{"slug": "the-rnull-rust-block-driver", "title": "[$] The \"rnull\" Rust block driver", "summary": "Andreas Hindborg has submitted a patch set to the Linux kernel implementing the 'rnull' Rust block driver, bringing it to feature parity with the C-based null_blk driver used for benchmarking block-layer implementations. The patch set, shared in June 2026, demonstrates that a simple block driver can now be written using the kernel's Rust APIs and enables direct performance comparisons between the C and Rust versions.", "body_md": "The\n[null block\ndriver](https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/block/null_blk.html) (`null_blk`)\nis a small driver that is mostly useful for benchmarking block-layer\nimplementations. It accepts all requests and marks them complete as quickly as\npossible, doing as little work as possible. In June 2026, Andreas Hindborg shared\n[\na patch set](https://lwn.net/ml/all/20260609-rnull-v6-19-rc5-send-v2-0-82c7404542e2@kernel.org/) implementing the same functionality in Rust, in order to show\nthat a simple block driver is now possible to write using the kernel's\nRust APIs and to enable comparisons between the C and Rust\nimplementations.\nA minimal version of the \"rnull\" driver is already present in the mainline\nkernel, but Hindborg's patch set brings it up to feature parity with the C\nversion.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-rnull-rust-block-driver", "canonical_source": "https://lwn.net/Articles/1090378/", "published_at": "2026-08-28 18:26:23+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-28 18:50:41.350454+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools"], "entities": ["Andreas Hindborg", "Linux kernel", "null_blk", "rnull"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-rnull-rust-block-driver", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-rnull-rust-block-driver.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-rnull-rust-block-driver.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-rnull-rust-block-driver.jsonld"}}