Doing Server Side WebAssembly the Hard Way
Talkat WasmCon 2023 · on Thursday, 2023-09-07· at 15:30· Grand Ballroom E, Hyatt Regency Bellevue, 900 Bellevue Way NE·
summary
NGINX Unit hooks Wasmtime into the HTTP path and finds raw byte streams easy but metadata hard: initial CGI-style prototype runs but segfaults when C-compiled modules and Wasmtime both grow memory. Fixes include stack/heap separation and forcing Wasmtime to initialize memory so modules use a 32MB buffer for request/response passing; large uploads stream through that window. A Rust SDK replaces unsafe C toolchains, a demo adds JSON numbers successfully, and future work targets WASI HTTP for standardized server-side metadata.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Graphical web and WebAssembly
- 3:31Mosaic to modern web apps
- 7:48Web app backend evolution
- 12:36Why server-side WASM
- 14:02NGINX Unit runtime
- 17:15WebAssembly in Unit design
- 18:43Early WASM struggles
- 22:55Rust SDK for devs
- 24:05Live WASM demo in Unit
- 34:18Portable WASM benefits
- 35:23Future plans
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