The State of Allocators in 2026
Summary
The article surveys the current state of Rust's custom allocator trait, detailing blockers such as zero-sized allocations, context support, and error types, and discusses proposals like splitting the trait and Store API. It also compares Rust's approach to allocator design with Rust for Linux, Zig, and C++, and outlines three paths forward: stabilise as-is, refine the API, or wait for a better alternative.