benchtainer

This is a Docker container that includes all the software needed to build fiber-c examples and run them with wasmfxtime. It should be able to build those things from the form they're in in their respective git repos, and give you a completely compiled artifact, the Docker image, which you can then just start up and use.

It's not intended that it should be limited to fiber-c examples. Maybe we'll want to grow this to other source languages and Wasm producers.

Usage

If you already have a built Docker image, skip to "Use the Image" below.

Prereqs

Initialize the git submodules using

git submodule init
git submodule update --init --recursive

Build the Image

To build the container image, run sudo docker build . -t benchtainer:latest

This will produce an image that's in your local docker installation's registry. It is identified by a hash, or the tag name given (I.e. "benchtainer". The "latest" is a version that's not essential when identifying it.)

To see what images you have locally, run sudo docker images.

Use the Image

Using the hash of the image, you can start up a container using

sudo docker run -d <image> tail -f /dev/null

The is either the hash given when you built it, or a tag like benchtainer.

(The "tail -f /dev/null" is the primary command we're asking it to run in the container; we're choosing this because it doesn't exit and we want our container to start up and sit around so we can run experiments in it.

The above command will give you another hash, which is that of the running container invocation; you'll use that next. (This invocation is what is called a "container" as opposed to the "container image" that we build earlier.)

Now you can run a command using

sudo docker exec <running-hash> <cmd>

Or you can enter a shell like this:

sudo docker exec -i <running-hash> bash

(The shell experience turns out to be crap; TODO: look into how to get a better shell experience.)

If you forget the hash or name of the running container, you can use

sudo docker ps

Note each one has a generated name of two words like flamboyant_beaver or agitated_benz. You can use that instead of the hash.

Destroy one you're done with using

sudo docker kill <running-hash>

Run examples

So here's an example fiber-c run, if the container you've created is called "flamboyant_beaver":

sudo docker exec flamboyant_beaver ../wasmfxtime/target/debug/wasmtime -W=stack-switching,function-references,exceptions /fiber-c/hello_wasmfx.wasm