WASM runtime debugging

Disable symbol stripping by setting the WasmNativeStrip msbuild property to false. See also, collecting stack traces with symbols in Blazor
Emscripten generates dwarf debug info and Chrome 80 and later can use it.
To break in the JS debugger from runtime code, do:

#include <emscripten.h>
EM_ASM(debugger;);

To print a stack trace from runtime code, do:

#ifdef HOST_WASM
#include <emscripten.h>
EM_ASM(
	var err = new Error();
	console.log ("Stacktrace: \n");
	console.log (err.stack);
	);
#endif

There is a mono_wasm_print_stack_trace () function that does the same:

#ifdef HOST_WASM
mono_wasm_print_stack_trace ();
#endif

The ifdef is needed to avoid compilation errors when compiling the cross compiler.

The runtime-tests.js test runner supports various options useful for debugging:
- Runtime command line options can be passed using the --runtime-arg= option. In particular --trace can be used to enable executing tracing when using the interpreter.
- Environment variables can be set using --setenv== In particular MONO_LOG_LEVEL/MONO_LOG_MASK can be set.
The --stack-trace-limit=1000 option to V8 can be used to avoid V8 truncating stack traces.
Emscripten supports clang's -fsanitize=address option, it can also decompile wasm images at runtime to create readable stacktraces for C code.
The numbers in stack traces such as:

WebAssembly.instantiate:wasm-function[8003]:0x12b564

mean wasm function index/offset inside the wasm binary. The wasm-objdump tool from https://github.com/WebAssembly/wabt can be used to find the corresponding wasm code:

12b551 func[8003] <mono_wasm_load_runtime>:

The wasm-dis tool from https://github.com/WebAssembly/binaryen can be used to disassemble wasm executables (.wasm files).

Deterministic execution

Wasm execution can be made deterministic by passing the -s DETERMINISTIC=1 option to emcc. This will cause the app to always execute the same way, i.e. using the same memory addresses, random numbers, etc. This can be used to make random crashes happen reliably. Sometimes, however, turning this on will make the problem disappear. In this case, it might be useful to add some controlled indeterminism. For example, to make the random number generator mostly deterministic, change $getRandomDevice in upstream/emscripten/src/library.js to:

	var randomBuffer2 = new Uint8Array(1);
	crypto.getRandomValues(randomBuffer2);

	FS.seed2 = randomBuffer2 [0];
	console.log('SEED: ' + FS.seed2);
	return function() {
		FS.seed2 = FS.seed2 * 16807 % 2147483647;
		return FS.seed2;
	};

Then run the app until the failure occurs. Note the seed value printed at the beginning, and change the FS.seed2 = randomBuffer... line to: FS.seed2 = <seed value>. This will hopefully cause the failure to happen reliably.

There is another random number generator in upstream/emscripten/src/deterministic.js which needs the same treatment.

Running make patch-deterministic in src/mono/wasm will patch the emscripten installation in src/mono/wasm/emsdk with these changes.

Debugging signature mismatch errors

When v8 fails with RuntimeError: function signature mismatch, it means a function call was made to a function pointer with an incompatible signature, or to a NULL pointer. This branch of v8 contains some modifications to print out the actual function pointer value when this kind of fault happens: https://github.com/vargaz/v8/tree/sig-mismatch. The value is an index into the function table inside the wasm executable.

The following script can be used to print out the table:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

#
# print-table.py: Print the function table for a webassembly .wast file
#

import sys

prefix=" (elem (i32.const 1) "

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print ("Usage: python print-table.py <path to mono.wast>")
    sys.exit (1)

f = open (sys.argv [1])
table_line = None
for line in f:
     if prefix in line:
         table_line = line[len(prefix):]
         break

for (index, v) in enumerate (table_line.split (" ")):
    print ("" + str(index) + ": " + v)
    index += 1

The input to the script is the textual assembly created by the wasm-dis tool.

These kinds of faults usually happen because the mono runtime has some helper functions which are never meant to be reached, i.e. no_gsharedvt_in_wrapper or no_llvmonly_interp_method_pointer. These functions are used as placeholders for function pointers with different signatures, so if they do end up being called due to a bug, a signature mismatch error happens.

Collecting stack traces with symbols in Blazor

When debugging a native crash in a .NET 6 Blazor app or another WebAssembly framework that uses our default dotnet.wasm, the native stack frames will not have C symbol names, but will instead look like $func1234.

For example this Razor page will crash when a user clicks on the Crash button

<button class="btn btn-warning" @onclick="Crash">Crash</button>

@code {
    private void Crash ()
    {
        IntPtr p = (IntPtr)0x01;
        Console.WriteLine ("About to crash");
        System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FreeHGlobal(p);
    }
}

Clicking on the Crash button will produce the following output in the console (the function indices may be different):

dotnet.wasm:0x1d8355 Uncaught (in promise) RuntimeError: memory access out of bounds
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
    at _framework/dotnet.wasm
$free @ dotnet.wasm:0x1d8355
$func4027 @ dotnet.wasm:0xead6a
$func219 @ dotnet.wasm:0x1a03a
$func167 @ dotnet.wasm:0xcaf7
$func166 @ dotnet.wasm:0xba0a
$func2810 @ dotnet.wasm:0xabacf
$func1615 @ dotnet.wasm:0x6f8eb
$func1613 @ dotnet.wasm:0x6f85d
$func966 @ dotnet.wasm:0x502dc
$func219 @ dotnet.wasm:0x1a0e2
$func167 @ dotnet.wasm:0xcaf7
$func166 @ dotnet.wasm:0xba0a
$func2810 @ dotnet.wasm:0xabacf
$func1615 @ dotnet.wasm:0x6f8eb
$func1619 @ dotnet.wasm:0x6ff58
$mono_wasm_invoke_method @ dotnet.wasm:0x96c9
Module._mono_wasm_invoke_method @ dotnet.6.0.1.hopd7ipo8x.js:1
managed__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly_Services_DefaultWebAssemblyJSRuntime_BeginInvokeDotNet @ managed__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly_Services_DefaultWebAssemblyJSRuntime_BeginInvokeDotNet:19
beginInvokeDotNetFromJS @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
b @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
invokeMethodAsync @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
(anonymous) @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
invokeWhenHeapUnlocked @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
S @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
C @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
dispatchGlobalEventToAllElements @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
onGlobalEvent @ blazor.webassembly.js:1

In order to get symbols, the user should:

Install the wasm-tools workload using dotnet workload install wasm-tools

Set these additional properties in their .csproj file:

  <!-- Builds a dotnet.wasm with debug symbols preserved -->
  <PropertyGroup>
    <WasmBuildNative>true</WasmBuildNative>
    <WasmNativeStrip>false</WasmNativeStrip>
  </PropertyGroup>

Delete the bin and obj folders, re-build the project and run it again.

Now clicking on the Crash button will produce a stack trace with symbols:

dotnet.wasm:0x224878 Uncaught (in promise) RuntimeError: memory access out of bounds
    at dlfree (dotnet.wasm:0x224878)
    at SystemNative_Free (dotnet.wasm:0x20f0e2)
    at do_icall (dotnet.wasm:0x190f9)
    at do_icall_wrapper (dotnet.wasm:0x18429)
    at interp_exec_method (dotnet.wasm:0xa56c)
    at interp_runtime_invoke (dotnet.wasm:0x943a)
    at mono_jit_runtime_invoke (dotnet.wasm:0x1dec32)
    at do_runtime_invoke (dotnet.wasm:0x95fca)
    at mono_runtime_invoke_checked (dotnet.wasm:0x95f57)
    at mono_runtime_try_invoke_array (dotnet.wasm:0x9a87e)
$dlfree @ dotnet.wasm:0x224878
$SystemNative_Free @ dotnet.wasm:0x20f0e2
$do_icall @ dotnet.wasm:0x190f9
$do_icall_wrapper @ dotnet.wasm:0x18429
$interp_exec_method @ dotnet.wasm:0xa56c
$interp_runtime_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x943a
$mono_jit_runtime_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x1dec32
$do_runtime_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x95fca
$mono_runtime_invoke_checked @ dotnet.wasm:0x95f57
$mono_runtime_try_invoke_array @ dotnet.wasm:0x9a87e
$mono_runtime_invoke_array_checked @ dotnet.wasm:0x9af17
$ves_icall_InternalInvoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x702ed
$ves_icall_InternalInvoke_raw @ dotnet.wasm:0x7777f
$do_icall @ dotnet.wasm:0x191c5
$do_icall_wrapper @ dotnet.wasm:0x18429
$interp_exec_method @ dotnet.wasm:0xa56c
$interp_runtime_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x943a
$mono_jit_runtime_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x1dec32
$do_runtime_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x95fca
$mono_runtime_try_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x966fe
$mono_runtime_invoke @ dotnet.wasm:0x98982
$mono_wasm_invoke_method @ dotnet.wasm:0x227de2
Module._mono_wasm_invoke_method @ dotnet..y6ggkhlo8e.js:9927
managed__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly_Services_DefaultWebAssemblyJSRuntime_BeginInvokeDotNet @ managed__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly__Microsoft_AspNetCore_Components_WebAssembly_Services_DefaultWebAssemblyJSRuntime_BeginInvokeDotNet:19
beginInvokeDotNetFromJS @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
b @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
invokeMethodAsync @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
(anonymous) @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
invokeWhenHeapUnlocked @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
S @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
C @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
dispatchGlobalEventToAllElements @ blazor.webassembly.js:1
onGlobalEvent @ blazor.webassembly.js:1

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WASM runtime debugging

Deterministic execution

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Collecting stack traces with symbols in Blazor

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WASM runtime debugging

Deterministic execution

Debugging signature mismatch errors

Collecting stack traces with symbols in Blazor