emscripten README

The project's README from github.com/emscripten-core/emscripten. As one markdown file: README.md.

emscripten logo

Main project page: https://emscripten.org

GitHub CI status:

Chromium builder status: emscripten-releases

Overview

Emscripten compiles C and C++ to WebAssembly using LLVM and Binaryen. Emscripten output can run on the Web, in Node.js, and in wasm runtimes.

Emscripten provides Web support for popular portable APIs such as OpenGL and SDL2, allowing complex graphical native applications to be ported, such as the Unity game engine and Google Earth. It can probably port your codebase, too!

While Emscripten mostly focuses on compiling C and C++ using Clang, it can be integrated with other LLVM-using compilers (for example, Rust has Emscripten integration, with the wasm32-unknown-emscripten target).

Getting Started

For detailed instructions and tutorials, visit the Emscripten Website.

Installation

There are two primary ways to install Emscripten:

Using the Emscripten SDK (emsdk) (Recommended) The easiest way to get started is by using the Emscripten SDK. Follow the instructions on the downloads page to install it.
From a Git Checkout (Manual Installation) If you have cloned the repository from Git, you can install the dependencies manually and then run the bootstrap script:
```
./bootstrap.py
```
For more details, see the developer guide.

Using the compiler

Run emcc like you would gcc or clang:

$ emcc hello.c -o hello.js
$ node hello.js
Hello, world!

Emscripten will compile your code into a WebAssembly module along with a JavaScript file that can load and run it. You can then run the resulting JavaScript in your browser or under Node.js (or Deno or Bun).

Emscripten can also generate a sample HTML page that then loads the JavaScript:

$ emcc hello.c -o hello.html

You can then serve the generated hello.html using the emrun tool, or a web server of your choosing.

Contributing

For information on how to contribute to the project, see CONTRIBUTING.md and the Contributing section on the website.

License

Emscripten is available under 2 licenses, the MIT license and the University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License.

Both are permissive open source licenses, with little if any practical difference between them.

The reason for offering both is that (1) the MIT license is well-known and suitable for a compiler toolchain, while (2) LLVM's original license, the University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License, was also offered to allow Emscripten's code to be integrated upstream into LLVM. The second reason became less important after Emscripten switched to the LLVM wasm backend, at which point there isn't any code we expect to move back and forth between the projects; also, LLVM relicensed to Apache 2.0 + exceptions meanwhile. In practice you can just consider Emscripten as MIT licensed (which allows you to do pretty much anything you want with a compiler, including commercial and non-commercial use).

See LICENSE for the full content of the licenses.

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27.7K ·GitHub

What is this?

Emscripten is an open-source compiler that turns C and C++ code into WebAssembly using LLVM and Binaryen, so native codebases can run on the Web, in Node.js, and in other wasm runtimes.

Is it a tool I install on my machine, or some online service?

A local compiler toolchain: after install you compile from the command line with emcc, exactly the way you would use gcc or clang. Nothing about it is a hosted service.

Can I use it in commercial projects?

Yes. It is dual-licensed under MIT and the University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License, both permissive with little practical difference — in practice just treat it as MIT, which allows commercial and non-commercial use.

What is emrun?

A companion tool that serves the generated HTML page (like hello.html) so you can open and test your compiled app locally; any web server of your choosing works just as well.

How mature is this project?

Very: it has been on GitHub since 2011, counts around 27,700 stars, and high-profile native applications such as the Unity game engine and Google Earth have been ported with it.

What are similar projects?

scriptc, CalcKernel, cppinsights, compiler, wasmer, assemblyscript, carbon-lang, WasmEdge

Which topics is it in?

emscripten, clang, llvm, toolchain, opengl, webassembly, compiler, wasm, c, cpp, c++, hacktoberfest

Creator: emscripten-core
Size: 267.2 MB
Stars: 27.7K
Updated: CommitOct 17 Release6.0.12Oct 08
Age: 15y
Commits · 90 Days