How to use the command wasm2wat (with examples)
WASM2WAT is a command that allows users to convert a WebAssembly binary file into a human-readable text format. This can be useful when inspecting or debugging WebAssembly files. WASM2WAT is part of the WebAssembly Binary Toolkit (WABT) and can be used in various scenarios to convert binary files to the text format.
Use case 1: Convert a file to the text format and display it to the console
Code:
wasm2wat file.wasm
Motivation: This use case is helpful when you need to quickly view the content of a WebAssembly binary file in a human-readable format. By converting the file to the text format, you can easily inspect its contents and understand its structure.
Explanation:
wasm2wat
: The command to convert a WebAssembly binary file to the text format.file.wasm
: The input file name, which should be a WebAssembly binary file.
Example Output:
(module
(type (;0;) (func))
(func (;0;) (type 0))
(table (;0;) 1 1 anyfunc)
(memory (;0;) 1)
(global (;0;) i32 (i32.const 1048576))
(export "memory" (memory 0))
(export "__wasm_call_ctors" (func 0))
)
Use case 2: Write the output to a given file
Code:
wasm2wat file.wasm -o file.wat
Motivation: This use case is useful when you want to save the converted WebAssembly text to a file for future reference or further processing. By specifying the output file, you can easily share, manipulate, or examine the text representation of the WebAssembly code.
Explanation:
wasm2wat
: The command to convert a WebAssembly binary file to the text format.file.wasm
: The input file name, which should be a WebAssembly binary file.-o file.wat
: The-o
option followed by the file name and extension specifies the output file.
Example Output:
The WebAssembly text representation is written to the file.wat
file.
Conclusion:
The wasm2wat command is a powerful tool for converting WebAssembly binary files to the text format, providing a human-readable representation of the code. With the ability to display the output to the console or save it to a file, developers can easily inspect and manipulate WebAssembly files to better understand their structure and behavior.