Someone translated the entire Rust compiler into 46 million lines of C (github.com)
The goal isn't the 46M-line artifact; it's the tool that produced it. The author's 'cilly' compiler probes the target C compiler with tiny witness programs instead of assuming anything beyond ANSI C, and can even compile over the network — so 'unsupported target' stops being a knock against Rust.
The thread found the genuinely useful uses. An ex-compiler developer gave a flat endorsement. Others pointed to easier Rust bootstrapping and a security trick: use crustc for Diverse Double-Compiling to check whether the official rustc has a backdoor. The skeptic's fair point: who trusts a beta transpiler on an exotic target?
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