A Tour Through Ferrocene Development
summary
Ferrocene is a downstream Rust compiler that achieves formal qualification (certificate issued last October) by combining a tool-specific specification with annotated Rust UI tests mapped to that spec, automated merge-train CI (Bors/G-style), and platform testing on x86 and ARMv8 plus simulated Cortex-M/R. The project documents 3,559 RFCs condensed into a behavioral spec (Google Docs → reStructuredText → Sphinx with a custom hyperlink plugin), tracks a traceability matrix (~86.7% currently), and reports semi-automated qualification artifacts. Tools used include Sphinx, reuse, signore and cargo-dist.
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chapters (27)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:18What Ferrocene is
- 6:10Compiler qualification challenges
- 10:23Gap analysis and risks
- 13:34Hazard analysis of Rustc
- 17:11Rust project practices
- 19:00User manuals and safety
- 22:17Unsafe Rust guarantees
- 25:07Known issues management
- 25:28Evaluation plans and reports
- 27:57Need for compiler spec
- 32:14Writing compiler spec
- 36:30Tooling and spec workflow
- 38:40Retrofitting requirements
- 40:08Test mapping to spec
- 43:17Test coverage and breakage
- 45:27Traceability and structure
- 47:05Coverage goals and mapping
- 49:22Plans, reports, scope
- 52:14Long-term quality management
- 56:06Automated testing with BOS G
- 1:00:28Testing across platforms
- 1:03:45Release process and signatures
- 1:05:31Merging upstream changes
- 1:09:04Open source in regulations
- 1:15:10General observations
- 1:24:43Q&A
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