mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#1

Post by ereslibre » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 3:34 PM UTC

mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache
wasmlabs.dev

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#2

Post by ereslibre » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 3:34 PM UTC

Apache httpd is a modular web server that powers 31% of all websites you access every day. One of its most compelling features is the ability to extend it with new modules. Developers can choose among different modules to add or remove features like CGI, TLS, PHP, and many others.

Today, we announce a new Apache module to run WebAssembly modules: mod_wasm. This module opens a new set of possibilities as many languages and projects can run securely in Apache.

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#3

Post by gzurl » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 4:15 PM UTC

https://github.com/vmware-labs/mod_wasm

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#4

Post by ofrzeta » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 4:43 PM UTC

so .. OCTO is the Office of the CTO at VMware.

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#5

Post by api » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 4:48 PM UTC

WASM is still too unapproachable. I've looked into how to build things for WASI/WASM and it seems like you're just dropped into this world of tooling and development practices that I'm sure makes tons of sense to people who are already steeped in the WASM ecosystem but is disorienting for someone new.

WASM really needs some getting started guides that describe what the hell is going on and what the capabilities and limitations are and how to... well... get started.

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#6

Post by angelmm » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 5:07 PM UTC

api wrote: post #5

WASM is still too unapproachable. I've looked into how to build things for WASI/WASM and it seems like you're just dropped into this world of tooling and development practices that I'm sure makes tons of sense to people who are already steeped in the WASM ecosystem but is disorienting for someone new. WASM really needs some getting started guides that describe what the hell is going on and what the capabilities and l…

Hey, dev here :)

Totally agree with you. WebAssembly has a lot of potential, but currently the entry barries is quite high and for some use cases, it's not mature enough. As you mention, tooling is unclear, and the ecosystem misses important features such as debugging capabilities.

However, at the same it's an exciting ecosystem for the same reason: there's a lot to explore and improve. Hopefully, these projects we are building gathers the interest from different communities and more people start adding ideas.

And for future ideas, what would you like to be covered in an article about WebAssembly? Thanks!

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#7

Post by politelemon » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 5:39 PM UTC

I struggle to understand wasm, though I'm interested. What does this part mean?

> Internally, it uses the wasmtime runtime to configure, initialize, and run the Wasm modules.

What is wasmtime? I looked at its page and couldn't figure out what they mean by a wasm runtime. I thought the runtime was in the browser. Wouldn't a user just need to compile and just a binary?

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#8

Post by MobiusHorizons » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 5:44 PM UTC

What is the actual problem this is trying to solve? Are there programming languages it was previously hard to write web apps in? Do people not like setting up nginx?

From my understanding the benefit of wasm on the server side is generally that you get the sandboxing inherent in the VM. Why would you want that in the context of Apache? Are people planning on running untrusted code?

If mod_wasm is designed to address any of those issues (which are touched on only briefly in the article), it would be nice for it to describe how using wasm improves over other techniques one might use to solve those problems like using containers or VMs for encapsulating the execution environment.

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#9

Post by lbhdc » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 5:46 PM UTC

politelemon wrote: post #7

I struggle to understand wasm, though I'm interested. What does this part mean? > Internally, it uses the wasmtime runtime to configure, initialize, and run the Wasm modules. What is wasmtime? I looked at its page and couldn't figure out what they mean by a wasm runtime. I thought the runtime was in the browser. Wouldn't a user just need to compile and just a binary?

It is a runtime for wasm. Wasm is not executable in the same way an x86 binary is. It needs to run in a vm. Wasmtime is one such vm. In a browser context that vm is v8.

https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime

Re: mod_wasm: Run WebAssembly with Apache

#10

Post by moralestapia » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 5:46 PM UTC

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #8

What is the actual problem this is trying to solve? Are there programming languages it was previously hard to write web apps in? Do people not like setting up nginx? From my understanding the benefit of wasm on the server side is generally that you get the sandboxing inherent in the VM. Why would you want that in the context of Apache? Are people planning on running untrusted code? If mod_wasm is designed to address…

Two types of developers I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think this has a bright future ahead:

* wasm has a lot of traction, just yesterday I wrote a first test on deploying wasm to cloudflare workers (the latency when the deployed function was really low)

* apache httpd is still one of the most used http servers in the wild

So, I think it's just a natural fit.

wasm will be huge, btw, if you haven't noticed that you haven't been paying attention.