Updated API and memory management in Wasmer 3.0

Published on Nov 29, 2022

Additionally, the server-side WebAssembly runtime simplifies the way engines work, allows WAPM packages to be run from the command line, and allows native executables to be created for any platform.

Wasmer’s server-side runtime for WebAssembly (Wasm) has just been updated to version 3.0, which includes enhanced APIs, improved memory management, and support for WAPM (WebAssembly Package Manager) packages.

Wasmer 3.0 was launched on November 23 and features a rewritten Rust API. As a result of this new API and memory management style, developers can safely store Wasm objects in the Store. Wasmer 3.0 introduces a new MemoryView and brings wasmer-js, which runs Wasmer in the browser with wasmer-bindgen, on par with wasmer-sys, which runs Wasmer natively. With the wasmer run command, any package published to wapm.io can now be run directly from the Wasmer command line interface.

Described as a fast, secure WebAssembly runtime, Wasmer allows lightweight Wasm containers to run on desktops, in the cloud, at the edge, and on IoT devices.

Instructions for migrating from Wasmer 2x to Wasmer 3.0 have been published by the project. Wasmer 3.0 also includes the following changes:

There has been an overall improvement in the safety and ergonomics of the Wasmer API.

We have simplified the various Wasmer engines including dylib, universal, and others into one to facilitate code reuse.

The create-exe subcommand has been redesigned. Wasmer can now convert WebAssembly files into native executables for Windows, Linux, or macOS. By doing so, executables can be distributed to users without them having to install Wasmer themselves.

Using the Rykv framework for zero-copy deserialization of build artifacts has improved startup performance.

Compiler improvements include support for multi-value functions, exception handling frames, and performance enhancements.

Multiple bugs have been fixed in the Wasmer WASI (WebAssembly System Interface) implementation. Using WebAssembly interfaces, the file system and inner types have been reworked.