this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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That doesn't fit the definition of memory leak in my mind, had thought a memory leak was specifically when the program completely loses track of memory
That's one kind, and Rust's "ownership" concept does mean there's built-in compile time checks to prevent dangling pointers or unreachable memory. But there's also just never de-allocating stuff you allocated even though it's still reachable. Like you could just make a loop that allocates memory and never stops and that's a memory leak, or more generally a "resource leak", if you prefer.
Rust is really good at keeping you from having a reference to something that you think is valid but it turns out it got mutated way down in some class hierarchy and now it's dead, so you have a null pointer or you double free, or whatever. But it can't stop the case where your code is technically valid but the resource leak is caused by bad "logic" in your design, if that makes sense.