WebAssembly beyond the browser

Transcript

1. WebAssembly beyond
   the browser
   Mete Atamel
   Developer Advocate at Google
   @meteatamel
   atamel.dev
   speakerdeck.com/meteatamel
   

   View Slide

2. What, Why?
   01
   

   View Slide

3. What is WebAssembly?
   WebAssembly (Wasm) is a binary instruction format for
   a stack-based virtual machine
   Wasm is designed as a portable compilation target
   for programming languages
   webassembly.org
   

   View Slide

4. What is WebAssembly?
   The original use cases were focused on augmenting
   Javascript in the browser to run native code in a fast,
   portable, and secure way for games, 3D graphics, etc.
   Supported by all major browsers
   webassembly.org
   

   View Slide

5. View Slide

6. CNCF 2022 Annual Survey
   

   View Slide

7. Wasm outside the browser
   There’s an attempt to get WebAssembly run outside the
   browser with the WASI project
   Instead of running apps as VMs or containers, you can
   run them as faster, smaller, more secure, and more
   portable WebAssembly modules
   

   View Slide

8. Faster ⇒ Wasm apps start faster than containers with no
   cold-start
   Smaller ⇒ A HelloWorld Rust app in Wasm is smaller than in
   an OCI container
   More secure ⇒ Containers execute in an allow-by-default
   model whereas Wasm apps execute in a deny-by-default
   sandbox
   More portable ⇒ A container built for linux/amd64 won’t
   work on linux/arm64 whereas a wasm32/wasi module
   can run on any host with a Wasm runtime
   

   View Slide

9. Hardware
   VM
   Hardware
   VM
   Container
   VM
   Container
   2010
   2000 2020
   Wasm
   Is this the future?
   

   View Slide

10. Use cases
    www.fermyon.com/blog/four-domains-wasm
    

    View Slide

11. Wasm runtimes
    WASI
    02
    

    View Slide

12. Wasm is a portable compilation target
    

    View Slide

13. Wasm modules run across CPU architectures
    

    View Slide

14. Wasm runtimes
    Many runtimes exist, some of the popular ones are:
    ● wasmtime: A Bytecode Alliance project
    ● wasmedge: A CNCF project
    ● wasmer: From a startup
    github.com/appcypher/awesome-wasm-runtimes
    

    View Slide

15. WebAssembly System Interface
    wasi.dev
    

    View Slide

16. POSIX-inspired Preview1 with a limited number of functions
    ● Read and write files (sandboxed)
    ● Program arguments
    ● Environment variables
    ● Hardware clock
    ● Random
    ● Sockets (limited)
    WebAssembly System Interface
    wasi.dev
    

    View Slide

17. But…
    A lot of WASI is still in proposals and limited
    ⇒ e.g. no socket support yet
    Some runtimes implement their own sockets
    ⇒ e.g. wasmedge has extensions for sockets in Rust, JavaScript, C
    Some projects try to enhance WASI
    ⇒ e.g. WAGI adds HTTP handlers around WASI
    ⇒ e.g. WASIX adds full POSIX but only supported on wasmer runtime
    No Garbage collection yet but there’s a proposal
    ⇒ github.com/WebAssembly/gc
    wasi.dev
    

    View Slide

18. Demo: Compile code to Wasm+Wasi and run
    on a Wasm runtime
    github.com/meteatamel/wasm-basics/tree/main/samples/rust-wasm
    github.com/meteatamel/wasm-basics/tree/main/samples/dotnet8-wasm
    github.com/meteatamel/wasm-basics/tree/main/samples/go-wasm
    github.com/jamesward/hello-kotlin-wasm/tree/wasi
    

    View Slide

19. Running WASI in
    Docker
    03
    

    View Slide

20. Why take something smaller, faster, and more
    portable than a container and run it inside
    Docker?
    To combine the benefits of Wasm with the
    benefits of existing ecosystem with Docker,
    Kubernetes, etc.
    

    View Slide

21. runwasi
    Project to facilitate running Wasm managed by
    containerd
    Starting in 4.15, Docker uses runwasi to run Wasm with
    wasmedge, wasmtime, spin, and slight
    Azure AKS is also previewing Wasm node pools using
    runwasi with spin and slight on wasmtime
    WebAssembly and containerd: How it works by Nigel Poulton
    

    View Slide

22. Demo: Running Wasm in Docker
    github.com/meteatamel/wasm-basics/tree/main/samples/rust-wasm-docker
    

    View Slide

23. WAGI
    WASIX
    04
    

    View Slide

24. WAGI allows you to run WASI binaries as HTTP handlers
    Write a command line application that prints a few
    headers, and compile it to wasm32/wasi
    Add an entry to the modules.toml matching URL to
    the Wasm module and that’s it
    WebAssembly Gateway Interface
    github.com/deislabs/wagi
    

    View Slide

25. WASIX – Extends WASI with most of the
    missing POSIX features
    wasix.org
    

    View Slide

26. Demo: Running WASI binaries as HTTP
    handlers with WAGI
    github.com/meteatamel/wasm-basics/tree/main/samples/hello-wagi
    

    View Slide

27. Frameworks
    Languages
    05
    

    View Slide

28. Frameworks
    Lots of Wasm frameworks out there with different
    capabilities
    Spin by Fermyon seems to be the most comprehensive
    and relevant for Wasm services
    Handles the HTTP request/response using WAGI. Spin
    SDKs are available in Rust, Go and .NET. and all
    Wasi-compatible languages are supported
    github.com/fermyon/spin
    

    View Slide

29. Demo: Running Python with Spin on Wasm
    github.com/meteatamel/wasm-basics/tree/main/samples/python-spin-wasm
    

    View Slide

30. Language support for Wasm + WASI
    Rust Good support (but no Tokio or async)
    C, C++ Good support (but no C++ exceptions or threads)
    Go Support via TinyGo (but reflection is not supported) and Go 1.21 RC
    JavaScript Support via Shopify’s Javy on QuickJS?
    C#/.NET Support via experimental WASI SDK in .NET 7, wasi-experimental workload
    in .NET 8 preview
    Java Support via a fork by Fermyon of TeaVM (Java to Javascript compiler)?
    Kotlin Support via kowasm and Node experimental WASI API
    Python Support via CPython on wasm32-wasi
    Ruby Support via ruby.wasm
    www.fermyon.com/wasm-languages/webassembly-language-support
    enarx.dev/docs/WebAssembly/Introduction
    

    View Slide

31. Conclusions
    Wasm outside the browser is a fast changing space
    Standards and language support need to mature for
    Wasm microservices
    Will it replace containers? Possibly
    Exciting time to learn this new technology!
    

    View Slide

32. Thank you!
    Mete Atamel
    Developer Advocate at Google
    @meteatamel
    atamel.dev
    speakerdeck.com/meteatamel
    github.com/meteatamel/wasm-basics
    Feedback?
    bit.ly/atamel
    

    View Slide