
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Tor … Formatting

Then make sure to compare https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man - and to read up the part about Puck Man

Allan · 2026-02-13 00:02:56

pacman is not going anywhere and is not being rewritten in rust.

Scimmia · 2026-02-13 02:07:43

Chris98 wrote:

I don’t really want Rust in my system.

This is basically the same as saying "I don't want C++ on my system". It's pretty much nonsense, what exactly do you not want on your system?

seth · 2026-02-13 09:42:11

Filthy rust headers…?

I guess it's the same reason why people don't want to see AI written code or patches - the assumption that it's most likely shit that at best works somehow and only by accident.
The current perception of rust is probably still largely driven by the clown-crowd asking anybody whether it's written in "the" rust and then tell you that you *need* to rewrite it in "the" rust because "that will make it safe"
"You know… morons"

The resolution to that is kinda implied in my 3rd link above: the quality of the result isn't dictated by the tool, but by who's using it.
There's nothing inherently wrong with rust and the more competent users are willing to use the language, the less strained this will get.

And on the upside: if rust for linux gets us OG ranting and swearing Linus back, that alone would be worth it

@Chris98, assuming your question has been answered by Allan the the first link in my first reply and
please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

schard · 2026-02-13 19:00:03

Chris98 wrote:

I’m aware of the story discussing the fact Arch was paid €500,000 by the German government to allegedly rewrite what appears to be Pac-Man in Rust.

You're serious? And I haven't seen a single cent for my abandoned toy project?

Allan wrote:

pacman is not going anywhere and is not being rewritten in rust.

Don't tempt me to waste more time on that.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-02-12 21:50:00

Rust dependencies

#2 2026-02-12 22:51:15

Re: Rust dependencies

#3 2026-02-12 22:53:38

Re: Rust dependencies

#4 2026-02-13 00:02:56

Re: Rust dependencies

#5 2026-02-13 02:07:43

Re: Rust dependencies

#6 2026-02-13 09:42:11

Re: Rust dependencies

#7 2026-02-13 19:00:03

Re: Rust dependencies

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