Wasmer Python
A complete and mature WebAssembly runtime for Python based on
Wasmer.
Features:
Easy to use: The wasmer API mimics the standard WebAssembly API,
Fast: wasmer executes the WebAssembly modules as fast as
possible, close to native speed,
Safe: All calls to WebAssembly will be fast, but more
importantly, completely safe and sandboxed,
Modular: wasmer can compile the WebAssembly modules with
different engines or compiler.
Examples as tutorials: browse the examples/
directory,
it's the best place for a complete introduction!
Quick Introduction
The wasmer package brings the required API to execute WebAssembly
modules. In a nutshell, wasmer compiles the WebAssembly module into
compiled code, and then executes it. wasmer is designed to work in
various environments and platforms: From nano single-board computers
to large and powerful servers, including more exotic ones. To address
those requirements, Wasmer provides 2 engines and 3 compilers.
Succinctly, an engine is responsible to drive the compilation and
the execution of a WebAssembly module. By extension, a headless
engine can only execute a WebAssembly module, i.e. a module that has
previously been compiled, or compiled, serialized and deserialized. By
default, the wasmer package comes with 2 headless engines:
wasmer.engine.JIT, the compiled machine code lives in memory,
wasmer.engine.Native, the compiled machine code lives in a shared
object file (.so, .dylib, or .dll), and is natively executed.
Because wasmer does not embed compilers in its package, engines are
headless, i.e. they can't compile WebAssembly module; they can only
execute them. Compilers live in their own standalone packages. Let's
briefly introduce them:
Compiler package
Description
PyPi
wasmer_compiler_singlepass
Super fast compilation times, slower execution times. Not prone to JIT-bombs. Ideal for blockchains
wasmer_compiler_cranelift
Fast compilation times, fast execution times. Ideal for development
wasmer_compiler_llvm
Slow compilation times, very fast execution times (close to native, sometimes faster). Ideal for Production
We generally recommend wasmer_compiler_cranelift for development
purposes and wasmer_compiler_llvm in production.
Install
To install the wasmer Python package, and let's say the
wasmer_compiler_cranelift compiler, just run those commands in your shell:
$ pip install wasmer==1.0.0a3
$ pip install wasmer_compiler_cranelift==1.0.0a3
And you're ready to get fun!
Example
We highly recommend to the read the
examples/
directory, which contains a sequence of examples/tutorials. It's the
best place to learn by reading examples.
But for the most eager of you, and we know you're numerous you
mischievous, there is a quick toy program in
examples/appendices/simple.rs, written in Rust:
#[no_mangle]
pub extern fn sum(x: i32, y: i32) -> i32 {
x + y
}
After compilation to WebAssembly, the
examples/appendices/simple.wasm
binary file is generated. (Download
it).
Then, we can excecute it in Python:
from wasmer import engine, Store, Module, Instance
from wasmer_compiler_cranelift import Compiler
# Let's define the store, that holds the engine, that holds the compiler.
store = Store(engine.JIT(Compiler))
# Let's compile the module to be able to execute it!
module = Module(store, open('simple.wasm', 'rb').read())
# Now the module is compiled, we can instantiate it.
instance = Instance(module)
# Call the exported `sum` function.
result = instance.exports.sum(5, 37)
print(result) # 42!
And then, finally, enjoy by running:
$ python examples/appendices/simple.py
Development
The Python extension is written in Rust, with pyo3 and
maturin.
First, you need to install Rust and Python. We will not make you the
affront to explain to you how to install Python (if you really need,
check pyenv). For Rust though, we
advise to use rustup, then:
$ rustup install stable
To set up your environment, you'll need just, and then, install
the prelude of this project:
$ cargo install just
$ just --list # to learn about all the available recipes
$ just prelude
It will install pyo3 and maturin for Python and for Rust. It will
also install virtualenv.
Then, simply run:
$ source .env/bin/activate
$ just build api
$ just build compiler-cranelift
$ just python-run examples/appendices/simple.py
If you need to interact with Python, or run a specific file, use the
following commands:
$ just python-run
$ just python-run file/to/run.py
Supported platforms
We try to provide wheels for as many platforms and architectures as
possible. For the moment, here are the supported platforms and
architectures:
Platform
Architecture
Triple
Linux
amd64
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Linux
aarch64
aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
Darwin
amd64
x86_64-apple-darwin
Windows
amd64
x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
Wheels are all built for the following Python versions:
Python 3.5,
Python 3.6,
Python 3.7,
Python 3.8.
Python 3.9.
Learn about the “fallback” py3-none-any wheel
py3-none-any.whl
A special wasmer-$(version)-py3-none-any wheel is built as a
fallback. The wasmer libray will be installable, but it will raise
an ImportError exception saying that “Wasmer is not available on
this system”.
This wheel will be installed if none matches before (learn more by
reading the PEP 425, Compatibility Tags for Built
Distributions).
Testing
Build all the packages and run the tests:
$ just build-all
$ just test
What is WebAssembly?
WebAssembly (abbreviated Wasm) is a binary instruction format for a
stack-based virtual machine. Wasm is designed as a portable target
for compilation of high-level languages like C/C++/Rust, enabling
deployment on the web for client and server applications.
About speed:
WebAssembly aims to execute at native speed by taking advantage of
common hardware
capabilities
available on a wide range of platforms.
About safety:
WebAssembly describes a memory-safe, sandboxed execution
environment […].
License
The entire project is under the MIT License. Please read the
LICENSE file.