WebAssembly Memory Management Patterns and Examples

This repository explores memory management approaches in WebAssembly (Wasm) and Emscripten, focusing on convenience and minimal code in both C++ code compiled to WebAssembly and TypeScript.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Memory Management Topics Illustrated
• Setup and Usage
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

The Emscripten SDK provides a rich set of tools for building, optimizing, and troubleshooting WebAssembly modules using C++. This repository demonstrates modern patterns for memory and resource management, focusing on interoperability between C++ and JavaScript. It also includes an example of using Clang’s AddressSanitizer to detect memory leaks and memory access errors. The full article is available at [].

Memory Management Topics Illustrated

• Configuring AddressSanitizer
• Returning data by value vs. by reference using Embind
• Taking advantage of the using clause for RAII-style automatic disposal
• Implementing scope guards and Go-style defer logic
• Handling JavaScript callbacks with exclusive memory ownership in WebAssembly

Setup and Usage

1. Install Emscripten: Follow the official guide.
2. Build examples: Run npm run build.
3. Test: Run npm test

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open issues or pull requests for new patterns or improvements.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE file for details.