docs/060-breaking-changes.rst
Solidity v0.6.0 Breaking Changes
This section highlights the main breaking changes introduced in Solidity
version 0.6.0, along with the reasoning behind the changes and how to update
affected code.
For the full list check
the release changelog <https://github.com/argotorg/solidity/releases/tag/v0.6.0>_.
This section lists changes where the behavior of your code might change without the compiler telling you about it.
This section lists changes where the code now needs to be more explicit, but the semantics do not change. For most of the topics the compiler will provide suggestions.
Functions can now only be overridden when they are either marked with the
virtual keyword or defined in an interface. Functions without
implementation outside an interface have to be marked virtual.
When overriding a function or modifier, the new keyword override
must be used. When overriding a function or modifier defined in multiple
parallel bases, all bases must be listed in parentheses after the keyword
like so: override(Base1, Base2).
Member-access to length of arrays is now always read-only, even for storage arrays. It is no
longer possible to resize storage arrays by assigning a new value to their length. Use push(),
push(value) or pop() instead, or assign a full array, which will of course overwrite the existing content.
The reason behind this is to prevent storage collisions of gigantic
storage arrays.
The new keyword abstract can be used to mark contracts as abstract. It has to be used
if a contract does not implement all its functions. Abstract contracts cannot be created using the new operator,
and it is not possible to generate bytecode for them during compilation.
Libraries have to implement all their functions, not only the internal ones.
The names of variables declared in inline assembly may no longer end in _slot or _offset.
Variable declarations in inline assembly may no longer shadow any declaration outside the inline assembly block. If the name contains a dot, its prefix up to the dot may not conflict with any declaration outside the inline assembly block.
In inline assembly, opcodes that do not take arguments are now represented as "built-in functions" instead of standalone identifiers. So gas is now gas().
State variable shadowing is now disallowed. A derived contract can only
declare a state variable x, if there is no visible state variable with
the same name in any of its bases.
This section lists changes where you have to modify your code and it does something else afterwards.
Conversions from external function types to address are now disallowed. Instead external
function types have a member called address, similar to the existing selector member.
The function push(value) for dynamic storage arrays does not return the new length anymore (it returns nothing).
The unnamed function commonly referred to as "fallback function" was split up into a new
fallback function that is defined using the fallback keyword and a receive ether function
defined using the receive keyword.
If present, the receive ether function is called whenever the call data is empty (whether
or not ether is received). This function is implicitly payable.
The new fallback function is called when no other function matches (if the receive ether
function does not exist then this includes calls with empty call data).
You can make this function payable or not. If it is not payable then transactions
not matching any other function which send value will revert. You should only need to
implement the new fallback function if you are following an upgrade or proxy pattern.
This section lists things that were not possible prior to Solidity 0.6.0 or were more difficult to achieve.
try/catch statement <try-catch> allows you to react on failed external calls.struct and enum types can be declared at file level.abi.decode(msg.data[4:], (uint, uint))
is a low-level way to decode the function call payload.@param.leave that exits the current function.address to address payable are now possible via payable(x), where
x must be of type address.This section lists changes that are unrelated to the language itself, but that have an effect on the interfaces of the compiler. These may change the way how you use the compiler on the command-line, how you use its programmable interface, or how you analyze the output produced by it.
New Error Reporter
A new error reporter was introduced, which aims at producing more accessible error messages on the command-line.
It is enabled by default, but passing ``--old-reporter`` falls back to the deprecated old error reporter.
Metadata Hash Options
The compiler now appends the IPFS <https://ipfs.io/>_ hash of the metadata file to the end of the bytecode by default
(for details, see documentation on :doc:contract metadata <metadata>). Before 0.6.0, the compiler appended the
Swarm <https://www.ethswarm.org/>_ hash by default, and in order to still support this behavior,
the new command-line option --metadata-hash was introduced. It allows you to select the hash to be produced and
appended, by passing either ipfs or swarm as value to the --metadata-hash command-line option.
Passing the value none completely removes the hash.
These changes can also be used via the :ref:Standard JSON Interface<compiler-api> and effect the metadata JSON generated by the compiler.
The recommended way to read the metadata is to read the last two bytes to determine the length of the CBOR encoding
and perform a proper decoding on that data block as explained in the :ref:metadata section<encoding-of-the-metadata-hash-in-the-bytecode>.
Yul Optimizer
Together with the legacy bytecode optimizer, the :doc:`Yul <yul>` optimizer is now enabled by default when you call the compiler
with ``--optimize``. It can be disabled by calling the compiler with ``--no-optimize-yul``.
This mostly affects code that uses ABI coder v2.
C API Changes
The client code that uses the C API of libsolc is now in control of the memory used by the compiler. To make
this change consistent, solidity_free was renamed to solidity_reset, the functions solidity_alloc and
solidity_free were added and solidity_compile now returns a string that must be explicitly freed via
solidity_free().
This section gives detailed instructions on how to update prior code for every breaking change.
Change address(f) to f.address for f being of external function type.
Replace function () external [payable] { ... } by either receive() external payable { ... },
fallback() external [payable] { ... } or both. Prefer
using a receive function only, whenever possible.
Change uint length = array.push(value) to array.push(value);. The new length can be
accessed via array.length.
Change array.length++ to array.push() to increase, and use pop() to decrease
the length of a storage array.
For every named return parameter in a function's @dev documentation define a @return
entry which contains the parameter's name as the first word. E.g. if you have function f() defined
like function f() public returns (uint value) and a @dev annotating it, document its return
parameters like so: @return value The return value.. You can mix named and un-named return parameters
documentation so long as the notices are in the order they appear in the tuple return type.
Choose unique identifiers for variable declarations in inline assembly that do not conflict with declarations outside the inline assembly block.
Add virtual to every non-interface function you intend to override. Add virtual
to all functions without implementation outside interfaces. For single inheritance, add
override to every overriding function. For multiple inheritance, add override(A, B, ..),
where you list all contracts that define the overridden function in the parentheses. When
multiple bases define the same function, the inheriting contract must override all conflicting functions.
In inline assembly, add () to all opcodes that do not otherwise accept an argument.
For example, change pc to pc(), and gas to gas().