Merge pull request torvalds#421 from ojeda/alloc-readme

rust: alloc: add `README.md`

rust/alloc/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# `alloc`
+
+These source files come from the Rust standard library, hosted in
+the https://github.com/rust-lang/rust repository. For copyright
+details, see https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/COPYRIGHT.
+
+Please note that these files should be kept as close as possible to
+upstream. In general, only additions should be performed (e.g. new
+methods). Eventually, changes should make it into upstream so that,
+at some point, this fork can be dropped from the kernel tree.
+
+
+## Rationale
+
+On one hand, kernel folks wanted to keep `alloc` in-tree to have more
+freedom in both workflow and actual features if actually needed
+(e.g. receiver types if we ended up using them), which is reasonable.
+
+On the other hand, Rust folks wanted to keep `alloc` as close as
+upstream as possible and avoid as much divergence as possible, which
+is also reasonable.
+
+We agreed on a middle-ground: we would keep a subset of `alloc`
+in-tree that would be as small and as close as possible to upstream.
+Then, upstream can start adding the functions that we add to `alloc`
+etc., until we reach a point where the kernel already knows exactly
+what it needs in `alloc` and all the new methods are merged into
+upstream, so that we can drop `alloc` from the kernel tree and go back
+to using the upstream one.
+
+By doing this, the kernel can go a bit faster now, and Rust can
+slowly incorporate and discuss the changes as needed.