[HN Gopher] Container2wasm: Convert Containers to WASM Blobs ___________________________________________________________________ Container2wasm: Convert Containers to WASM Blobs Author : api Score : 113 points Date : 2024-01-03 17:10 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (github.com) (TXT) w3m dump (github.com) | ronsor wrote: | This is quite cool... | | But at the same time, please tell me this is not the future of | software packaging. | withinboredom wrote: | Allow me to introduce you to | https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death... | | Everything is on track. | actionfromafar wrote: | _Newt:_ My mommy always said there were no monsters, no real | ones, but there are. | | _Ripley:_ Yes, there are, aren 't there? | | _Newt:_ Why do they tell little kids that? | | _Ripley:_ Most of the time it 's true. | | --- | | But yes, I do believe this has a strong, serverless future. | ronsor wrote: | Downloading a 50MB WASM blob to run an emulator to boot a | Linux kernel and then start an HTTP server to handle a single | request is utter madness, which is probably why this will | become popular to do. | flir wrote: | I can see my house from up here! | bnchrch wrote: | If this is a step on the road to wasm being the primary target | for packaging applications (without a docker image + x86 | emulator intermediary)... | | Then I am all for it. | mteam88 wrote: | Would recommend checking out the container examples, they are | suprisingly fast. | | https://ktock.github.io/container2wasm-demo/ | dave1010uk wrote: | Any performance benchmarks or details of the practicality? Eg | could this run on something like Cloudflare Workers? | johncolanduoni wrote: | Wow, haven't seen Bochs mentioned since I was doing hobby OS | development 15 years ago. I guess there's not a ton of emulators | that don't use JIT or hardware extensions these days. | ex3ndr wrote: | Same here! One of my very first apps for android 1.1 was a port | of bochs =) | loxias wrote: | Whyyyyyyy. | | _bangs head into desk_ | txdv wrote: | Maybe these containers should be build for wasm-wasi instead of | x86 from the beginning? Then there would be no need to emulate | x86 in wasm | jedisct1 wrote: | Because "wasm-wasi" is not a CPU that Linux runs on. | traverseda wrote: | But, if docker is running on WASM-WASI like it is here, maybe | it's possible to do a full build toolchain as well? | jedisct1 wrote: | Docker is not running on wasm. There's a wasm app, that is | a x86_64 CPU emulator, used to run a Linux VM, on top of | which anything can run. Including existing Docker images | for x86_64. | momojo wrote: | Is this a "why not" project, or are there real-world use cases | for this? | simonw wrote: | Being able to run ANY Docker container directly in the browser | is incredibly useful. The most obvious application is | educational environments - this makes it trivial to provide all | sorts of software for students to tinker with without needing | to run any server-side code anywhere, just some static file | hosting. | Havoc wrote: | I very much doubt it's "any" docker image. WASM isn't 1:1 | feature equivalent with docker. e.g. filesystem access | jedisct1 wrote: | There are tons of real-world use cases. | | WASM is more or more being used to extend applications with | custom functions/plugins, as well as function-as-a-service | services. But they usually require writing custom code, | specifically for these environments. | | The ability to build standard containers, use any languages and | tools, run shell scripts, etc. makes WebAssembly far more | accessible. Complex applications can be tested natively, and | deployed effortlessly later to environments that require | WebAssembly. | | From a performance perspective, this is not optimal. But from a | productivity perspective, this is awesome, and definitely | something to have in your toolbox when all you need is get | things done. | rehitman wrote: | If this performs, and it is a big if, it can make life a lot | easier for people with stateful services. You just push the | service back to the browers and you are done. It can be a lot | cheaper and lot faster, and also reduce complexity of making a | stateful service scalable and reliable. | ble wrote: | the most amazing, most wirth's law project | Y_Y wrote: | FROM riscv64/alpine:20230208 RUN apt-get update && apt- | get install -y curl | | The demo really is Debian, but it seems like the docs are | confused about which images use Alpine instead. | apignotti wrote: | Shameless self-promotion: https://webvm.io | | Powered by a x86->Wasm JIT. Technical writeup: | https://labs.leaningtech.com/blog/webvm-server-less-x86-virt... | jpeeler wrote: | Do any GUI frameworks support WASM? | | I've been looking for a way to run GUI applications remotely for | a while, specifically on a wlroots compositor. Projects like this | (maybe one day) and https://github.com/udevbe/greenfield are | interesting since they essentially make access universally | accessible. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2024-01-03 23:00 UTC)