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Fil-C: Garbage In, Memory Safety Out! - Filip Pizlo | SSW 2026

Software Should Work

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  • Recommended by 3 people: 1 on Lobsters and 2 in engineering communities.
  • Presented by Filip Pizlo

Advanced. Deep dive for people who know the field.

38K views3 months ago3 recommendations

Systems programmingSecurityCCompilers and interpretersMemory management

Filip Pizlo explains Fil-C, an implementation of C and C++ that achieves memory safety through a specialized compiler and runtime.

Abstract: Conventional wisdom has it that C and C++ are not memory safe programming languages. A simple bug in one part of a C program can be used to achieve remote code execution even in the presence of sophisticated mitigations. The problem is severe enough to create great pressure on programmers to rewrite their code from C and C++ to other languages that are safer. This talk challenges the conventional wisdom by describing an implementation of C and C++ that achieves the same level of protection against memory safety exploits as even the safest languages. I will go into the details of Fil-C's compiler, language runtime, and some of the corpus of software that has been ported to it. Fil-C: fil-c.org/ Filip Pizlo: filpizlo.com/ Software Should Work: softwareshould.work Thank you to our Software Should Work 2026 sponsors: Antithesis: antithesis.com/ RWX: rwx.com/ Paytient: paytient.com/ Redbud VC: redbud.vc/ ParadeDB: paradedb.com/

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended for its impressive live demo and insights into achieving memory safety in C and C++.

u/isaacvandoin r/Zig • Recommends

Fil-C: Garbage In, Memory Safety Out! Given the recent noise about Zig adding a Fil-C inspired/compatible compilation mode (https://codeberg.org/ziglang/zig/issues/36237), I thought some of you would be interested in this talk about Fil-C. Andrew and Fil hung out at the conference last week which AFAIK was the start of the issue being opened.

kristoffon Lobsters • Recommends

Fil-C: Garbage In, Memory Safety Out

u/isaacvandoin r/Compilers • Recommends

Fil-C: Garbage In, Memory Safety Out! Thought you all might be interested in Fil's recent talk about Fil-C. The recording includes the best live demo I've ever seen. Enjoy!

u/cdb_11in r/C_Programming • Recommends

Fil-C: Garbage In, Memory Safety Out! - Filip Pizlo | SSW 2026