solidity/docs/installing-solidity.rst

.. index:: ! installing

.. _installing-solidity:

###################
Installing Solidity
###################

Versioning
==========

Solidity versions follow `semantic versioning <https://semver.org>`_ 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 to use 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 <https://ethereum.github.io/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 for browser-solidity and there is also an npm
package available.

To install it, simply use

.. code:: bash

    npm install solc

Details about the usage of the Node.js package can be found in the
`solc-js repository <https://github.com/ethereum/solc-js>`_.

Binary Packages
===============

Binary packages of Solidity available at
`solidity/releases <https://github.com/ethereum/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


Prerequisites - macOS
---------------------

For macOS, ensure that you have the latest version of
`Xcode installed <https://developer.apple.com/xcode/download/>`_.
This contains the `Clang C++ compiler <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clang>`_, the
`Xcode IDE <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode>`_ 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 <http://brew.sh>`_
package manager for installing external dependencies.
Here's how to `uninstall Homebrew
<https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/homebrew/FAQ.md#how-do-i-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

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.