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Get Started with GraalVM

Get started with GraalVM – a high-performance JDK distribution. It is designed to accelerate the execution of applications written in Java and other JVM languages while also providing runtimes for JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and a number of other popular languages. GraalVM’s polyglot capabilities make it possible to mix multiple programming languages in a single application while eliminating any foreign language call costs.

Here you will find information about installing GraalVM Community Edition, running basic applications with it, and adding support for accompanying features. Further, you will learn about the polyglot capabilities of GraalVM and see how to build platform-specific native executables of JVM-based applications.

If you are new to GraalVM, we recommend starting with Introduction to GraalVM, where you will find information about GraalVM’s architecture, distributions available, supported platforms, core and additional features, and much more.

If you have GraalVM already installed and have experience using it, you can skip this getting started guide and proceed to the in-depth Reference Manuals.

Install GraalVM

Getting GraalVM installed and ready-to-go should take a few minutes. Choose the operating system and proceed to the installation steps:

• Linux
• Linux AArch64
• macOS
• Windows

Start Running Applications

For demonstration purposes here, we will use GraalVM Community Edition based on OpenJDK 11.

The core distribution of GraalVM includes the JVM, the GraalVM compiler, the LLVM runtime, and JavaScript runtime. Having downloaded and installed GraalVM, you can already run Java, JavaScript, and LLVM-based applications.

GraalVM’s /bin directory is similar to that of a standard JDK, but includes a set of additional launchers and utilities:

• js a JavaScript launcher
• lli a LLVM bitcode launcher
• gu the GraalVM Updater tool to install additional language runtimes and utilities

Check the versions of the runtimes provided by default:

java -version
openjdk version "11.0.12" 2021-07-20
OpenJDK Runtime Environment GraalVM CE 21.2.0 (build 11.0.12+6-jvmci-21.2-b06)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM GraalVM CE 21.2.0 (build 11.0.12+6-jvmci-21.2-b06, mixed mode, sharing)
js -version
GraalVM JavaScript (GraalVM CE Native 21.2.0)

lli --version
LLVM 10.0.0 (GraalVM CE Native 21.2.0)

Further below you will find information on how to add other optionally available GraalVM runtimes including Node.js, Ruby, R, Python, and WebAssembly.

Run Java

The java launcher runs the JVM with the GraalVM default compiler - the GraalVM compiler. Take a look at this typical HelloWorld class:

public class HelloWorld {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Hello, World!");
  }
}

Run the following commands to compile this class to bytecode and then execute it:

javac HelloWorld.java
java HelloWorld
Hello World!

You can find many larger Java examples among GraalVM Demos on GitHub. For more information on the GraalVM compiler, go to Compiler. For more extensive documentation on running Java, proceed to JVM Languages.

Run JavaScript and Node.js

GraalVM can execute plain JavaScript code, both in REPL mode and by executing script files directly:

js
> 1 + 2
3

GraalVM also supports running Node.js applications. Node.js support is not installed by default, but can be easily added with GraalVM Updater:

gu install nodejs
node -v
v14.17.6

More than 100,000 npm packages are regularly tested and are compatible with GraalVM, including modules like express, react, async, request, browserify, grunt, mocha, and underscore. To install a Node.js module, use the npm executable from the <graalvm>/bin folder, which is installed together with node. The npm command is equivalent to the default Node.js command and supports all Node.js APIs.

Install the colors and ansispan modules using npm install. After the modules are installed, you can use them from your application.

npm install colors ansispan

Use the following code snippet and save it as the app.js file in the same directory where you installed the Node.js modules:

const http = require("http");
const span = require("ansispan");
require("colors");

http.createServer(function (request, response) {
    response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/html"});
    response.end(span("Hello Graal.js!".green));
}).listen(8000, function() { console.log("Graal.js server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/".red); });

setTimeout(function() { console.log("DONE!"); process.exit(); }, 2000);

Run app.js on GraalVM Enterprise using the node command:

node app.js

For more detailed documentation and information on compatibility with Node.js, proceed to JavaScript and Node.js.

Run LLVM Languages

The GraalVM LLVM runtime can execute C/C++, Rust, and other programming language that can be compiled to LLVM bitcode. A native program has to be compiled to LLVM bitcode using an LLVM frontend such as clang. The C/C++ code can be compiled to LLVM bitcode using clang shipped with GraalVM via a prebuilt LLVM toolchain.

To set up the LLVM toolchain support:

gu install llvm-toolchain
export LLVM_TOOLCHAIN=$(lli --print-toolchain-path)

As an example, put this C code into a file named hello.c:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello from GraalVM!\n");
    return 0;
}

Then compile hello.c to an executable hello with embedded LLVM bitcode and run it as follows:

$LLVM_TOOLCHAIN/clang hello.c -o hello
lli hello

For in-depth documentation and more examples of running LLVM bitcode on GraalVM, go to LLVM Languages.

Run Python

With GraalVM you can run Python applications in the Python 3 runtime environment. The support is not available by default, but you can quickly add it to GraalVM using the GraalVM Updater tool:

gu install python

Once it is installed, you can run Python programs:

graalpython
...
>>> 1 + 2
3
>>> exit()

More examples and additional information on Python support in GraalVM can be found in the Python reference manual.

Run Ruby

GraalVM provides a high-performance Ruby runtime environment including the gem command that allows you to interact with RubyGems, Ruby Bundler, and much more. The Ruby runtime is not available by default in GraalVM, but can be easily added using the GraalVM Updater tool:

gu install ruby

Once it is installed, Ruby launchers like ruby, gem, irb, rake, rdoc, and ri become available to run Ruby programs:

ruby [options] program.rb

GraalVM Ruby runtime environment uses the same options as the standard implementation of Ruby, with some additions. For example:

gem install chunky_png
ruby -r chunky_png -e "puts ChunkyPNG::Color.to_hex(ChunkyPNG::Color('mintcream @ 0.5'))"
#f5fffa80

More examples and in-depth documentation can be found in the Ruby reference manual.

Run R

GraalVM provides a GNU-compatible environment to run R programs directly or in the REPL mode. Although the R language support is not available by default, you can add it to GraalVM using the GraalVM Updater tool:

gu install R

When the language is installed, you can execute R scripts and use the R REPL:

R
R version 4.0.3 (FastR)
...

> 1 + 1
[1] 2

More examples and in-depth documentation can be found in the R reference manual.

Run WebAssembly

With GraalVM you can run programs compiled to WebAssembly. The support is not available by default, but you can add it to GraalVM using the GraalVM Updater tool:

gu install wasm

Then the wasm launcher, that can run compiled WebAssembly binary code, becomes available.

For example, put the following C program in a file named floyd.c:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  int number = 1;
  int rows = 10;
  for (int i = 1; i <= rows; i++) {
    for (int j = 1; j <= i; j++) {
      printf("%d ", number);
      ++number;
    }
    printf(".\n");
  }
  return 0;
}

Compile it using the most recent Emscripten compiler frontend version. It should produce a standalone floyd.wasm file in the current working directory:

emcc -o floyd.wasm floyd.c

Then you can run the compiled WebAssembly binary on GraalVM as follows:

wasm --Builtins=wasi_snapshot_preview1 floyd.wasm

More details can be found in the WebAssembly reference manual.

Combine Languages

GraalVM allows you to call one programming language into another and exchange data between them. To enable interoperability, GraalVM provides the --polyglot flag.

For example, running js --jvm --polyglot example.js executes example.js in a polyglot context. If the program calls any code in other supported languages, GraalVM executes that code in the same runtime as the example.js application. For more information on running polyglot applications, see Polyglot Programming.

Native Image

With GraalVM you can compile Java bytecode into a platform-specific, self-contained, native executable to achieve faster startup and smaller footprint for your application. GraalVM Native Image functionality is not available by default, but can be easily installed with the GraalVM Updater tool:

gu install native-image

The HelloWorld example from above is used here to demonstrate how to generate a native executable:

// HelloWorld.java
public class HelloWorld {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Hello, World!");
  }
}

Note: For compilation native-image depends on the local toolchain. Make sure your system meets the prerequisites.

Compile HelloWorld.java to bytecode and then build a native executable:

javac HelloWorld.java
native-image HelloWorld

The last command generates an executable file named helloworld in the current working directory. Invoking it executes the natively compiled code of the HelloWorld class as follows:

./helloworld
Hello, World!

More detailed documentation on this innovative technology is available in the Native Image reference manual.

Polyglot Capabilities of Native Image

GraalVM makes it possible to use polyglot capabilities when building native executables. Take this example of a JSON pretty-printer Java program that embeds some JavaScript code:

// PrettyPrintJSON.java
import java.io.*;
import java.util.stream.*;
import org.graalvm.polyglot.*;

public class PrettyPrintJSON {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws java.io.IOException {
    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
    String input = reader.lines()
    .collect(Collectors.joining(System.lineSeparator()));
    try (Context context = Context.create("js")) {
      Value parse = context.eval("js", "JSON.parse");
      Value stringify = context.eval("js", "JSON.stringify");
      Value result = stringify.execute(parse.execute(input), null, 2);
      System.out.println(result.asString());
    }
  }
}

Compile it and build a native executable for it. The --language:js argument ensures that JavaScript is available in the generated executable:

javac PrettyPrintJSON.java
native-image --language:js --initialize-at-build-time PrettyPrintJSON

The generatation of a native executable will take several minutes as it does not just build the PrettyPrintJSON class, but also builds JavaScript. Additionally, the building requires large amounts of physical memory, especially if you build a native executable with the Truffle language implementation framework included, which is the case here.

The resulting executable can now perform JSON pretty-printing:

./prettyprintjson <<EOF
{"GraalVM":{"description":"Language Abstraction Platform","supports":["combining languages","embedding languages","creating native images"],"languages": ["Java","JavaScript","Node.js", "Python", "Ruby","R","LLVM"]}}
EOF

Here is the JSON output from the native executable:

{
  "GraalVM": {
    "description": "Language Abstraction Platform",
    "supports": [
      "combining languages",
      "embedding languages",
      "creating native images"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "Java",
      "JavaScript",
      "Node.js",
      "Python",
      "Ruby",
      "R",
      "LLVM"
    ]
  }
}

The native executable runs much faster than running the same code on the JVM directly:

time bin/java PrettyPrintJSON < test.json > /dev/null
real	0m1.101s
user	0m2.471s
sys	0m0.237s

time ./prettyprintjson < test.json > /dev/null
real	0m0.037s
user	0m0.015s
sys	0m0.016s

What to Read Next

New Users

Since this guide is intended mainly for users new to GraalVM, or users who are familiar with GraalVM but may have little experience using it, please consider investigating more complex Example Applications. We also recommend checking our GraalVM Team Blog.

Advanced Users

If you are mostly interested in GraalVM support for a specific language, or want more in-depth details about GraalVM’s diverse technologies, proceed to Reference Manuals.

If you are looking for the tooling support GraalVM offers, proceed to Debugging and Monitoring Tools.

If you are considering GraalVM as a platform for your future language or tool implementation, go to GraalVM as a Platform.

You can find information on GraalVM’s security model in the Security Guide, and rich API documentation in GraalVM SDK Javadoc and Truffle Javadoc.