Multiple language runtimes
Wasm Workers Server allows you to extend the supported languages by adding new language runtimes. In other words, you can run workers based on languages like Python or Ruby.
How it works?
To provide these language runtimes, wws relies on the WebAssembly Language Runtimes project. It provides popular language runtimes precompiled to WebAssembly, like Ruby and Python. wws integrates with this repository and allows you to list, install and uninstall the different available languages:
wws runtimes --help
Usage: wws runtimes [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>
Commands:
install Install a new language runtime (like Ruby, Python, etc)
list List all available runtimes to install. By default, it uses the WebAssembly Language Runtime repository
check List of locally installed runtimes
uninstall Uninstall a language runtime
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Options:
--repo-url <REPO_URL> Set a different repository URL
--repo-name <REPO_NAME> Gives a name to the given repository URL
-h, --help Print help information
The .wws.toml file
After installing a language runtime, wws creates a .wws.toml file in your project folder. This file saves the language runtime metadata. We recommend you to commit this file to your repository. It allows other developers to install the required language runtimes by running a single command:
wws runtimes install
Manage language runtimes
List available language runtimes
You can list the avilable runtimes with the runtimes list command:
wws runtimes list
⚙️ Fetching data from the repository...
┌────────┬─────────┬───────────┬─────────────┐
│ Name │ Version │ Extension │ Binary │
├────────┼─────────┼───────────┼─────────────┤
│ ruby │ 3.2.0 │ rb │ ruby.wasm │
├────────┼─────────┼───────────┼─────────────┤
│ python │ 3.11.1 │ py │ python.wasm │
└────────┴─────────┴───────────┴─────────────┘
The table provides the following data:
- Name: the name of the language runtime
- Version: a specific version for that language runtime. You can find multiple versions and variations
- Extension: the file extension associated to this language runtimes. For example,
wwswill load*.rbas workers if you install therubyruntime - Binary: the name of the Wasm module
Install a new language runtime
To install a new language runtime, you need to provide the name and the version in the given repository:
wws runtimes install ruby 3.2.0
⚙️ Fetching data from the repository...
🚀 Installing the runtime...
✅ Done
The language runtime and required files will be installed in the .wws folder:
tree ./.wws
./.wws
└── runtimes
└── wlr
├── python
│ └── 3.11.1
│ ├── poly.py
│ ├── python.wasm
│ └── template.txt
└── ruby
└── 3.2.0
├── poly.rb
├── ruby.wasm
└── template.txt
Install the language runtimes for an existing project
If the project has a .wws.toml file, you can install quickly all the required language runtimes. You can run the runtimes install command without any extra parameter. wws will read the configuration file and install all missing runtimes:
./wws runtimes install
⚙️ Checking local configuration...
🚀 Installing: wlr - python / 3.11.1
🚀 Installing: wlr - ruby / 3.2.0
✅ Done
Check installed language runtimes
You can check the installed language runtimes with the runtimes check command:
wws runtimes check
┌───────────┬────────┬─────────┬───────────┬─────────────┐
│ Installed │ Name │ Version │ Extension │ Binary │
├───────────┼────────┼─────────┼───────────┼─────────────┤
│ ✅ │ python │ 3.11.1 │ py │ python.wasm │
├───────────┼────────┼─────────┼───────────┼─────────────┤
│ ✅ │ ruby │ 3.2.0 │ rb │ ruby.wasm │
└───────────┴────────┴─────────┴───────────┴─────────────┘
If a runtime is present in the .wws.toml file but it's not installed in the system, the "Installed" field will show an error:
wws runtimes check
┌───────────┬────────┬─────────┬───────────┬─────────────┐
│ Installed │ Name │ Version │ Extension │ Binary │
├───────────┼────────┼─────────┼───────────┼─────────────┤
│ ❌ │ python │ 3.11.1 │ py │ python.wasm │
├───────────┼────────┼─────────┼───────────┼─────────────┤
│ ❌ │ ruby │ 3.2.0 │ rb │ ruby.wasm │
└───────────┴────────┴─────────┴───────────┴─────────────┘
💡 Tip: there are missing language runtimes. You can install them with `wws runtimes install`
We recommend you to check the 💡 tips as they provide very useful information
Uninstall a language runtime
To uninstall a language runtime, use the runtimes uninstall command and provide the runtime name and version. You can get this information from the runtimes check command.
wws runtimes uninstall ruby 3.2.0
🗑 Uninstalling: wlr - ruby / 3.2.0
✅ Done
This command also edits the .wws.toml file to remove any reference to that specific runtime
Configure a different repository
By default, wws relies on the binaries from the WebAssembly Language Runtimes project. This project contains precompiled language runtimes for many popular languages. When you call the list or install commands, wws fetches the metadata from this project and continue processing your request.
If you want to set your own language runtimes repository, you can configure wws to fetch the metadata from a different place. For that, you can define the WWS_REPO_NAME and WWS_REPO_URL environment variables or use the --repo-name and --repo-url arguments:
# Via environment variables
export WWS_REPO_NAME=my-repo
export WWS_REPO_URL=https://example.com/index.toml
# Via arguments
wws runtimes list --repo-name=my-repo --repo-url=https://example.com/index.toml
wws runtimes install ruby 3.2.0 --repo-name=my-repo --repo-url=https://example.com/index.toml
After installing a language runtime, the repository information is also stored in the .wws.toml file. Developers that install the required language runtimes for an existing project will download them always from the right repository.