crustc
Shares rank 2 of 6 transpilers by recommenders
Translates the Rust compiler into C for porting to C-only targets. Critics say the generated C is more artifact than source.
Translates the Rust compiler into C for porting to C-only targets. Critics say the generated C is more artifact than source.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Eases porting and bootstrapping the Rust compiler
“It makes sense as a porting tool, if you need to port the Rust compiler to some target that has a C compiler.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “crustc: entirety of `rustc`, translated to C” “could drastically shrink down the efforts needed to get a working rust compiler in a bootstrappable manner”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “crustc: entirety of `rustc`, translated to C”
Other transpilers people recommend
The four most recommended other transpilers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 6 transpilers, rankedWhat people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“for that this project is definitely enough.”
“It makes sense as a porting tool, if you need to port the Rust compiler to some target that has a C compiler.”
“Quite an interesting project, lol.”
“This new project is interesting for other reasons though, because mrustc is targeted at the de fact "subset" of Rust in use by rustc at any given time.”
“This C code is more like a binary and compiler artifact than a source code.”
“So the author made a Rust to C transpiler and immediately used it to transpile... the Rust compiler. I love it.”
“Transpiling into C does seem easier than LLVM IR, and letting GCC optimize seems like this might actually work.”
“could drastically shrink down the efforts needed to get a working rust compiler in a bootstrappable manner”
“Anyway, this part sounds useful too, that crustc can compile across network and devices.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.