Consider using py-solc

[offlinemark]

It's been brought up for discussion that maybe we should use py-solc, instead of our own wrapper. Let's discuss this here.

https://github.com/ethereum/py-solc

#110 (comment)

[offlinemark]

So it seems py-solc still requires an out of band installation of the solc binary.

[defunctio]

Yeah it is also just a wrapper but they do provide this though;

>>> from solc import install_solc
>>> install_solc('v0.4.24')

with support for both osx/linux

[ESultanik]

py-solc has a couple issues related to its install_solc function:

1. Its support for installation of new versions of solc lags behind. Currently, the latest version it supports is v0.4.25.
2. On macOS, py-solc installs solc from source. This is a problem because solc versions 0.4.* no longer build on macOS from source, and the developers have decided not to fix that issue.

Another option—which would regrettably add a dependency on npm—would be to dynamically install the Emscripten-generated solc-js version specific to the code being analyzed. This can be done locally per Manticore run without requiring a globally installed solc binary. That's what Truffle does. Chances are if someone is running Manticore, they already have Truffle (and thereby npm and solc-js) installed.

[ESultanik]

Another option would be to make Manticore Truffle-aware. See Issue #768. The idea would be for Manticore to auto-detect whether a project it is analyzing is a Truffle project. If so, run truffle compile and then read the compiled contracts directly from Truffle. That would remove the dependency on solc completely for Truffle projects (of which the vast majority are nowadays).

[ehennenfent]

#1406