LINC vs bindgen

This document compares two different approaches to C interop from the point of view of the current toolchain split.

The Short Version

• bindgen is a header-to-Rust transpiler
• LINC is an evidence engine

bindgen answers “what does this header say?” LINC answers “what does the source say, what does the artifact say, and do they agree?”

Parsing

bindgen depends on libclang and the Clang frontend. LINC keeps parsing and source extraction upstream of its own evidence layer and does not depend on libclang.

Internal Representation

bindgen’s IR is transient and internal to one code generation run. LINC’s BindingPackage is a durable, serialized evidence contract.

ABI Discovery

bindgen reads ABI information from libclang. LINC can attach compiler-probed layout evidence and keep that evidence alongside the rest of the analysis package.

Symbol Inspection And Validation

bindgen does not own native artifact inspection or validation. LINC does.

Code Generation

bindgen’s job ends in generated Rust. LINC’s job ends in evidence. A downstream tool such as gerc can consume LINC’s evidence and emit Rust or build metadata.

When To Use Which

Use bindgen when you want a direct header-to-Rust generator and are willing to pay the libclang cost. Use LINC when you want analysis, evidence, link metadata, validation, and downstream policy separation.

That is the real split:

• bindgen centers immediate Rust emission
• LINC centers analysis and evidence that another tool can consume later