Hermes: Compile the Hermes debug version without asserts

[tmikov]

Duplicating the offline discussion: the Hermes "debug" version is used for RN development and RN debugging, not for debugging Hermes. So, it should be compiled with NDEBUG, to improve performance in the common case.

[scarlac]

Is there a workaround that can be applied to existing React Native projects?

[willholen]

This has landed in f72b68787. Will publish an NPM soon.

[scarlac]

@willholen any chance it will make into a build release of RN or would we have to wait for next major release?

[willholen]

Regardless of which RN version will use 0.2.0 by default, I believe it'll be link compatible with 0.1.1 so a simple npm install .. should allow you to update without touching RN.

[pedropombeiro]

@willholen any idea when the NPM package containing this fix will get published?

[willholen]

Sorry about the delay! We had some issues with our CI that were only resolved yesterday. The release commit and version bump is already in flight, and is currently in the internal build and regression testing stage. With no other roadblocks, it'll be out today 🤞🤞 (PST).

[willholen]

And there it is: https://www.npmjs.com/package/hermes-engine/v/0.2.0

[pedropombeiro]

Awesome, thanks a bunch for coming through @willholen!

[willholen]

Celebrated too soon. This is the first fully automated release, and it appears that the .aar files have gotten lost in the process.

[willholen]

As an update, @azundo discovered in #109 that a linker incompatibility had indeed snuck in, which would have prevented some simple upgrades. A fix is currently in flight. Thanks for your patience!

[pedropombeiro]

Gotcha, thanks for keeping me in the loop!

[willholen]

[email protected] has now been released!

Since RN 0.60.5 still uses the previous name hermesvm, anyone trying to manually update with npm install [email protected] will need to either
A. symlink hermesvm to hermes-engine in their node_modules
B. add hermesCommand: "../../node_modules/hermes-engine/%OS-BIN%/hermes" to their project.ext.react to use the correct compiler, and similarly replace hermesvm with hermes-engine in their AAR dependencies.