Why does wasm-opt fail in wasm-pack builds when generating a function returning a string?

Question

I'm working through the Rust WASM tutorial for Conway's game of life.

One of the simplest functions in the file is called Universe.render (it's the one for rendering a string representing game state). It's causing an error when I run wasm-pack build:

Fatal: error in validating input
Error: failed to execute `wasm-opt`: exited with exit code: 1
  full command: "/home/vaer/.cache/.wasm-pack/wasm-opt-4d7a65327e9363b7/wasm-opt" "/home/vaer/src/learn-rust/wasm-game-of-life/pkg/wasm_game_of_life_bg.wasm" "-o" "/home/vaer/src/learn-rust/wasm-game-of-life/pkg/wasm_game_of_life_bg.wasm-opt.wasm" "-O"
To disable `wasm-opt`, add `wasm-opt = false` to your package metadata in your `Cargo.toml`.

If I remove that function, the code builds without errors. If I replace it with the following function, the build fails with the same error:

pub fn wtf() -> String {
    String::from("wtf")
}

It seems like any function that returns a String causes this error. Why?

Following is the entirety of my code:

mod utils;

use wasm_bindgen::prelude::*;

// When the `wee_alloc` feature is enabled, use `wee_alloc` as the global
// allocator.
#[cfg(feature = "wee_alloc")]
#[global_allocator]
static ALLOC: wee_alloc::WeeAlloc = wee_alloc::WeeAlloc::INIT;

// Begin game of life impl

use std::fmt;

#[wasm_bindgen]
#[repr(u8)]
#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
pub enum Cell {
    Dead = 0,
    Alive = 1,
}

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub struct Universe {
    width: u32,
    height: u32,
    cells: Vec<Cell>,
}

impl fmt::Display for Universe {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
        for line in self.cells.as_slice().chunks(self.width as usize) {
            for &cell in line {
                let symbol = if cell == Cell::Dead { '◻' } else { '◼' };
                write!(f, "{}", symbol)?;
            }
            write!(f, "\n")?;
        }

        Ok(())
    }
}

impl Universe {
    fn get_index(&self, row: u32, column: u32) -> usize {
        (row * self.width + column) as usize
    }

    fn live_neighbor_count(&self, row: u32, column: u32) -> u8 {
        let mut count = 0;
        for delta_row in [self.height - 1, 0, 1].iter().cloned() {
            for delta_col in [self.width - 1, 0, 1].iter().cloned() {
                if delta_row == 0 && delta_col == 0 {
                    continue;
                }

                let neighbor_row = (row + delta_row) % self.height;
                let neighbor_col = (column + delta_col) % self.width;
                let idx = self.get_index(neighbor_row, neighbor_col);
                count += self.cells[idx] as u8;
            }
        }
        count
    }
}

/// Public methods, exported to JavaScript.
#[wasm_bindgen]
impl Universe {
    pub fn tick(&mut self) {
        let mut next = self.cells.clone();

        for row in 0..self.height {
            for col in 0..self.width {
                let idx = self.get_index(row, col);
                let cell = self.cells[idx];
                let live_neighbors = self.live_neighbor_count(row, col);

                let next_cell = match (cell, live_neighbors) {
                    // Rule 1: Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours
                    // dies, as if caused by underpopulation.
                    (Cell::Alive, x) if x < 2 => Cell::Dead,
                    // Rule 2: Any live cell with two or three live neighbours
                    // lives on to the next generation.
                    (Cell::Alive, 2) | (Cell::Alive, 3) => Cell::Alive,
                    // Rule 3: Any live cell with more than three live
                    // neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
                    (Cell::Alive, x) if x > 3 => Cell::Dead,
                    // Rule 4: Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours
                    // becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
                    (Cell::Dead, 3) => Cell::Alive,
                    // All other cells remain in the same state.
                    (otherwise, _) => otherwise,
                };

                next[idx] = next_cell;
            }
        }

        self.cells = next;
    }

    pub fn new() -> Universe {
        let width = 64;
        let height = 64;

        let cells = (0..width * height)
            .map(|i| {
                if i % 2 == 0 || i % 7 == 0 {
                    Cell::Alive
                } else {
                    Cell::Dead
                }
            })
            .collect();

        Universe {
            width,
            height,
            cells,
        }
    }

    pub fn render(&self) -> String {
        self.to_string()
    }
}

Simply removing the render function at the bottom of this file causes the build to succeed. Replacing the render function with any function returning a String causes the build to fail. Why?

Answer 1

It turns out that this is not expected behavior; instead it is a bug with wasm-pack.

The issue can be resolved for now by adding the following to the project's cargo.toml:

[package.metadata.wasm-pack.profile.release]
wasm-opt = ["-Oz", "--enable-mutable-globals"]