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gh-137025: Update Emscripten Build Docs #137312

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bed7f8a
news blurb for removal of wasm_build.py
adqm Aug 1, 2025
05c12ce
reference dev guide for building emscripten
adqm Aug 1, 2025
5f31272
small wording changes
adqm Aug 1, 2025
243fe71
remove unnecessary paragraph about build tools
adqm Aug 2, 2025
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3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tools-Demos/2025-08-01-13-27-43.gh-issue-137025.ubuhQC.rst
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@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
The ``wasm_build.py`` script has been removed. ``Tools/wasm/emscripten``
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Should we actually remove it? I think it still exists and is just broken.

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I think it's already gone, as of ee49644 .

find . -name wasm_build.py in a fresh clone gives no results.

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@emmatyping emmatyping Aug 5, 2025 •
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I guess if we do leave it, we should document how it is different from the Tools/wasm/wasi and Tools/wasm/emscripten modules which also build wasm versions of Python. Comment stale, didn't see adqm's response.

and ``Tools/wasm/wasi`` should be used instead, as described in the `Dev
Guide <https://devguide.python.org/contrib/workflows/compile/>`__.
66 changes: 6 additions & 60 deletions Tools/wasm/README.md
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Expand Up @@ -9,68 +9,14 @@ compilation of CPython to WebAssembly (WASM). Python supports Emscripten
run in modern browsers and JavaScript runtimes like *Node.js*. WASI builds
use WASM runtimes such as *wasmtime*.

Users and developers are encouraged to use the script
`Tools/wasm/wasm_build.py`. The tool automates the build process and provides
assistance with installation of SDKs, running tests, etc.
**NOTE**: If you are looking for general information about WebAssembly that is
not directly related to CPython, please see https://github.com/psf/webassembly.

**NOTE**: If you are looking for information that is not directly related to
building CPython for WebAssembly (or the resulting build), please see
https://github.com/psf/webassembly for more information.

## wasm32-emscripten
## Emscripten (wasm32-emscripten)

### Build

To cross compile to the ``wasm32-emscripten`` platform you need
[the Emscripten compiler toolchain](https://emscripten.org/),
a Python interpreter, and an installation of Node version 18 or newer.
Emscripten version 4.0.2 is recommended; newer versions may also work, but all
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The devguide currently states:

Updating the Emscripten compiler version often causes breakages. For the best compatibility, use the Emscripten version suggested in the cpython repository in Tools/wasm/README.md.

Therefore this should be either kept or moved.

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Agreed - and it should also reflect 4.0.11 as the version as the Emscripten version being used for Python 3.14 compatibility.

official testing is performed with that version. All commands below are relative
to a checkout of the Python repository.

#### Install [the Emscripten compiler toolchain](https://emscripten.org/docs/getting_started/downloads.html)

You can install the Emscripten toolchain as follows:
```shell
git clone https://github.com/emscripten-core/emsdk.git --depth 1
./emsdk/emsdk install latest
./emsdk/emsdk activate latest
```
To add the Emscripten compiler to your path:
```shell
source ./emsdk/emsdk_env.sh
```
This adds `emcc` and `emconfigure` to your path.

##### Optionally: enable ccache for EMSDK

The ``EM_COMPILER_WRAPPER`` must be set after the EMSDK environment is
sourced. Otherwise the source script removes the environment variable.

```shell
export EM_COMPILER_WRAPPER=ccache
```

#### Compile and build Python interpreter

You can use `python Tools/wasm/emscripten` to compile and build targeting
Emscripten. You can do everything at once with:
```shell
python Tools/wasm/emscripten build
```
or you can break it out into four separate steps:
```shell
python Tools/wasm/emscripten configure-build-python
python Tools/wasm/emscripten make-build-python
python Tools/wasm/emscripten make-libffi
python Tools/wasm/emscripten configure-host
python Tools/wasm/emscripten make-host
```
Extra arguments to the configure steps are passed along to configure. For
instance, to do a debug build, you can use:
```shell
python Tools/wasm/emscripten build --with-py-debug
```
See [the devguide instructions for building for Emscripten](https://devguide.python.org/getting-started/setup-building/#emscripten).

### Running from node

Expand All @@ -97,8 +43,8 @@ You can run the browser smoke test with:

### The Web Example

When building for Emscripten, the web example will be built automatically. It
is in the ``web_example`` directory. To run the web example, ``cd`` into the
When building for Emscripten, a small web example will be built automatically
in the ``web_example`` directory. To run the web example, ``cd`` into the
``web_example`` directory, then run ``python server.py``. This will start a web
server; you can then visit ``http://localhost:8000/`` in a browser to see a
simple REPL example.
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