Rust 1.87 Released: Celebrating 10 Years of Memory-Safe Systems Programming

 

Rust 1.87 is now available with anonymous pipes, safe intrinsics, and inline Assembly improvements—marking 10 years of innovation in memory-safe systems programming. Discover new APIs, deprecated targets, and download links for developers.

Key Features of Rust 1.87

The latest Rust 1.87 update introduces high-performance enhancements and developer-focused optimizations, including:

✅ Anonymous Pipes in Standard Library – Improved inter-process communication (IPC) for systems programming.

✅ Safe Architecture Intrinsics – Enables low-level optimizations without compromising memory safety.

✅ Inline Assembly (asm!) Enhancements – Now supports jumping to labeled blocks, improving embedded and kernel development.

✅ Stabilized APIs – Expanded standard library functionality for production-ready code.

✅ Deprecated i586 Windows MSVC Target – Dropping legacy CPU support to streamline modern development.

"Rust’s decade-long focus on zero-cost abstractions and thread safety continues to redefine systems programming."

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Why Rust 1.87 Matters for Developers

1. Memory Safety Without Compromise

Rust’s ownership model and borrow checker remain industry-leading, reducing segmentation faults and data races in high-stakes environments (e.g., blockchain, game engines, OS kernels).

2. Performance-Centric Upgrades

The new asm! capabilities allow fine-grained control over CPU instructions—critical for embedded systems, real-time applications, and high-frequency trading.

3. Enterprise & Cloud Adoption

Companies like Microsoft, AWS, and Meta now use Rust for security-critical infrastructure, driving demand for Rust-certified developers (avg. salary: $130K+).

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Rust’s 10th Anniversary: A Look Back

At the RustFest Utrecht 2024, core developers highlighted:

📅 2014-2024: From a Mozilla research project to a $600M+ ecosystem (per Stack Overflow 2023).
🚀 Key Milestones:

• 2015: Stable 1.0 Release

• 2018: "Edition" system introduced

• 2021: Rust Foundation formed (Google, Huawei, Meta as platinum members)

• 2023: Ranked #1 "Most Loved" language for 8 consecutive years

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How to Upgrade to Rust 1.87

1. Install via Rustup:

   sh

   Copy

   Download

   rustup update stable  

2. Review Breaking Changes:

   • Removed i586-pc-windows-msvc support

   • New std::os::unix::pipe API

3. Explore Documentation:

   • Official Release Notes

   • GitHub Comparisons

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FAQs: Rust 1.87

Q: Is Rust 1.87 backward-compatible?

A: Yes, but deprecated targets (e.g., i586 Windows) require migration.

Q: What industries benefit most from Rust?

A: Cloud computing, cybersecurity, fintech, and game engines (e.g., Wasm, Solana, Deno).

Q: How does Rust compare to C++?

A: Faster compile times, no garbage collector, and guaranteed memory safety—making it ideal for performance-critical applications.