Migrating from C to Rust: Introduction

Overview

• Rust V1 was announced approximately 10 years ago and has grown in popularity.
• Growing calls to transition from C and C++ to Rust, due to Rust’s memory safety feature.
• This video is the start of a series on switching from using C as a main language to Rust.

Why Migrate to Rust?

• Memory Safety: Unlike C, Rust provides memory safety without a garbage collector.
• Avoiding Common Issues: Rust helps prevent pointer problems and buffer overflows common in C.
• Security Improvements: Transitioning to Rust can make operating systems safer.

Transition Approach

• Cannot cover everything in one video; requires a series of videos.
• Moving to Rust involves learning the language well, despite tools and techniques for easing the transition.

Calling Rust from C

• Focus on transitioning existing C code to Rust rather than vice versa.
• Strategy involves translating C codebase function by function.

Example: Converting C to Rust

Initial C Code

A simple C program with:

• v_random.c: Contains a random number generator.
• main.c: Uses the library from v_random.c.

Transition to Rust:

1. Convert v_random.c to Rust: Rewrite in Rust while keeping main.c unchanged.

2. Rust Project Setup:

   • Create a Rust library using Cargo.
   • Edit Cargo.toml to build a static library.

3. Rust Implementation Highlights:

   • Using unsafe blocks for global variables.
   • #[no_mangle] for avoiding name mangling.
   • extern "C" for foreign function interfaces.

4. Compiling and Linking:

   • Compile Rust code with Cargo, generating a static library.
   • Use GCC to compile main.c, linking it with the Rust library.

Challenges:

• Initial Rust implementation uses unsafe.
• Transition to idiomatic Rust requires changes in C code, adding complexity.

Helpful Tools

• cbindgen: Automatically generates C header files from Rust, aiding interoperability.

Conclusion

• Part 2 of the series to be informed by user feedback.
• Viewers encouraged to suggest topics for future videos or tutorials on Rust and C.

Community Engagement

• Encouragement to provide feedback and suggestions via the comments section.
• Mention of platforms for following updates: YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Blue Sky, and Mastodon.