Canonical Backs New Project to Translate Large C Codebases into Safe Rust

Canonical is partnering with the University of Bristol on a three-year research project starting in 2026 to develop an automated platform for translating large C codebases into safe Rust, addressing the challenge of migrating hundreds of thousands of lines of mature C code. The project will use a hybrid "neurosymbolic" approach combining machine learning with traditional program analysis and formal methods to produce idiomatic Rust code rather than direct syntax translations. AppArmor and snap-confine will serve as real-world case studies, though Canonical clarifies these projects are not being rewritten in Rust as part of this research initiative.