#1120650 RFP: fil-c -- memory safe implementation of the C and C++

#1120650#5
Date:
2025-11-13 22:17:11 UTC
From:
To:
Quoting https://fil-c.org

    Fil-C is a fanatically compatible memory-safe implementation of C
    and C++. Lots of software compiles and runs with Fil-C with zero or
    minimal changes. All memory safety errors are caught as Fil-C
    panics. Fil-C achieves this using a combination of concurrent
    garbage collection and invisible capabilities (InvisiCaps). Every
    possibly-unsafe C and C++ operation is checked. Fil-C has no unsafe
    statement and only limited FFI to unsafe code.

I started looking into somehow packaging this, but the repository at

https://github.com/pizlonator/fil-c

is building up an entire OS, and I'm struggling isolating the Fil-C
glibc and Fil-C compiler parts.

This target is not ABI-compatible with x86_64-linux-gnu, so I think it
needs a GNU triplet like x86_64-linux-gnufilc0, and possibly this is
even a separate debian ports if you follow DJB's approach:

https://cr.yp.to/2025/fil-c.html

Thus, I'm opening a RFP to see if anyone else has more ideas how to
actually make this happen.

/Simon

#1120650#12
Date:
2025-12-30 02:02:57 UTC
From:
To:
FYI, I've filed a bug report upstream to see if they'd be interested in
splitting things up to make them easier to package. [1]

IMO a Debian port might not be the right way to go. Clang and GCC are
packaged alongside each other without problems. If Fil-C and pizlonated
libraries and applications were simply part of the x86_64 build of
Debian, that would allow projects like Kicksecure and Whonix to use
pizlonated applications where possible, or to build our own code with
Fil-C, while still having access to the rest of the Debian archive.

[1] https://github.com/pizlonator/fil-c/issues/185