[humanrebar]

Downloading C++ dependencies during the build process is equally unacceptable for many situations. Existing C++ build systems and package managers can be configured to do that and those build systems and package managers would be inappropriate for supporting a kernel that values stability and long term support.

[sophacles]

So it's a good thing that cargo can be used without downloading dependencies during the build! Just clone the repos of the dependencies (and transitive dependencies), just like you would for a C++ project. Then set up your cargo file to point at the location for your local copy instead of using the default download behavior.

There's even a tool called cargo-vendor that does this for you!

[humanrebar]

I was just saying anything folks might find objectionable about cargo workflows happens in C and C++ workflows, just in ad hoc ways.

The difference is that no C or C++ package management features are proposed for incorporation in the Linux kernel SDLC.