Post Syndicated from original https://lwn.net/Articles/909095/

For better or worse, C is the lingua franca in the world of kernel
engineering. The core logic of the Linux kernel is written entirely in
C (with a bit of assembly), as are its drivers and modules. While C is
rightfully celebrated for
its powerful yet simple semantics, it is an older language that lacks
many of the features present in modern languages such as
Rust. The
BPF subsystem, on the other hand,
provides a programming environment that allows engineers to write
programs that can run safely in kernel space. At the 2022 Linux Plumbers
Conference in Dublin, Ireland, Alexei Starovoitov presented an overview
of how BPF has evolved over the years to provide a new model for kernel
programming.