So, serde seems to be downloading and running a binary on the system without informing the user and without any user consent. Does anyone have any background information on why this is, and how this is supposed to be a good idea?

dtolnay seems like a smart guy, so I assume there is a reason for this, but it doesn’t feel ok at all.

  • BB_C@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    I hate that I’m linking to Reddit, but I’m just reminded of this.

    Some of us knew where all the obsession with dependencies’ compile times will lead, and triggered the alarm sirens, if half-jerkingly, years ago.

    Compile times, and more specifically, dependencies compile times, is and has always been the most overblown problem in Rust. We would have some sort of sccache public repositories or something similar by now if it was that big of a problem.

    And yes, I’m aware proc-macro crates in particular present unique challenges in that field. But that shouldn’t change the general stance towards the supposed “problem”. And it should certainly not trigger such an obsession that would lead to such a horrible “solution” like this serde one.