https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00752

close this message

Donate to arXiv

Please join the Simons Foundation and our generous member
organizations in supporting arXiv during our giving campaign
September 23-27. 100% of your contribution will fund improvements and
new initiatives to benefit arXiv's global scientific community.

DONATE

[secure site, no need to create account]

Skip to main content
Cornell University
We gratefully acknowledge support from
the Simons Foundation and member institutions.
 
arXiv.org > cs > arXiv:2007.00752
[                    ]

Help | Advanced Search

[All fields        ]
Search
arXiv
Cornell University Logo
[                    ] GO
quick links

  * Login
  * Help Pages
  * About

Computer Science > Software Engineering

arXiv:2007.00752 (cs)
[Submitted on 1 Jul 2020]

Title:Is Rust Used Safely by Software Developers?

Authors:Ana Nora Evans, Bradford Campbell, Mary Lou Soffa
Download PDF

    Abstract: Rust, an emerging programming language with explosive
    growth, provides a robust type system that enables programmers to
    write memory-safe and data-race free code. To allow access to a
    machine's hardware and to support low-level performance
    optimizations, a second language, Unsafe Rust, is embedded in
    Rust. It contains support for operations that are difficult to
    statically check, such as C-style pointers for access to
    arbitrary memory locations and mutable global variables. When a
    program uses these features, the compiler is unable to statically
    guarantee the safety properties Rust promotes. In this work, we
    perform a large-scale empirical study to explore how software
    developers are using Unsafe Rust in real-world Rust libraries and
    applications. Our results indicate that software engineers use
    the keyword unsafe in less than 30% of Rust libraries, but more
    than half cannot be entirely statically checked by the Rust
    compiler because of Unsafe Rust hidden somewhere in a library's
    call chain. We conclude that although the use of the keyword
    unsafe is limited, the propagation of unsafeness offers a
    challenge to the claim of Rust as a memory-safe language.
    Furthermore, we recommend changes to the Rust compiler and to the
    central Rust repository's interface to help Rust software
    developers be aware of when their Rust code is unsafe.

Subjects: Software Engineering (cs.SE)
DOI:      10.1145/3377811.3380413
Cite as:  arXiv:2007.00752 [cs.SE]
          (or arXiv:2007.00752v1 [cs.SE] for this version)

Submission history

From: Ana Nora Evans [view email]
[v1] Wed, 1 Jul 2020 21:00:25 UTC (854 KB)
Full-text links:

Download:

  * PDF only

(license)
Current browse context:
cs.SE
< prev   |   next >
new | recent | 2007
Change to browse by:
cs

References & Citations

  * NASA ADS
  * Google Scholar
  * Semantic Scholar

DBLP - CS Bibliography

listing | bibtex
Ana Nora Evans
Bradford Campbell
Mary Lou Soffa
a export bibtex citation Loading...

Bibtex formatted citation

x
[loading...          ]
Data provided by:

Bookmark

BibSonomy logo Mendeley logo Reddit logo ScienceWISE logo
(*) Bibliographic Tools

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

[ ] Bibliographic Explorer Toggle
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
[ ] Litmaps Toggle
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
( ) Code & Data

Code and Data Associated with this Article

[ ] arXiv Links to Code Toggle
arXiv Links to Code & Data (What is Links to Code & Data?)
( ) Related Papers

Recommenders and Search Tools

[ ] Connected Papers Toggle
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
[ ] Core recommender toggle
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
( ) About arXivLabs

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and
share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have
embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence,
and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only
works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community?
Learn more about arXivLabs and how to get involved.

Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is
MathJax?)

  * About
  * Help

  * Click here to contact arXiv Contact
  * Click here to subscribe Subscribe

  * Copyright
  * Privacy Policy

  * Web Accessibility Assistance
  * arXiv Operational Status
    Get status notifications via email or slack