How can I read an existing directory from WASM in Rust using wasmer-wasi?

I wrote a simple wasmer-wasi example that reads directory entries but it always fails.

wasi_fs_example/src/lib.rs:

#[no_mangle]
pub fn start() {
    std::fs::read_dir("/").unwrap();
}

runner/src/main.rs:

use wasmer::{Instance, Module, Store};
use wasmer_wasi::WasiState;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let wasm = std::fs::read("target/wasm32-wasi/debug/wasi_fs_example.wasm")?;

    let store = Store::default();
    let module = Module::new(&store, wasm)?;

    let mut wasi_env = WasiState::new("wasi_fs_example")
        .preopen_dir("target")?
        .finalize()?;

    let import_object = wasi_env.import_object(&module)?;
    let instance = Instance::new(&module, &import_object)?;

    let start = instance.exports.get_function("start")?;
    start.call(&[])?;

    Ok(())
}

This produce the error while running:

cargo build -p wasi_fs_example --target wasm32-wasi
cargo run -p runner

thread '<unnamed>' panicked at 'called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: Custom { kind: Other, error: "failed to find a pre-opened file descriptor through which \"/\" could be opened" }', wasi_fs_example/src/lib.rs:6:10
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace

Full source code of the example is located here. Why doesn't it work?

Currently in Rust we can really only create WASI binaries, not libraries. WASI only works for the duration of a main function that needs to be there. Calling the wasi functions from anywhere else segfaults because libpreopen isn't initialized.

So to summarize, how to fix this currently:

• Do not have lib.crate-type at all
• Have the file be src/main.rs, not src/lib.rs
• Have #![no_main] at the top of the src/main.rs
• Use RUSTFLAGS="-Z wasi-exec-model=reactor" cargo +nightly build --target wasm32-wasi
• Make sure that you call _initialize before anything else

https://github.com/WebAssembly/WASI/issues/24

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/79997

In my case:

wasi_fs_example/src/main.rs:

#![no_main]

#[no_mangle]
pub extern "C" fn start() {
    std::fs::read_dir("/").unwrap();
}

runner/src/main.rs:

...
let start = instance.exports.get_function("_initialize")?;
start.call(&[])?;

let start = instance.exports.get_function("start")?;
start.call(&[])?;
...

RUSTFLAGS="-Z wasi-exec-model=reactor" cargo +nightly build -p wasi_fs_example --target wasm32-wasi