No you don't. I've written multiple programs that load things instantly off the file system via memory maps. See the fst crate[1], for example, which is designed to work with memory maps. imdb-rename[2] is a program I wrote that builds a simple IR index on your file system that can then instantly search it by virtue of memory maps.

Rust "works badly with memory mapped files" doesn't mean, "Rust can't use memory mapped files." It means, "it is difficult to reconcile Rust's safety story with memory maps." ripgrep for example uses memory maps because they are faster sometimes, and its safety contract[3] is a bit strained. But it works.

[1] - https://github.com/BurntSushi/fst/

[2] - https://github.com/BurntSushi/imdb-rename

[3] - https://docs.rs/grep-searcher/0.1.7/grep_searcher/struct.Mma...