Introducing tmux-rs

I like this post, one can learn a lot.

It seems automatically translating Rust to C is not a very good idea: "I threw away all of the C2Rust output and decided I would translate all of the files into Rust manually from C.". Neither seems doing it manually: "I introduced many bugs while translating the code. I’d like to share the process of discovering and fixing a couple." Or using AI: "That’s because when using cursor to translate the code it would still occasionally insert bugs, just like me. So, I spent as much time reviewing the generated code as it would have taken me to write it myself."

As a hobby project, all power to you. But otherwise, maybe better not rewrite working code....

> But otherwise, maybe better not rewrite working code....

Except that the eventual result allows for extension and improvements in a memory-safe language.

tmux doesn’t really gain anything from memory safety because:

1. anything running in tmux already has execution rights and typically for the same user as tmux anyway.

2. Anyone who wanted to exploit tmux could just run ‘tmux -C’ and automatically get access to literally every interaction within tmux.

3. The software itself is already damn stable. I've never had it crash.

If you’re worried about someone exploiting your terminal then tmux is a terrible option, irrespective of whether it’s with written in C or Rust. And I say this as someone who absolutely loves tmux and uses it every day.

[edit]

And if you're worried about non-security related bugs affecting UX, then a rewrite in any language, regardless of the language, is a worse solution if your application has already been battle-tested for close to two decades. You're much better off creating something entirely new instead of porting code from one language to another because at least then you have new ideas instead of the same application but with new bugs in different places.

I don't say this because of some bias that Rust fanboys will assume I have. I love memory safe languages and think Rust is a great option for new projects. The point I'm making here is that a rewrite doesn't gain much for tmux SPECIFICALLY because tmux is already extremely stable.

Any program gains from memory safety. Memory safety is not just about security. It's about eliminating an entire class of bugs - buffer overflows, null pointer errors, use-after-free, the list goes on. They just so happen to be the kind of bugs that also tend to have serious security consequences.

I honestly don't get this relentless defense of 1970s-style programming. Do you think C is the pinnacle of programming language design? No? Then what's your point, exactly?

> Any program gains from memory safety. Memory safety is not just about security. It's about eliminating an entire class of bugs - buffer overflows, null pointer errors, use-after-free, the list goes on. They just so happen to be the kind of bugs that also tend to have serious security consequences.

Have you actually ever encountered such a bug in tmux though? Because I've been using it for around 15 years and can honestly say I haven't.

Yet this rewrite has introduced bugs. I know it's a hobby project so I'm not being critical. But if you're just trying to reduce bugs then rewriting code battle tested code in another language, regardless of that language, isn't the right way to go.

> I honestly don't get this relentless defense of 1970s-style programming. Do you think C is the pinnacle of programming language design? No? Then what's your point, exactly?

Where was I defending 1970s style programming? I wasn't even defending C. In fact the last project I've worked on based in either C or C++ was 10 years ago. Believe me, I'm a fan of memory safe languages ;)

My point was very clear and very specific to tmux. You're just trying to read between the lines and create a whole new argument where there was none.

>Have you actually ever encountered such a bug in tmux though? Because I've been using it for around 15 years and can honestly say I haven't.

Since you asked, once every few months or so the whole server crashes which takes out all my windows. I don't know what exactly triggers it, other than it being something to do with pasting, and it's so infrequent that I haven't bothered to investigate it. Obviously the trivial repro of just pasting the same thing I tried to paste the first time doesn't repro it; I'd need to gdb the coredump, which is :effort:

I wouldn't expect this Rust rewrite or any other rewrite to fix it in any case; it would be more efficient to figure out the crash and fix it in the original C version.