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23 changes: 14 additions & 9 deletions README.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -128,20 +128,25 @@ TLS bookkeeping (this is not much different than how C starts threads natively).
### Detailed design discussion

Threads are tricky to implement. This proposal relies on a specific WebAssembly
convention in order to work correctly. Upon a call to `wasi_thread_spawn`, the
WASI host must:
convention in order to work correctly.

When instantiating a module which is expected to run with wasi-threads,
the WASI host must:

1. create and provide shared memories to satisfy the module's imports.

Upon a call to `wasi_thread_spawn`, the WASI host must:

1. instantiate the module again — this child instance will be used for the
new thread
2. in the child instance, ensure that any `shared` memories are the same ones as
those of the parent
3. in the child instance, import all of the same WebAssembly objects as the
parent
4. optionally, spawn a new host-level thread (other spawning mechanisms are
2. in the child instance, import all of the same WebAssembly objects,
including the above mentioned shared memories, as the parent
3. optionally, spawn a new host-level thread (other spawning mechanisms are
possible)
5. calculate a positive, non-duplicate thread ID, `tid`, and return it to the
4. calculate a positive, non-duplicate thread ID, `tid`, and return it to the
caller; any error in the previous steps is indicated by returning a negative
error code.
6. in the new thread, call the child instance's exported entry function with the
5. in the new thread, call the child instance's exported entry function with the
thread ID and the start argument: `wasi_thread_start(tid, start_arg)`

A WASI host that implements the above should be able to spawn threads for a
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