Table of Contents

• WebAssembly System Interface (WASI)

  • Class: WASI

    • new WASI([options])
    • wasi.start(instance)
    • wasi.wasiImport

WebAssembly System Interface (WASI)#

The WASI API provides an implementation of the WebAssembly System Interface specification. WASI gives sandboxed WebAssembly applications access to the underlying operating system via a collection of POSIX-like functions.

'use strict';
const fs = require('fs');
const { WASI } = require('wasi');
const wasi = new WASI({
  args: process.argv,
  env: process.env,
  preopens: {
    '/sandbox': '/some/real/path/that/wasm/can/access'
  }
});
const importObject = { wasi_snapshot_preview1: wasi.wasiImport };

(async () => {
  const wasm = await WebAssembly.compile(fs.readFileSync('./binary.wasm'));
  const instance = await WebAssembly.instantiate(wasm, importObject);

  wasi.start(instance);
})();

The --experimental-wasi-unstable-preview1 and --experimental-wasm-bigint CLI arguments are needed for the previous example to run.

Class: WASI#

The WASI class provides the WASI system call API and additional convenience methods for working with WASI-based applications. Each WASI instance represents a distinct sandbox environment. For security purposes, each WASI instance must have its command line arguments, environment variables, and sandbox directory structure configured explicitly.

new WASI([options])#

• options <Object>

  • args <Array> An array of strings that the WebAssembly application will see as command line arguments. The first argument is the virtual path to the WASI command itself. Default: [].
  • env <Object> An object similar to process.env that the WebAssembly application will see as its environment. Default: {}.
  • preopens <Object> This object represents the WebAssembly application's sandbox directory structure. The string keys of preopens are treated as directories within the sandbox. The corresponding values in preopens are the real paths to those directories on the host machine.
  • returnOnExit <boolean> By default, WASI applications terminate the Node.js process via the __wasi_proc_exit() function. Setting this option to true causes wasi.start() to return the exit code rather than terminate the process. Default: false.

wasi.start(instance)#

• instance <WebAssembly.Instance>

Attempt to begin execution of instance by invoking its _start() export. If instance does not contain a _start() export, then start() attempts to invoke the __wasi_unstable_reactor_start() export. If neither of those exports is present on instance, then start() does nothing.

start() requires that instance exports a WebAssembly.Memory named memory. If instance does not have a memory export an exception is thrown.

wasi.wasiImport#

• <Object>

wasiImport is an object that implements the WASI system call API. This object should be passed as the wasi_snapshot_preview1 import during the instantiation of a WebAssembly.Instance.