resolc binary releases

[xermicus]

We need to release binary version of the resolc Solidity frontend executable for Linux, MacOS and Windows.

Since there are many ways people can and do manage their solc binaries (e.g. download from GH release, use you distro package manager, npm install something, ...), I think our best bet is to have binary releases so tooling can support it.

For the linux binary see #45

[athei]

What we should release are the following artifacts:

For Production

• alpine linux docker container with musl statically linked resolc and a fixed solc version in it
  • We might later ship multiple versions of solc in this container

For Dev

• resolc for x64 linux (same binary as in the docker)
• resolc universal binary for macOS
• resolc for 64bit windows

This should be accomplished as github actions that build those artifacts if a new tag is created and then create a new draft release. There is an existing release pipeline that is triggered on demand and creates a glibc linked version. This should be replaced by the new one.

[xermicus]

This is how zksolc builds LLVM. This should be close to what we need to do. We can also have a different repository with dedicated workflows for LLVM build releases.

[xermicus]

Update: Depends on #86

Regarding the alpine release, see the example Dockerfile introduced in #154.

[xermicus]

@athei correct me if I'm wrong but since the requirements for that Docker image aren't exactly clear yet, for now we will release:

• Linux (MUSL only, there is no GNU solc executable release neither)
• Windows
• MacOS (universal)
• Wasm32 (emscripten)

We have figured out the MUSL build anyways so building such a Docker image will be trivial once the requirements are clear.

[mutantcornholio]

And as for LLVM, we need:

• linux-gnu
• macos-gnu
• windows-gnu
• emscripten
• musl

[athei]

@xermicus Yes correct. Let's skip docker for now.

@mutantcornholio I don't understand your list. Why should it be any different from what Cyrill just listed?

linux-gnu

Didn't we just agree that we use only the musl clib on Linux?

macos-gnu

There is no such thing AFAIK.

windows-gnu

You mean mingw? Why not use the msvc toolchain?

musl

Thats just a name of a clib.

[xermicus]

@xermicus Yes correct. Let's skip docker for now.

@mutantcornholio I don't understand your list. Why should it be any different from what Cyrill just listed?

linux-gnu

Didn't we just agree that we use only the musl clib on Linux?

macos-gnu

There is no such thing AFAIK.

windows-gnu

You mean mingw? Why not use the msvc toolchain?

musl

Thats just a name of a clib.

FYI the list @mutantcornholio posted there is the LLVM build artifacts that will be released.

GNU is just the default (maybe msvc would be more appropriate for win). So we will release the LLVM builds for native compilation and the LLVM builds for cross-compilation.