Safer Linux Kernel Modules Using the D Programming Language

[Walter Bright]

On 1/8/2023 8:31 PM, Siarhei Siamashka wrote:
> On Monday, 9 January 2023 at 03:54:32 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> Buffer overflows are trivial to have in C, and C has no mechanism to prevent 
>> them.
> 
> ASAN, Valgrind, Clang Static Analyzer and plenty of other tools are the 
> practical mechanisms to prevent buffer overflows.

And yet C buffer overflows are consistently the #1 problem in production C code. 
Valgrind, etc., only detect overflow if there's a test case that causes 
overflow. That's why it's not as good as static checks.

Clang Static analyzer can only detect a small subset of buffer overflows.


> Yes, they are not baked into the ISO language standard.

They can't be because the C semantics make it impossible.


> But D has no ISO language standard at all.

Neither does Rust.

D can do everything C can. And more. Valgrind works with D code, too.