Research: How to achieve safety when linking separately compiled code

[nikomatsakis]

Metadata
Point of contact	@m-ou-se
Team(s)	compiler, lang
Goal document	2025h1/safe-linking

Summary

Research what "safety" and "unsafety" means when dealing with separately compiled code, like when loading dynamically linked libraries.
Specifically, figure out how it'd be possible to provide any kind of safety when linking external code (such as loading a dynamic library or linking a separately compiled static library).

Tasks and status

• Discussion and moral support (lang )
• Coordination with university (@jdonszelmann)
• Acquire funding (@m-ou-se, @jdonszelmann)
• Research ()
• Mentoring and interfacing with Rust project (@m-ou-se, @jdonszelmann)
• Blog post (author, review) (@jdonszelmann, @m-ou-se)
• Experimental implementation ()
• Lang-team experiment (lang )
• Lang-team champion (lang )
• Standard reviews (compiler )
• Thesis / Paper ()

[nikomatsakis]

This issue is intended for status updates only.

For general questions or comments, please contact the owner(s) directly.

[m-ou-se]

We started the collaboration with the Delft University of Technology. We assembled a small research team with a professor and a MSc student who will be working on this as part of his MSc thesis. We meet weekly in person.

The project kicked off two weeks ago and is now in the literature research phase.

[m-ou-se]

And related to this, someone else is working on an implementation of my #[export] rfc: rust-lang/rust#134767 This will hopefully provide meaningful input for the research project.