.. index:: ! installing .. _installing-solidity: ################### Installing Solidity ################### Versioning ========== Solidity versions follow `semantic versioning `_ and in addition to releases, **nightly development builds** are also made available. The nightly builds are not guaranteed to be working and despite best efforts they might contain undocumented and/or broken changes. We recommend using the latest release. Package installers below will use the latest release. Browser-Solidity ================ If you just want to try Solidity for small contracts, you can try `browser-solidity `_ which does not need any installation. If you want to use it without connection to the Internet, you can go to https://github.com/ethereum/browser-solidity/tree/gh-pages and download the .ZIP file as explained on that page. npm / Node.js ============= This is probably the most portable and most convenient way to install Solidity locally. A platform-independent JavaScript library is provided by compiling the C++ source into JavaScript using Emscripten. It can be used in projects directly (such as Browser-Solidity). Please refer to the `solc-js `_ repository for instructions. It also contains a commandline tool called `solcjs`, which can be installed via npm: .. code:: bash npm install -g solc .. note:: The comandline options of `solcjs` are not compatible with `solc` and tools (such as `geth`) expecting the behaviour of `solc` will not work with `solcjs`. Docker ====== We provide up to date docker builds for the compiler. The ``stable`` repository contains released versions while the ``nightly`` repository contains potentially unstable changes in the develop branch. .. code:: bash docker run ethereum/solc:stable solc --version Currenty, the docker image only contains the compiler executable, so you have to do some additional work to link in the source and output directories. Binary Packages =============== Binary packages of Solidity available at `solidity/releases `_. We also have PPAs for Ubuntu. For the latest stable version. .. code:: bash sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ethereum/ethereum sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install solc If you want to use the cutting edge developer version: .. code:: bash sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ethereum/ethereum sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ethereum/ethereum-dev sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install solc Homebrew is missing pre-built bottles at the time of writing, following a Jenkins to TravisCI migration, but Homebrew should still work just fine as a means to build-from-source. We will re-add the pre-built bottles soon. .. code:: bash brew update brew upgrade brew tap ethereum/ethereum brew install solidity brew linkapps solidity .. _building-from-source: Building from Source ==================== Clone the Repository -------------------- To clone the source code, execute the following command: .. code:: bash git clone --recursive https://github.com/ethereum/solidity.git cd solidity If you want to help developing Solidity, you should fork Solidity and add your personal fork as a second remote: .. code:: bash cd solidity git remote add personal git@github.com:[username]/solidity.git Solidity has git submodules. Ensure they are properly loaded: .. code:: bash git submodule update --init --recursive Prerequisites - macOS --------------------- For macOS, ensure that you have the latest version of `Xcode installed `_. This contains the `Clang C++ compiler `_, the `Xcode IDE `_ and other Apple development tools which are required for building C++ applications on OS X. If you are installing Xcode for the first time, or have just installed a new version then you will need to agree to the license before you can do command-line builds: .. code:: bash sudo xcodebuild -license accept Our OS X builds require you to `install the Homebrew `_ package manager for installing external dependencies. Here's how to `uninstall Homebrew `_, if you ever want to start again from scratch. Prerequisites - Windows ----------------------- You will need to install the following dependencies for Windows builds of Solidity: +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ | Software | Notes | +==============================+=======================================================+ | `Git for Windows`_ | Command-line tool for retrieving source from Github. | +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ | `CMake`_ | Cross-platform build file generator. | +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ | `Visual Studio 2015`_ | C++ compiler and dev environment. | +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ .. _Git for Windows: https://git-scm.com/download/win .. _CMake: https://cmake.org/download/ .. _Visual Studio 2015: https://www.visualstudio.com/products/vs-2015-product-editions External Dependencies --------------------- We now have a "one button" script which installs all required external dependencies on macOS, Windows and on numerous Linux distros. This used to be a multi-step manual process, but is now a one-liner: .. code:: bash ./scripts/install_deps.sh Or, on Windows: .. code:: bat scripts\install_deps.bat Command-Line Build ------------------ Building Solidity is quite similar on Linux, macOS and other Unices: .. code:: bash mkdir build cd build cmake .. && make And even on Windows: .. code:: bash mkdir build cd build cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" .. This latter set of instructions should result in the creation of **solidity.sln** in that build directory. Double-clicking on that file should result in Visual Studio firing up. We suggest building **RelWithDebugInfo** configuration, but all others work. Alternatively, you can build for Windows on the command-line, like so: .. code:: bash cmake --build . --config RelWithDebInfo The version string in detail ============================ The Solidity version string contains four parts: - the version number - pre-release tag, usually set to ``develop.YYYY.MM.DD`` or ``nightly.YYYY.MM.DD`` - commit in the format of ``commit.GITHASH`` - platform has arbitrary number of items, containing details about the platform and compiler If there are local modifications, the commit will be postfixed with ``.mod``. These parts are combined as required by Semver, where the Solidity pre-release tag equals to the Semver pre-release and the Solidity commit and platform combined make up the Semver build metadata. A relase example: ``0.4.8+commit.60cc1668.Emscripten.clang``. A pre-release example: ``0.4.9-nightly.2017.1.17+commit.6ecb4aa3.Emscripten.clang`` Important information about versioning ====================================== After a release is made, the patch version level is bumped, because we assume that only patch level changes follow. When changes are merged, the version should be bumped according to semver and the severity of the change. Finally, a release is always made with the version of the current nightly build, but without the ``prerelease`` specifier. Example: 0. the 0.4.0 release is made 1. nightly build has a version of 0.4.1 from now on 2. non-breaking changes are introduced - no change in version 3. a breaking change is introduced - version is bumped to 0.5.0 4. the 0.5.0 release is made This behaviour works well with the version pragma.