WASM threads don't seem to share memory (if the memory isn't imported)

[fatlotus]

Please take this report with a grain of salt as I'm fairly new with WASM.

Test Case

#include <cassert>
#include <cstdint>
#include <cstdio>
#include <unistd.h>

extern "C" {
__attribute__((import_module("wasi"), import_name("thread-spawn")))
int32_t spawn_a_thread(void *thread_data);
}

int magic_number = 0;

[[clang::export_name("wasi_thread_start")]]
void wasi_thread_start(int32_t tid, int *arg) {
  printf("Running on a thread. tid=%d, arg=%p, magic_number=%d\n", tid, arg,
         magic_number);
}

int main() {
  magic_number += 1;
  sleep(1);
  int thread_data;
  printf("thread_data=%p\n", &thread_data);
  int tid = spawn_a_thread(&thread_data);
  assert(tid > 0);
  sleep(1);
  printf("After\n");
}

Here's what this compiles to (apologies, it's pretty long) with Homebrew Clang 21.1.8:

main.wat.txt

Steps to Reproduce

• wasmtime: $ wasmtime run --wasi threads=y --wasm threads=y main.wat
• WAMR: $ iwasm --max-threads=2 main.wasm

Expected Results

$ iwasm --max-threads=2 main.wat
thread_data=0x113b8
Running on a thread. tid=1, arg=0x113b8, magic_number=1
After

Actual Results

$ wasmtime run --wasi threads=y --wasm threads=y main.wat
thread_data=0x113b8
Running on a thread. tid=1, arg=0x113b8, magic_number=0
After

In particular, I think the thread should see a magic_number of 1, since it has been incremented by the main program before the thread started.

Versions and Environment

Wasmtime version or commit: wasmtime 39.0.1

Operating system: macOS 14.6.1

Architecture: M1

Extra Info

There's some funny logic here (https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/blob/main/crates/wasi-threads/src/lib.rs#L165-L179) in the wasi threads crate, where the shared memory is somehow re-injected into the linker. In the clang-generated code, the shared memory isn't imported — maybe that means the linker doesn't inject the same shared memory region to each thread?

[bjorn3]

Did you compile for the wasm32-wasip1 or wasm32-wasip1-threads target?

[fatlotus]

I'm using wasm32-wasip1-threads, but it reproduces on both targets. The full command line I'm using is:

$ /opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang++ --std=c++17 -g --target=wasm32-wasip1-threads --sysroot=~/Downloads/wasi-sdk-29.0-arm64-macos/share/wasi-sysroot main.cpp -o main.wasm

(One other hypothesis I had was that the start function might be reinitializing main memory when starting the second Instance for the new thread.)

[bjorn3]

Try linking with -Wl,--import-memory,--export-memory

[fatlotus]

Yep, that does the trick!

I wonder if that logic at the end of add_to_linker was meant to be:

    for import in module.imports() {
        if let Some(m) = import.ty().memory() && m.is_shared() {
            let mem = SharedMemory::new(module.engine(), m.clone())?;
            linker.define(store, import.module(), import.name(), mem.clone())?;
            return Ok(())
        }
    }
    return Err(anyhow!(
      "memory was not shared; a `wasi-threads` must import \
        a shared memory as \"memory\""
    ));

That way this case would be an error.