Zellij crashing when making web request in plugin

[lannonbr]

Issue description

When I run a plugin that tries to make a HTTP request using the web_request command, it crashes zellij and the following error is outputted in the logs:

WARN   |zellij_utils::ipc        | 2023-12-28 11:29:29.029 [router    ] [zellij-utils/src/ipc.rs:223]: Error in IpcReceiver.recv(): InvalidMarkerRead(Error { kind: UnexpectedEof, message: "failed to fill whole buffer" }) 
ERROR  |zellij_client            | 2023-12-28 11:29:29.030 [router    ] [zellij-client/src/lib.rs:356]: Received empty message from server 

Minimal reproduction

https://github.com/lannonbr/zellij-http-plugin-example

I'm running it by compiling the plugin with cargo build and then running it in an active zellij session with the zellij plugin command.

zellij plugin -- file:./target/wasm32-wasi/debug/zellij-http-plugin-example.wasm

Other relevant information

Zellij verison: 0.39.2

Rustc --version --verbose output:

rustc 1.74.0 (79e9716c9 2023-11-13)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: 79e9716c980570bfd1f666e3b16ac583f0168962
commit-date: 2023-11-13
host: aarch64-apple-darwin
release: 1.74.0
LLVM version: 17.0.4

[imsnif]

Hey, thanks for the heads up! For me this works

What I did:

1. Started a new Zellij session
2. Cloned your repository: https://github.com/lannonbr/zellij-http-plugin-example
3. Did cargo build
4. Did zellij plugin -- file:target/wasm32-wasi/debug/zellij-http-plugin-example.wasm
5. Focused on the plugin and pressed the Down arrow
6. Got the above in the logs

The error logs are unfortunately not very helpful, they're just the client disconnecting. The only thing I can think of that would cause this is running this plugin on an older version of Zellij...

[lannonbr]

So I tried the following:

• recompiling the plugin with the lastest version of rust (1.75)
• cleared my zellij cache folder
• made sure that both the zellij instance and zellij-tile were both on 0.39.2
• Tried running your weather-pal plugin as I was using such as a template on how to write a plugin with web requests.

And all of the above still ended with the client disconnecting with the same IPC error

Both plugins start and I see the initial default state / UI, but as soon as it tries making the HTTP request it breaks.

[imsnif]

Hum... when the plugin is already loaded, could you try zellij start-or-reload-plugin <plugin_url> and then after it recompiles and reloads try again?

Also, how did you install Zellij?

[lannonbr]

Okay, so tried the start-or-reload-plugin, the plugin does properly recompile, but when I press the down arrow to trigger the http request it exits again.

For how I installed Zellij: on the mac I was testing this, on I got it through homebrew. Went to another apple silicon mac I have and tried installing it via cargo install zellij and getting the same issue there as well.

[imsnif]

cargo install zellij --locked? I doubt that's it though...

Might be it's a mac thing (I'm on arch), this API is fairly new. Maybe @jaeheonji or @tlinford can see if they can reproduce (not urgent, only if/when you have the time!) ? (specifically the steps here: #3036 (comment)

[imsnif]

@lannonbr - does it happen with every url? Does it happen with running a command through a plugin?

[lannonbr]

Yes it seems to be any URL. And I tried using the run_command and subsequent Event::RunCommandResult callback, and it seems that there is no error when running run_command, but the result never seems to return.

[imsnif]

Alright. Super odd. I'm going to wait and see if the people I ping have a chance to try and reproduce. Or anyone else encountering this...

[imsnif]

@lannonbr - another question: can you load plugins from the web? Like if you did a github release in your repo, placed the .wasm file there and loaded it with an http url with zellij plugin? Does it work? I'm wondering if the issue is with the http client or something different.

[lannonbr]

Oh interesting, I published the wasm up as a release here: https://github.com/lannonbr/zellij-http-plugin-example/releases/download/0.1.0/zellij-http-plugin-example.wasm

So I try running the following

zellij plugin -- https://github.com/lannonbr/zellij-http-plugin-example/releases/download/0.1.0/zellij-http-plugin-example.wasm

And it is crashing the same way as if I tried making a web request in the plugin

[imsnif]

Alright, getting warmer. Would you be comfortable running a standalone project that does this? https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/blob/main/zellij-server/src/background_jobs.rs#L256-L316

I'm curious to see if it works or you get a more specific error...

If it's too much, I can try to find some time to make a debug repository and point you at it

[lannonbr]

Yeah I think I could try extracting this portion into a standalone rust binary and see if things are continuing to break or not.

[lannonbr]

So I tried extracting solely the web request portion and made this reproduction: https://github.com/lannonbr/zellij-3036-repro

That said, it works as intended on my machine, so I am now assuming something is breaking in the channels code you have to send said data up and down between the server and plugin.