Changelog

This document describes changes between tagged Binaryen versions.

To browse or download snapshots of old tagged versions, visit https://github.com/WebAssembly/binaryen/releases.

Not all changes are documented here. In particular, new features, user-oriented fixes, options, command-line parameters, usage changes, deprecations, significant internal modifications and optimizations etc. generally deserve a mention. To examine the full set of changes between versions, visit the link to full changeset diff at the end of each section.

Current Trunk

v112

  • Add AbstractTypeRefining pass (#5461)
  • Add a mechanism to skip a pass by name (#5448)
  • Add TypeMerging pass (#5321)
  • Add TypeSSA pass (#5299)
  • Optimization sequences like -O3 -Os now do the expected thing and run -O3 followed by -Os. Previously the last of them set the defaults that were used by all executions, so -O3 -Os was equivalent to -Os -Os. (There is no change to the default optimization level that other passes can see. For example, --precompute-propagate -O2 -O1 will run --precompute-propagate at opt level 1, as the global default is set to 2 and then overridden to 1. The only change is that the passes run by -O2 will actually run -O2 now, while before they'd use the global default which made them do -O1.)
  • Add --closed-world flag. This enables more optimizations in GC mode as it lets us assume that we can change types inside the module.
  • The isorecursive WasmGC type system (i.e. --hybrid) is now the default to match the spec and the old default equirecursive (i.e. --structural) system has been removed.
  • ref.is_func, ref.is_data, and ref.is_i31 have been removed from the C and JS APIs and RefIs has been replaced with RefIsNull.
  • Types Data and Dataref have been replaced with types Struct and Structref in the C and JS APIs.
  • BinaryenStringNew now takes an additional last argument, try_, indicating whether the instruction is one of string.new_utf8_try respectively string.new_utf8_array_try.
  • BinaryenStringEq now takes an additional second argument, op, that is either BinaryenStringEqEqual() if the instruction is string.eq or BinaryenStringEqCompare() if the instruction is string.compare.

v111

  • Add extra memory64 argument for BinaryenSetMemory and new BinaryenMemoryIs64 C-API method to determine 64-bit memory. (#4963)
  • TypeBuilderSetSubType now takes a supertype as the second argument.
  • call_ref now takes a mandatory signature type immediate.
  • If THROW_ON_FATAL is defined at compile-time, then fatal errors will throw a std::runtime_error instead of terminating the process. This may be used by embedders of Binaryen to recover from errors.
  • Implemented bottom heap types: none, nofunc, and noextern. RefNull expressions and null Literals must now have type nullref, nullfuncref, or nullexternref.
  • The C-API's BinaryenTypeI31ref and BinaryenTypeDataref now return nullable types.
  • The sign-extension and mutable-globals features are now both enabled by default in all tools. This is in order to match llvm's defaults (See https://reviews.llvm.org/D125728).
  • Add a pass to lower sign-extension operations to MVP.

v110

  • Add support for non-nullable locals in wasm GC. (#4959)
  • Add support for multiple memories. (#4811)
  • Add support for the wasm Strings proposal. (see PRs with [Strings] in name)
  • Add a new flag to Directize, --pass-arg=directize-initial-contents-immutable which indicates the initial table contents are immutable. That is the case for LLVM, for example, and it allows us to optimize more indirect calls to direct ones. (#4942)
  • Change constant values of some reference types in the C and JS APIs. This is only observable if you hardcode specific values instead of calling the relevant methods (like BinaryenTypeDataref()). (#4755)
  • BinaryenModulePrintStackIR, BinaryenModuleWriteStackIR and BinaryenModuleAllocateAndWriteStackIR now have an extra boolean argument optimize. (#4832)
  • Remove support for the let instruction that has been removed from the typed function references spec.
  • HeapType::ext has been restored but is no longer a subtype of HeapType::any to match the latest updates in the GC spec. (#4898)
  • i31ref and dataref are now nullable to match the latest GC spec. (#4843)
  • Add support for extern.externalize and extern.internalize. (#4975)

v109

  • Add Global Struct Inference pass (#4659) (#4714)
  • Restore and fix SpillPointers pass (#4570)
  • Update relaxed SIMD instructions to latest spec

v108

  • Add CMake flag BUILD_TOOLS to control building tools (#4655)
  • Add CMake flag JS_OF_OCAML for js_of_ocaml (#4637)
  • Remove externref (#4633)

v107

  • Update the wasm GC type section binary format (#4625, #4631)
  • Lift the restriction in liveness-traversal.h on max 65535 locals (#4567)
  • Switch to nominal fuzzing by default (#4610)
  • Refactor Feature::All to match FeatureSet.setAll() (#4557)
  • New Signature Pruning pass (#4545)
  • Add support for extended-const proposal (#4529)
  • Add BUILD_TESTS CMake option to make gtest dependency optional.
  • Updated tests to use filecheck 0.0.22 (#4537). Updating is required to successfully run the lit tests. This can be done with pip3 install -r requirements-dev.txt.

v106

  • [wasm2js] Support exports of Globals (#4523)
  • MergeSimilarFunctions optimization pass (#4414)
  • Various wasm-ctor-eval improvements, including support for GC.

v105

  • This release contains binaries for ARM64 MacOS devices (#4397)
  • Otherwise, mostly bug fixes and incremental optimization improvements.

v104

  • Bugfixes only, release created due to incorrect github release artifacts in v103 release (#4398).

v103

  • The EffectAnalyzer now takes advantage of immutability of globals. To achieve that it must have access to the module. That is already the case in the C++ API, but the JS API allowed one to optionally not add a module when calling getSideEffects(). It is now mandatory to pass in the module.
  • JS and Wasm builds now emit ECMAScript modules. New usage is:
    import Binaryen from "path/to/binaryen.js";
const binaryen = await Binaryen();
...
  • CallIndirect changed from storing a Signature to storing a HeapType

v102

  • Add BinaryenUpdateMaps to the C API.

  • Adds a TrapsNeverHappen mode (#4059). This has many of the benefits of IgnoreImplicitTraps, but can be used safely in more cases. IgnoreImplicitTraps is now deprecated.

  • Adds type argument for BinaryenAddTable method (#4107). For the binaryen.js api this parameter is optional and by default is set to funcref type.

  • Replace BinaryenExpressionGetSideEffects's features parameter with a module parameter.

  • OptimizeInstructions now lifts identical code in select/if arms (#3828). This may cause direct BinaryenTupleExtract(BinaryenTupleMake(...)) to use multivalue types.

v101

  • BinaryenSetFunctionTable and module.setFunctionTable have been removed in favor of BinaryenAddTable and module.addTable respectively.
  • BinaryenIsFunctionTableImported is removed.
  • A new type BinaryenElementSegmentRef has been added to the C API with new apis in both C & JS:
    • BinaryenAddActiveElementSegment
    • BinaryenAddPassiveElementSegment
    • BinaryenRemoveElementSegment
    • BinaryenGetElementSegment
    • BinaryenGetElementSegmentByIndex
    • BinaryenElementSegmentGetName
    • BinaryenElementSegmentSetName
    • BinaryenElementSegmentGetTable
    • BinaryenElementSegmentSetTable
    • BinayenElementSegmentIsPassive
    • module.addActiveElementSegment
    • module.addPassiveElementSegment
    • module.removeElementSegment
    • module.getElementSegment
    • module.getElementSegmentByIndex
    • module.getTableSegments
    • module.getNumElementSegments
    • binaryen.getElementSegmentInfo
  • BinaryenAddTable and module.addTable no longer take offset and function names.
  • BinaryenGetNumFunctionTableSegments is replaced with BinaryenGetNumElementSegments.
  • BinaryenGetFunctionTableSegmentOffset is replaced with BinaryenElementSegmentGetOffset.
  • BinaryenGetFunctionTableSegmentLength is replaced with BinaryenElementSegmentGetLength.
  • BinaryenGetFunctionTableSegmentData is replaced with BinaryenElementSegmentGetData.
  • Boolean values in the C API now should use bool instead of int.
  • Experimental SIMD instructions have been removed and the names and opcodes of the standard instructions have been updated to match the final spec.

v100

  • wasm-dis now supports options to enable or disable Wasm features.
  • Reference types support has been improved by allowing multiple tables in a module.
  • call_indirect and return_call_indirect now take an additional table name parameter. This is necessary for reference types support.
  • New getter/setter methods have been introduced for call_indirect table name:
    • BinaryenCallIndirectGetTable
    • BinaryenCallIndirectSetTable
    • JS API CallIndirect.table
  • New APIs have been added to add and manipulate multiple tables in a module:
    • BinaryenAddTable
    • BinaryenRemoveTable
    • BinaryenGetNumTables
    • BinaryenGetTable
    • BinaryenGetTableByIndex
    • BinaryenTableGetName
    • BinaryenTableGetInitial
    • BinaryenTableHasMax
    • BinaryenTableGetMax
    • BinaryenTableImportGetModule
    • BinaryenTableImportGetBase
    • module.addTable
    • module.removeTable
    • module.getTable
    • module.getTableByIndex
    • module.getNumTables
    • binaryen.getTableInfo

v99

  • Fix optimization behavior on assuming memory is zero-filled. We made that assumption before, but it is incorrect in general, which caused problems. The fixed behavior is to not assume it, but require the user to pass it in as a flag, --zero-filled-memory. Large binaries with lots of empty bytes in the data section may regress without that flag. Toolchains like Emscripten can pass the flag automatically for users if they know it is right to assume, which can avoid any regressions. (#3306)
  • RefFunc C and JS API constructors (BinaryenRefFunc and ref.func respectively) now take an extra type parameter, similar to RefNull. This is necessary for typed function references support.
  • JS API functions for atomic notify/wait instructions are renamed.
    • module.atomic.notify -> module.memory.atomic.notify
    • module.i32.atomic.wait -> module.memory.atomic.wait32
    • module.i64.atomic.wait -> module.memory.atomic.wait64
  • Remove old/broken SpollPointers pass. This pass: Spills values that might be pointers to the C stack. This allows Boehm-style GC to see them properly. This can be revived if needed from git history (#3261).
  • Make NUM_PARAMS in FuncCastEmulation a runtime configuration option named max-func-params. This defaults to the original value of 16.
  • BinaryenGetFunction, BinaryenGetGlobal and BinaryenGetEvent now return NULL instead of aborting when the respective element does not yet exist.

v98

  • Add --fast-math mode. (#3155)
  • Initial implementation of “Memory64” proposal (#3130)
  • Lots of changes in support of GC proposal

v97

  • Remove asm2wasm, which supported Emscripten's fastcomp backend, after fastcomp was removed.
  • The new feature flag --enable-anyref enables just the anyref type incl. basic subtyping of externref, funcref and exnref (if enabled).
  • Enabling the exception handling or anyref features without also enabling reference types is a validation error now.
  • The Host expression and its respective APIs have been refactored into separate MemorySize and MemoryGrow expressions to align with other memory instructions.

v96

  • Fuzzing: Compare wasm2js to the interpreter (#3026)
  • Fix CountLeadingZeroes on MSVC, which lead to bad optimizations (#3028)
  • Asyncify verbose option (#3022)
  • wasm2js: Add an “Export” scope for name resolution, avoids annoying warnings (#2998)
  • Extend the C- and JS-APIs (#2586)

v95

  • Add Asyncify “add list” that adds to the list of functions to be instrumented. Rename old lists to be clearer and more consistent with that, so now there is “remove list” to remove, “add list” to add, and “only list” which if set means that only those functions should be instrumented and nothing else.
  • Renamed various ambiguous C-API functions for consistency:
    • BinaryenBlockGetChild to BinaryenBlockGetChildAt
    • BinaryenSwitchGetName to BinaryenSwitchGetNameAt
    • BinaryenCallGetOperand to BinaryenCallGetOperandAt
    • BinaryenCallIndirectGetOperand to BinaryenCallIndirectGetOperandAt
    • BinaryenHostGetOperand to BinaryenHostGetOperandAt
    • BinaryenThrowGetOperand to BinaryenThrowGetOperandAt
    • BinaryenTupleMakeGetOperand to BinaryenTupleMakeGetOperandAt

v94

  • The C-API‘s BinaryenSetAPITracing and the JS-API’s setAPITracing have been removed because this feature was not very useful anymore and had a significant maintainance cost.
  • wasm-emscripten-finalize will no longer generate stackSave, stackAlloc, stackRestore function. It not expects them to be included in the input file.

v93

  • First release with binaries built with github actions.

v92

  • The multivalue feature has been added. It allows functions and control flow structures to return tuples and for locals and globals to have tuple types. Tuples are created with the new tuple.make pseudoinstruction and their elements are retrieved with the new tuple.extract pseudoinstruction.
  • The internal type interner has been rewritten to avoid taking locks in far more situations. Depending on the workload, this may result in large speedups and increased parallelism.
  • Represent the dylink section in Binaryen IR, so we can read, write, and update it.

v91

  • BinaryenExpressionGetSideEffects (C API) and getSideEffects (JS API) now takes an additional features parameter.
  • Reference type support is added. Supported instructions are ref.null, ref.is_null, ref.func, and typed select. Table instructions are not supported yet. For typed select, C/JS API can take an additional ‘type’ parameter.

v90

  • local.tee's C/Binaryen.js API now takes an additional type parameter for its local type, like local.get. This is required to handle subtypes.
  • Added load_splat SIMD instructions
  • Binaryen.js instruction API changes:
    • notify -> atomic.notify
    • i32.wait / i64.wait -> i32.atomic.wait / i64.atomic.wait
  • Binaryen.js: flags argument in setMemory function is removed.
  • atomic.fence instruction support is added.
  • wasm-emscripten-finalize: Don't rely on name section being present in the input. Use the exported names for things instead.
  • Added mutable parameter to BinaryenAddGlobalImport.
  • Replace BinaryenSIMDBitselect* with BinaryenSIMDTernary* in the C API and add qfma/qfms instructions.
  • Added offset parameter to BinaryenSetFunctionTable.
  • Add the ability to create multivalue Types in the C and JS APIs.
  • Remove named function types. They are replaced by params and results types local to each function.
  • Binaryen.js can now be compiled to Wasm using the binaryen_wasm target. Unlike the JS variant, the Wasm variant requires asynchronously awaiting the Wasm blob's instantiation and initialization before being usable, using the binaryen.ready promise, e.g. binaryen.ready.then(() => ...).
  • Binaryen.js now uses binaryen (was Binaryen) as its global name to align with the npm package.
  • Binaryen.js: The result of getMemorySegmentInfoByIndex now has the same structure as the respective inputs on creation (byteOffset -> offset).

v88

  • wasm-emscripten-finalize: For -pie binaries that import a mutable stack pointer we internalize this an import it as immutable.
  • The tail-call feature including the return_call and return_call_indirect instructions is ready to use.

v87

  • Rename Bysyncify => Asyncify

v86

  • The --initial-stack-pointer argument to wasm-emscripten-finalize no longer has any effect. It will be removed completely in future release.

v85

  • Wast file parsing rules now don't allow a few invalid formats for typeuses that were previously allowed. Typeuse entries should follow this format, meaning they should have (type) -> (param) -> (result) order if more than one of them exist.
    typeuse ::= (type index|name)+ |
            (type index|name)+ (param ..)* (result ..)* |
            (param ..)* (result ..)*
    Also, all (local) nodes in function definition should be after all typeuse elements.
  • Removed APIs related to deprecated instruction names in Binaryen.js:
    • get_local / getLocal
    • set_local / setLocal
    • tee_local / teeLocal
    • get_global / getGlobal
    • set_global / setGlobal
    • current_memory / currentMemory
    • grow_memory / growMemory They are now available as their new instruction names: local.get, local.set, local.tee, global.get, global.set, memory.size, and memory.grow.
  • Add feature handling to the C/JS API with no feature enabled by default.

v84

  • Generate dynCall thunks for any signatures used in “invoke” calls.

v81

  • Fix AsmConstWalker handling of string address in arg0 with -fPIC code

v80

  • Change default feature set in the absence of a target features section from all features to MVP.

v79

  • Improve support for side modules

v78

  • Add namedGlobals to metadata output of wasm-emscripten-finalize
  • Add support for llvm PIC code.
  • Add --side-module option to wasm-emscripten-finalize.
  • Add segmentPassive argument to BinaryenSetMemory for marking segments passive.
  • Make -o - print to stdout instead of a file named “-”.

v73

  • Remove wasm-merge tool.

v73

v55

  • RelooperCreate in the C API now has a Module parameter, and RelooperRenderAndDispose does not.
    • The JS API now has the Relooper constructor receive the Module.
  • Relooper: Condition properties on Branches must not have side effects.

older

  • BinaryenSetFunctionTable in the C API no longer accepts an array of functions, instead it accepts an array of function names, const char** funcNames. Previously, you could not include imported functions because they are of type BinaryenImportRef instead of BinaryenFunctionRef. #1650

  • BinaryenSetFunctionTable in the C API now expects the initial and maximum table size as additional parameters, like BinaryenSetMemory does for pages, so tables can be grown dynamically. #1687

  • Add shared parameters to BinaryenAddMemoryImport and BinaryenSetMemory, to support a shared memory. #1686