linux/rust/kernel
Danilo Krummrich 2c7c659336 Merge patch series "rust: device: Higher-Ranked Lifetime Types for device drivers"
Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org> says:

Currently, Rust device drivers access device resources such as PCI BAR mappings
and I/O memory regions through Devres<T>.

Devres::access() provides zero-overhead access by taking a &Device<Bound>
reference as proof that the device is still bound. Since a &Device<Bound> is
available in almost all contexts by design, Devres is mostly a type-system level
proof that the resource is valid, but it can also be used from scopes without
this guarantee through its try_access() accessor.

This works well in general, but has a few limitations:

  - Every access to a device resource goes through Devres::access(), which
    despite zero cost, adds boilerplate to every access site.

  - Destructors do not receive a &Device<Bound>, so they must use try_access(),
    which can fail. In practice the access succeeds if teardown ordering is
    correct, but the type system can't express this, forcing drivers to handle a
    failure path that should never be taken.

  - Sharing a resource across components (e.g. passing a BAR to a sub-component)
    requires Arc<Devres<T>>.

  - Device references must be stored as ARef<Device> rather than plain &Device
    borrows.

These limitations stem from the driver's bus device private data being 'static
-- the driver struct cannot borrow from the device reference it receives in
probe(), even though it structurally cannot outlive the device binding.

This series introduces Higher-Ranked Lifetime Types (HRT) for Rust device
drivers. An HRT is a type that is generic over a lifetime -- it does not have a
fixed lifetime, but can be instantiated with any lifetime chosen by the caller.

Bus driver traits use a Generic Associated Type (GAT) type Data<'bound> to
introduce the lifetime on the private data, rather than parameterizing the
Driver trait itself. This avoids a driver trait global lifetime and avoids the
need for ForLt for bus device private data, making the bus implementations much
simpler. ForLt is only needed for auxiliary registration data, where the
lifetime is not introduced by a trait callback but must be threaded through
Registration.

With HRT, driver structs carry a lifetime parameter tied to the device binding
scope -- the interval of a bus device being bound to a driver. Device resources
like pci::Bar<'bound> and IoMem<'bound> are handed out with this lifetime, so
the compiler enforces at build time that they do not escape the binding scope.

Before:

	struct MyDriver {
	    pdev: ARef<pci::Device>,
	    bar: Devres<pci::Bar<BAR_SIZE>>,
	}

	let io = self.bar.access(dev)?;
	io.read32(OFFSET);

After:

	struct MyDriver<'bound> {
	    pdev: &'bound pci::Device,
	    bar: pci::Bar<'bound, BAR_SIZE>,
	}

	self.bar.read32(OFFSET);

Lifetime-parameterized device resources can be put into a Devres at any point
via Bar::into_devres() / IoMem::into_devres(), providing the exact same
semantics as before. This is useful for resources shared across subsystem
boundaries where revocation is needed.

This also synergizes with the upcoming self-referential initialization support
in pin-init, which allows one field of the driver struct to borrow another
during initialization without unsafe code.

The same pattern is applied to auxiliary device registration data as a first
example beyond bus device private data. Registration<F: ForLt> can hold
lifetime-parameterized data tied to the parent driver's binding scope. Since the
auxiliary bus guarantees that the parent remains bound while the auxiliary
device is registered, the registration data can safely borrow the parent's
device resources.

More generally, binding resource lifetimes to a registration scope applies to
every registration that is scoped to a driver binding -- auxiliary devices,
class devices, IRQ handlers, workqueues.

A follow-up series extends this to class device registrations, starting with
DRM, so that class device callbacks (IOCTLs, etc.) can safely access device
resources through the separate registration data bound to the registration's
lifetime without Devres indirection.

Thanks to Gary for coming up with the ForLt implementation; thanks to Alice for
the early discussions around lifetime-parameterized private data that helped
shape the direction of this work.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260525202921.124698-1-dakr@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
2026-05-29 00:38:54 +02:00
..
alloc rust: alloc: remove 'static bound on ForeignOwnable 2026-05-27 16:22:41 +02:00
block rust: block: update const_refs_to_static MSRV TODO comment 2026-04-07 10:00:24 +02:00
debugfs Driver core changes for 7.0-rc1 2026-02-11 17:43:59 -08:00
device rust: device: replace kernel::c_str! with C-Strings 2025-12-22 17:30:24 +01:00
drm rust: drm: fix unsound initialization in drm::Device::new 2026-05-03 14:04:57 +02:00
fs rust: fs: add file::Offset type alias 2025-11-05 00:05:38 +01:00
gpu rust: gpu: Add GPU buddy allocator bindings 2026-03-23 21:41:47 +01:00
interop rust: interop: Add list module for C linked list interface 2026-03-23 20:29:28 +01:00
io rust: io: make IoMem and ExclusiveIoMem lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:24:28 +02:00
iommu rust: iommu: fix srctree link warning 2026-01-22 09:19:30 +01:00
irq rust: irq: move 'static bounds to traits 2026-03-03 20:33:26 +01:00
list Locking updates for v7.1: 2026-04-14 12:36:25 -07:00
mm mm: rename zap_page_range_single() to zap_vma_range() 2026-04-05 13:53:15 -07:00
net rust: net: replace kernel::c_str! with C-Strings 2026-01-05 16:32:39 -08:00
num Driver core changes for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-13 19:03:11 -07:00
pci rust: pci: make Bar lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:24:23 +02:00
ptr rust: ptr: add projection infrastructure 2026-03-07 23:06:17 +01:00
str rust: str: add radix prefixed integer parsing functions 2025-11-03 14:40:45 +01:00
sync Char/Misc/IIO/and others driver updates for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-24 13:23:50 -07:00
time hrtimer: add usage examples to documentation 2026-03-23 08:31:00 +01:00
types rust: types: add ForLt trait for higher-ranked lifetime support 2026-05-27 16:24:59 +02:00
.gitignore
acpi.rs rust: acpi: replace core::mem::zeroed with pin_init::zeroed 2025-10-27 20:27:05 +01:00
alloc.rs Summary of significant series in this pull request: 2025-10-02 18:18:33 -07:00
auxiliary.rs rust: auxiliary: generalize Registration over ForLt 2026-05-27 16:27:28 +02:00
bitmap.rs rust: bitmap: add BitmapVec::new_inline() 2025-11-26 11:25:35 -05:00
bits.rs rust: bits: always inline functions using build_assert with arguments 2026-01-18 20:40:11 +01:00
block.rs
bug.rs rust: bug: Support DEBUG_BUGVERBOSE_DETAILED option 2026-01-30 05:18:17 +01:00
build_assert.rs rust: rework build_assert! documentation 2026-03-30 02:03:52 +02:00
clk.rs rust: clk: implement Send and Sync 2026-04-03 11:57:35 +02:00
configfs.rs rust: configfs: replace kernel::c_str! with C-Strings 2026-01-15 09:26:49 +01:00
cpu.rs rust: kernel: cpu: mark CpuId::current() inline 2025-09-14 23:58:45 +02:00
cpufreq.rs rust: platform: make Driver trait lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:23:31 +02:00
cpumask.rs rust: cpumask: rename methods of Cpumask for clarity and consistency 2026-01-27 11:21:23 +05:30
cred.rs Char/Misc/IIO/Binder changes for 6.18-rc1 2025-10-04 16:26:32 -07:00
debugfs.rs rust: debugfs: Use kernel Atomic type in docs example 2026-01-19 15:02:46 +01:00
device_id.rs rust: device_id: replace incorrect word in safety documentation 2025-12-29 14:09:18 +01:00
device.rs rust: device: make Core and CoreInternal lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:22:42 +02:00
devres.rs rust: pci: make Bar lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:24:23 +02:00
dma.rs rust: device: make Core and CoreInternal lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:22:42 +02:00
driver.rs Merge patch series "rust: device: Higher-Ranked Lifetime Types for device drivers" 2026-05-29 00:38:54 +02:00
error.rs drm for v7.1-rc1 2026-04-15 08:45:00 -07:00
faux.rs rust: faux: use "kernel vertical" style for imports 2026-01-07 19:56:00 +01:00
firmware.rs rust: firmware: replace kernel::c_str! with C-Strings 2025-11-17 00:53:47 +01:00
fmt.rs rust: fmt: Fix grammar in Adapter description 2026-01-04 23:51:35 +01:00
fs.rs
generated_arch_reachable_asm.rs.S
generated_arch_static_branch_asm.rs.S
generated_arch_warn_asm.rs.S
gpu.rs rust: gpu: Add GPU buddy allocator bindings 2026-03-23 21:41:47 +01:00
i2c.rs rust: i2c: make Driver trait lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:24:10 +02:00
id_pool.rs rust: id_pool: do not immediately acquire new ids 2025-12-02 14:17:09 -05:00
impl_flags.rs rust: add impl_flags! macro for defining common bitflag operations 2026-02-02 08:09:11 +01:00
init.rs rust: init: use #[default_error(err)] for the initializer macros 2026-01-17 10:51:42 +01:00
interop.rs rust: interop: Add list module for C linked list interface 2026-03-23 20:29:28 +01:00
io.rs rust: io: introduce write_reg and LocatedRegister 2026-03-17 20:04:11 +01:00
ioctl.rs
iov.rs
irq.rs
jump_label.rs
kunit.rs rust: kunit: fix warning when !CONFIG_PRINTK 2026-03-02 10:01:15 -07:00
lib.rs drm for v7.1-rc1 2026-04-15 08:45:00 -07:00
list.rs rust: list: hide macros from top-level kernel doc 2026-03-27 12:15:47 +01:00
maple_tree.rs rust: maple_tree: rcu_read_lock() in destructor to silence lockdep 2025-12-23 11:23:15 -08:00
miscdevice.rs rust: redefine bindings::compat_ptr_ioctl in Rust 2026-01-16 14:54:11 +01:00
mm.rs rust: mm: update ARef and AlwaysRefCounted imports from sync::aref 2025-09-13 16:55:15 -07:00
module_param.rs Modules changes for v6.19-rc1 2025-12-06 08:27:07 -08:00
net.rs
num.rs rust: num: add Bounded integer wrapping type 2025-11-19 00:22:24 +01:00
of.rs rust: of: use core::ffi::CStr method names 2025-09-16 09:26:59 +02:00
opp.rs Rust changes for v6.19 2025-12-03 14:16:49 -08:00
page.rs rust: Return Option from page_align and ensure no usize overflow 2025-12-29 15:32:53 +01:00
pci.rs rust: pci: make Driver trait lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:23:10 +02:00
pid_namespace.rs
platform.rs rust: platform: make Driver trait lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:23:31 +02:00
prelude.rs rust: remove RUSTC_HAS_SLICE_AS_FLATTENED and simplify code 2026-04-07 10:00:23 +02:00
print.rs rust: print: Add pr_*_once macros 2026-01-30 05:47:05 +01:00
processor.rs
ptr.rs Rust timekeeping changes for v7.1 2026-04-08 10:44:11 +02:00
pwm.rs rust: pwm: Simplify to_result call sites and unsafe blocks 2026-01-20 18:49:58 +01:00
rbtree.rs Rust changes for v6.20 / v7.0 2026-02-10 11:53:01 -08:00
regulator.rs rust: regulator: do not assume that regulator_get() returns non-null 2026-03-24 13:08:21 +00:00
revocable.rs
safety.rs rust: safety: introduce unsafe_precondition_assert! macro 2026-02-02 08:10:48 +01:00
scatterlist.rs rust: scatterlist: Update ARef imports to use sync::aref 2025-12-18 17:25:45 +01:00
security.rs rust_binder: add Rust Binder driver 2025-09-19 09:40:46 +02:00
seq_file.rs rust: seq_file: replace kernel::c_str! with C-Strings 2026-01-29 15:32:40 +01:00
sizes.rs rust: sizes: add SizeConstants trait for device address space constants 2026-04-07 12:57:50 +02:00
soc.rs rust: Add soc_device support 2025-12-28 12:43:56 +01:00
std_vendor.rs
str.rs Rust timekeeping changes for v7.1 2026-04-08 10:44:11 +02:00
sync.rs rust: sync: Replace kernel::c_str! with C-Strings 2026-01-28 09:25:44 +01:00
task.rs Char/Misc/IIO/and others driver updates for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-24 13:23:50 -07:00
time.rs rust: time: make ClockSource unsafe trait 2026-03-23 08:29:48 +01:00
tracepoint.rs
transmute.rs rust: transmute: simplify code with Rust 1.80.0 split_at_*checked() 2026-04-07 10:00:24 +02:00
types.rs rust: types: add ForLt trait for higher-ranked lifetime support 2026-05-27 16:24:59 +02:00
uaccess.rs Char/Misc/IIO/and others driver updates for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-24 13:23:50 -07:00
usb.rs rust: usb: make Driver trait lifetime-parameterized 2026-05-27 16:23:51 +02:00
workqueue.rs rust: workqueue: use new sync::aref path for imports 2026-03-26 15:45:34 +00:00
xarray.rs rust: kernel: mark as #[inline] all From::from()s for Error 2026-03-27 12:49:00 +01:00