Files
wasmtime/docs/stability-platform-support.md
Alex Crichton 39e57e3e9a Migrate back to std:: stylistically (#554)
* Migrate back to `std::` stylistically

This commit moves away from idioms such as `alloc::` and `core::` as
imports of standard data structures and types. Instead it migrates all
crates to uniformly use `std::` for importing standard data structures
and types. This also removes the `std` and `core` features from all
crates to and removes any conditional checking for `feature = "std"`

All of this support was previously added in #407 in an effort to make
wasmtime/cranelift "`no_std` compatible". Unfortunately though this
change comes at a cost:

* The usage of `alloc` and `core` isn't idiomatic. Especially trying to
  dual between types like `HashMap` from `std` as well as from
  `hashbrown` causes imports to be surprising in some cases.
* Unfortunately there was no CI check that crates were `no_std`, so none
  of them actually were. Many crates still imported from `std` or
  depended on crates that used `std`.

It's important to note, however, that **this does not mean that wasmtime
will not run in embedded environments**. The style of the code today and
idioms aren't ready in Rust to support this degree of multiplexing and
makes it somewhat difficult to keep up with the style of `wasmtime`.
Instead it's intended that embedded runtime support will be added as
necessary. Currently only `std` is necessary to build `wasmtime`, and
platforms that natively need to execute `wasmtime` will need to use a
Rust target that supports `std`. Note though that not all of `std` needs
to be supported, but instead much of it could be configured off to
return errors, and `wasmtime` would be configured to gracefully handle
errors.

The goal of this PR is to move `wasmtime` back to idiomatic usage of
features/`std`/imports/etc and help development in the short-term.
Long-term when platform concerns arise (if any) they can be addressed by
moving back to `no_std` crates (but fixing the issues mentioned above)
or ensuring that the target in Rust has `std` available.

* Start filling out platform support doc
2019-11-18 22:04:06 -08:00

1.8 KiB

Platform Support

The wasmtime project is a configurable and lightweight runtime for WebAssembly which has a number of ways it can be configured. Not all features are supported on all platforms, but it is intended that wasmtime can run in some capacity on almost all platforms! The matrix of what's being tested, what works, and what's supported where is evolving over time, and this document hopes to capture a snapshot of what the current state of the world looks like.

All features of wasmtime should work on the following platforms:

  • Linux x86_64
  • macOS x86_64
  • Windows x86_64

For more detailed information about supported platforms, please check out the sections below!

JIT compiler support

The JIT compiler, backed by either lightbeam or cranelift supports only the x86_64 architecture at this time. Support for at least ARM, AArch64, and x86 is planned at this time.

Usage of the JIT compiler will require a host operating system which supports creating executable memory pages on-the-fly. In Rust terms this generally means that std needs to be supported on this platform.

Interpreter support

At this time wasmtime does not have a mode in which it simply interprets WebAssembly code. It is planned to add support for an interpreter, however, and this will have minimal system dependencies. It is planned that the system will need to support some form of dynamic memory allocation, but other than that not much else will be needed.

What about #[no_std]?

The wasmtime project does not currently use #[no_std] for its crates, but this is not because it won't support it! At this time we're still gathering use cases for for what #[no_std] might entail, so if you're interested in this we'd love to hear about your use case! Feel free to open an issue on the wasmtime repository to discuss this.