[omginternets]

This sounds appealing. Can you point me to any resources (video, article, code, ...) that would help me evaluate this approach in more detail?

[tombl]

There don't seem to be many write-ups on this concept. The best reference seems to be existing implementations:

Wasmer's implementation of metering[0] just traps when it runs out of fuel. WasmEdge's implementation of interruptibility[1] checks a flag and stops execution if it's set.

While neither of these support resuming execution after the deadline, replacing the halt with a call to a signal dispatcher should work.

Wasmtime has two different implementations of interrupting execution that both support resuming[2]. The fuel mechanism[3] is deterministic but the epoch mechanism[4] is more performant. If you're free to pick your runtime, I'm sure you could configure Wasmtime into doing what you want.

[0]: https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer/blob/master/lib/middlewar...

[1]: https://github.com/WasmEdge/WasmEdge/pull/910

[2]: https://docs.rs/wasmtime/latest/wasmtime/struct.Config.html#...

[3]: https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/2611

[4]: https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/pull/3699

[kazinator]

The idea of running code up to some resource limit and then aborting it is documented in the Lisp 1.5 manual from 1962, P. 34:

6.4 The Cons Counter and Errorset

The cons counter is a useful device for breaking out of program loops. it automatically causes a trap when a certain number of conses have been performed. The counter is turned on by executing count [n], where n is an integer. If n conses are performed before the counter is turned off, a trap will occur and an error diagnostic will be given.