* Fully support multiple returns in Wasmtime For quite some time now Wasmtime has "supported" multiple return values, but only in the mose bare bones ways. Up until recently you couldn't get a typed version of functions with multiple return values, and never have you been able to use `Func::wrap` with functions that return multiple values. Even recently where `Func::typed` can call functions that return multiple values it uses a double-indirection by calling a trampoline which calls the real function. The underlying reason for this lack of support is that cranelift's ABI for returning multiple values is not possible to write in Rust. For example if a wasm function returns two `i32` values there is no Rust (or C!) function you can write to correspond to that. This commit, however fixes that. This commit adds two new ABIs to Cranelift: `WasmtimeSystemV` and `WasmtimeFastcall`. The intention is that these Wasmtime-specific ABIs match their corresponding ABI (e.g. `SystemV` or `WindowsFastcall`) for everything *except* how multiple values are returned. For multiple return values we simply define our own version of the ABI which Wasmtime implements, which is that for N return values the first is returned as if the function only returned that and the latter N-1 return values are returned via an out-ptr that's the last parameter to the function. These custom ABIs provides the ability for Wasmtime to bind these in Rust meaning that `Func::wrap` can now wrap functions that return multiple values and `Func::typed` no longer uses trampolines when calling functions that return multiple values. Although there's lots of internal changes there's no actual changes in the API surface area of Wasmtime, just a few more impls of more public traits which means that more types are supported in more places! Another change made with this PR is a consolidation of how the ABI of each function in a wasm module is selected. The native `SystemV` ABI, for example, is more efficient at returning multiple values than the wasmtime version of the ABI (since more things are in more registers). To continue to take advantage of this Wasmtime will now classify some functions in a wasm module with the "fast" ABI. Only functions that are not reachable externally from the module are classified with the fast ABI (e.g. those not exported, used in tables, or used with `ref.func`). This should enable purely internal functions of modules to have a faster calling convention than those which might be exposed to Wasmtime itself. Closes #1178 * Tweak some names and add docs * "fix" lightbeam compile * Fix TODO with dummy environ * Unwind info is a property of the target, not the ABI * Remove lightbeam unused imports * Attempt to fix arm64 * Document new ABIs aren't stable * Fix filetests to use the right target * Don't always do 64-bit stores with cranelift This was overwriting upper bits when 32-bit registers were being stored into return values, so fix the code inline to do a sized store instead of one-size-fits-all store. * At least get tests passing on the old backend * Fix a typo * Add some filetests with mixed abi calls * Get `multi` example working * Fix doctests on old x86 backend * Add a mixture of wasmtime/system_v tests
Lightbeam
Lightbeam is an optimising one-pass streaming compiler for WebAssembly, intended for use in Wasmtime.
Quality of output
Already - with a very small number of relatively simple optimisation rules - Lightbeam produces surprisingly high-quality output considering how restricted it is. It even produces better code than Cranelift, Firefox or both for some workloads. Here's a very simple example, this recursive fibonacci function in Rust:
fn fib(n: i32) -> i32 {
if n == 0 || n == 1 {
1
} else {
fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2)
}
}
When compiled with optimisations enabled, rustc will produce the following WebAssembly:
(module
(func $fib (param $p0 i32) (result i32)
(local $l1 i32)
(set_local $l1
(i32.const 1))
(block $B0
(br_if $B0
(i32.lt_u
(get_local $p0)
(i32.const 2)))
(set_local $l1
(i32.const 1))
(loop $L1
(set_local $l1
(i32.add
(call $fib
(i32.add
(get_local $p0)
(i32.const -1)))
(get_local $l1)))
(br_if $L1
(i32.gt_u
(tee_local $p0
(i32.add
(get_local $p0)
(i32.const -2)))
(i32.const 1)))))
(get_local $l1)))
Firefox's optimising compiler produces the following assembly (labels cleaned up somewhat):
fib:
sub rsp, 0x18
cmp qword ptr [r14 + 0x28], rsp
jae stack_overflow
mov dword ptr [rsp + 0xc], edi
cmp edi, 2
jae .Lelse
mov eax, 1
mov dword ptr [rsp + 8], eax
jmp .Lreturn
.Lelse:
mov dword ptr [rsp + 0xc], edi
mov eax, 1
mov dword ptr [rsp + 8], eax
.Lloop:
mov edi, dword ptr [rsp + 0xc]
add edi, -1
call 0
mov ecx, dword ptr [rsp + 8]
add ecx, eax
mov dword ptr [rsp + 8], ecx
mov ecx, dword ptr [rsp + 0xc]
add ecx, -2
mov dword ptr [rsp + 0xc], ecx
cmp ecx, 1
ja .Lloop
.Lreturn:
mov eax, dword ptr [rsp + 8]
nop
add rsp, 0x18
ret
Cranelift with optimisations enabled produces similar:
fib:
push rbp
mov rbp, rsp
sub rsp, 0x20
mov qword ptr [rsp + 0x10], rdi
mov dword ptr [rsp + 0x1c], esi
mov eax, 1
mov dword ptr [rsp + 0x18], eax
mov eax, dword ptr [rsp + 0x1c]
cmp eax, 2
jb .Lreturn
movabs rax, 0
mov qword ptr [rsp + 8], rax
.Lloop:
mov eax, dword ptr [rsp + 0x1c]
add eax, -1
mov rcx, qword ptr [rsp + 8]
mov rdx, qword ptr [rsp + 0x10]
mov rdi, rdx
mov esi, eax
call rcx
mov ecx, dword ptr [rsp + 0x18]
add eax, ecx
mov dword ptr [rsp + 0x18], eax
mov eax, dword ptr [rsp + 0x1c]
add eax, -2
mov dword ptr [rsp + 0x1c], eax
mov eax, dword ptr [rsp + 0x1c]
cmp eax, 1
ja .Lloop
.Lreturn:
mov eax, dword ptr [rsp + 0x18]
add rsp, 0x20
pop rbp
ret
Whereas Lightbeam produces smaller code with far fewer memory accesses than both (and fewer blocks than Firefox's output):
fib:
cmp esi, 2
mov eax, 1
jb .Lreturn
mov eax, 1
.Lloop:
mov rcx, rsi
add ecx, 0xffffffff
push rsi
push rax
push rax
mov rsi, rcx
call fib
add eax, [rsp + 8]
mov rcx, [rsp + 0x10]
add ecx, 0xfffffffe
cmp ecx, 1
mov rsi, rcx
lea rsp, [rsp + 0x18]
ja .Lloop
.Lreturn:
ret
Now obviously I'm not advocating for replacing Firefox's optimising compiler with Lightbeam since the latter can only really produce better code when receiving optimised WebAssembly (and so debug-mode or hand-written WebAssembly may produce much worse output). However, this shows that even with the restrictions of a streaming compiler it's absolutely possible to produce high-quality assembly output. For the assembly above, the Lightbeam output runs within 15% of native speed. This is paramount for one of Lightbeam's intended usecases for real-time systems that want good runtime performance but cannot tolerate compiler bombs.
Specification compliance
Lightbeam passes 100% of the specification test suite, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's 100% specification-compliant. Hopefully as we run a fuzzer against it we can find any issues and get Lightbeam to a state where it can be used in production.
Getting involved
You can file issues in the Wasmtime issue tracker. If you want to get involved jump into the Bytecode Alliance Zulip and someone can direct you to the right place. I wish I could say "the most useful thing you can do is play with it and open issues where you find problems" but until it passes the spec suite that won't be very helpful.