By Marco Fioretti

The WebAssembly binary format (Wasm) has been developed to allow software written in any language to “compile once, run everywhere”, inside web browsers or stand-alone virtual machines (runtimes) available for any platform, almost as fast as code directly compiled for those platforms. Wasm modules can interact with any host environment in which they run in a really portable way, thanks to the WebAssembly System Interface (WASI).

That is not enough, though. In order to be actually usable without surprises in as many scenarios as possible, Wasm executable files need at least two more things. One is the capability to interact directly not just with the operating system, but with any other program of the same kind. The way to do this with Wasm is called “module linking”, and will be the topic of the next article of this series. The other feature, that is a prerequisite for module linking to be useful, is the capability to exchange data structures of any kind, without misunderstandings or data loss.

What happens when Wasm modules exchange data?

Since it is only a compilation target, the WebAssembly format provides only low-level data types that aim to be as close to the underlying machine as possible. It is this choice that provides highly portable, high performing modules, while leaving programmers to write software in whatever language they want. The burden of mapping complex data structures in that language to native Wasm data types is left to software libraries, and to the compilers that use them.

The problem here is that in order to be efficient, the first generation of Wasm syntax and WASI do not natively support strings and other equally basic data types. Therefore, there is no intrinsic guarantee that, for example, a Wasm module compiled from Python sources and another from Rust ones will have exactly the same concept of “string” in every circumstance where string may be used.

The consequence is that, if Wasm modules compiled from different languages want to exchange more complex data structures, something important may be, so to speak, “lost in translation” every time some data goes from one module to another. Concretely, this prevents both direct embedding of Wasm modules into generic applications and direct calls from Wasm modules to external software.

In order to understand the nature of the problem, it is useful to look at how such data are passed around in first-generation Wasm and WASI modules.

The original way for WebAssembly to communicate with JavaScript and C programs is to simulate things like strings by manually managing chunks of memory.

For example, in the function path_open, a string is passed as a pair of integer numbers (i32) that represent the offset and, respectively, the length of that string in the linear memory reserved to a Wasm module. This would already be bad enough when, to mention just the simplest and most frequent cases, different character encodings or Garbage Collection (GC) are used. To make things worse, WASI modules that exchange strings would be forced to access each other’s memory, making this way of working far from optimal for both performance and security reasons.

Theoretically, Wasm modules that want to exchange data may also use traditional, JavaScript-compatible data passing mechanisms like WebIDL. This is the Interface Description Language used to describe all the components, including of course data types for any Web application programming interface (API).

In practice however, this would not solve anything. First because Web IDL functions can accept, that is pass back to the Wasm module that called them, higher level constructs than WebAssembly would understand. Second because using WebAssembly means exchanging data not directly but through ECMAScript Bindings, which have their own complexities and performance penalties. Summarizing, certain tricks work today, but not in all cases, and are by no means future-proof.

The solution: Interface and Reference Types

The real solution to all the problems mentioned above is to extend both the Wasm binary format and WASI in ways that:

directly support more complex data structures like strings or lists
allow Wasm modules to statically type-check the corresponding variables, and exchange them directly, but without having to share their internal linear memory.

There are two specifications that are being deployed just for this purpose. The main one is simply called Interface Types and its companion Reference Types.

Both Types rely on lower level features already added to the original Wasm core, namely “multi-value” and multi-memory support. The first extension allows Wasm functions to return an arbitrary number of values, instead of just one as before, and Wasm instruction sequences to handle an arbitrary number of stack values. The other lets a whole Wasm module, or single functions, use multiple memories at the same time, which is good for a whole lot of reasons besides exchanging variables.

Building on these features, Interface Types define strings and other “high-level” data structures, in ways that any unmodified Wasm runtime can use. Reference Types complete the picture, specifying how Wasm applications must actually exchange those data structures with external applications.

The specifications are not fully completed yet. Interface Types can exchange values, but not handles to resources and buffers, which would be required, for example, to “read a file and write directly into a buffer”.

Working together however, all the features described here already enable Wasm modules and WASI interfaces to handle and exchange most complex data structures efficiently, without corrupting them and regardless of what language they were used in, before compiling to Wasm.

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The two new courses were created in partnership with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Continuous Delivery Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO – GITOPS SUMMIT – June 22, 2021 – Today at GitOps Summit, The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, and Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF), the open-source software foundation that seeks to improve the world’s capacity to deliver software with security and speed, have announced the immediate availability of two new, online training courses focused on GitOps, or operation by pull request, a powerful developer workflow that enables organizations to unlock the promise of cloud native continuous delivery. 

Cloud native technologies enable organizations to scale rapidly and deliver software faster than ever before. GitOps is the set of practices that enable developers to carry out tasks that traditionally fell to operations personnel. As development practices evolve, GitOps is becoming an essential skill for many job roles. These two new online, self-paced training courses are designed to teach the skills necessary to begin implementing GitOps practices:

Introduction to GitOps (LFS169)

LFS169 is a free introductory course providing foundational knowledge about key GitOps principles, tools and practices, to help build an operational framework for cloud native applications primarily running on Kubernetes. The course explains how to set up and automate a continuous delivery pipeline to Kubernetes, leading to increased productivity and efficiency for tech roles.

This course walks through a series of demonstrations with a fully functional GitOps environment, which explains the true power of GitOps and how it can help build infrastructures, deploy applications, and even do progressive releases, all via pull requests and git-based workflows. By the end of this course, participants will be familiar with the need for GitOps, and understand the different reconciliation patterns and implementation options available, helping them make the right technological choices for their particular needs.

GitOps: Continuous Delivery on Kubernetes with Flux (LFS269)

LFS269 will benefit software developers interested in learning how to deploy their cloud native applications using familiar GitHub-based workflows and GitOps practices; quality assurance engineers interested in setting up continuous delivery pipelines, and implementing canary analysis, A/B testing, etc. on Kubernetes; site reliability engineers interested in automating deployment workflows and setting up multi-tenant, multi-cluster GitOps-based Continuous Delivery workflows and incorporating them with existing Continuous Integration and monitoring setups; and anyone looking to understand the landscape of GitOps and learn how to choose and implement the right tools.

This course provides a deep dive into GitOps principles and practices, and how to implement them using Flux CD, a CNCF project. Flux CD uses a reconciliation approach to keep Kubernetes clusters in sync using Git repositories as the source of truth. This course helps build essential Git and Kubernetes knowledge for a GitOps practitioner by setting up Flux v2 on an existing Kubernetes cluster, automating the deployment of Kubernetes manifests with Flux, and incorporating Kustomize and Helm to create customizable deployments. It explains how to set up notifications and monitoring with Prometheus, Grafana and Slack, integrate Flux with Tekton-based workflows to set up CI/CD pipelines, build release strategies, including canary, A/B testing, and blue/green, deploying to multi-cluster and multi-tenant environments, integrate GitOps with service meshes such as Linkerd, and Istio, securing GitOps workflows with Flux, and much more.

“GitOps is an essential methodology for shifting left and using cloud native effectively. We are already seeing the demand for it with the adoption of CNCF projects like Argo and Flux,” said Priyanka Sharma, General Manager of the Cloud Native Computing foundation. “I am thrilled that we now offer two GitOps courses so developers of all levels can build a foundation and learn how to integrate GitOps with Kubernetes. I encourage every practitioner to check it out!”

“Our partnership with Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has resulted in the creation of this high quality course for software developers who want a better understanding of the GitOps landscape. It includes information on integrating Flux CD with Tekton-based workflows, a great example of CNCF and CDF projects closely working together. By taking the course, you will be able to evaluate and implement GitOps to meet your development needs,” said Tracy Miranda, Executive Director of the Continuous Delivery Foundation. “The launch of these courses is a result of the strong increase in demand for cloud-native applications. This program will directly benefit those interested in expanding their Git and Kubernetes knowledge and following best practices for GitOps techniques.”

Introduction to GitOps consists of 3-4 hours of course material including video lessons. It is available at no cost for up to a year.

GitOps: Continuous Delivery on Kubernetes with Flux consists of 30-40 hours of course material, including video lessons, hands-on labs, and more. The $299 course fee includes a full year of access to all materials.

About Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud native computing empowers organizations to build and run scalable applications with an open source software stack in public, private, and hybrid clouds. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of the global technology infrastructure, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. CNCF brings together the industry’s top developers, end users, and vendors, and runs the largest open source developer conferences in the world. Supported by more than 500 members, including the world’s largest cloud computing and software companies, as well as over 200 innovative startups, CNCF is part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation. For more information, please visit www.cncf.io. 

About the Continuous Delivery Foundation

The Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) seeks to improve the world’s capacity to deliver software with security and speed. The CDF is a vendor-neutral organization that is establishing best practices of software delivery automation, propelling education and adoption of CD tools, and facilitating cross-pollination across emerging technologies. The CDF is home to many of the fastest-growing projects for CD, including Jenkins, Jenkins X, Tekton, and Spinnaker. The CDF is part of the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization. For more information about the CDF, please visit https://cd.foundation.

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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Derek Weeks brings proven leadership to accelerate growth in open source innovation and security

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2021 — The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the appointment of a key addition to its executive management team, Derek Weeks, who joins the organization in the newly created role of SVP and Chief Marketing Officer. Weeks will oversee all developer and product marketing, brand strategy, direct and digital marketing, acquisition and retention marketing, analytics and marketing operations, and communications for The Linux Foundation.

As an accomplished enterprise software executive, Weeks brings over 25 years of experience in product, corporate, brand, and community marketing to the Linux Foundation. Weeks most recently helped create new market categories in open source software development and security as a marketing executive at Sonatype, while he also built massive online developer communities as a co-founder of All Day DevOps. Prior to Sonatype, Weeks held global marketing leadership positions for software portfolios in private and public companies, including: Global 360 (acquired by OpenText), Systar (acquired by Axway), Hyperformix (acquired by CA, Inc.), and Hewlett-Packard in the US and Germany.

Weeks has received wide recognition for his achievements in the industry where he has been named to the DevOps 100 by TechBeacon, distinguished as the DevOps Evangelist of the Year by DevOps.com, and received the Industry Executive of the Year from Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC). Weeks, who spent his adolescent years growing up and working in Silicon Valley, holds a degree from San Jose State University in International Business.

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, said, “Derek is a natural addition to our leadership team as he is a highly experienced, much-admired marketing and community leader. Finding the right CMO, with a proven track record of helping open source professionals innovate faster while also recognizing the need for improved security across software supply chains they rely upon, was critical. I am delighted to have Derek join us. He has an impressive track record of growing organizations to massive scale, championing open source security research, and building some of the industry’s largest communities for education and collaboration.”

“Open source software is fueling a massive tidal wave of transformation across all industries, and I couldn’t think of a more exciting time to come onboard this exceptional team at The Linux Foundation,” said Weeks. “With its respected position in the community, I look forward to driving growth and further elevating the organization’s contributions to open software, hardware, data, and standards that serve millions of developers worldwide.”

About The Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. The Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

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The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page:  https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact

Jennifer Cloer
for the Linux Foundation
503-867-2304
jennifer@storychangesculture.com

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