solc

Solc is the Solidity compiler used to build smart contracts for the Ethereum platform. It translates Solidity source code into Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode and into the contract Application Binary Interface (ABI), along with metadata describing compiler version and settings.

The main implementation, solc, is written in C++ and distributed as a native binary. A companion project, solc-js, provides a JavaScript and WebAssembly port that runs in Node.js or browsers, enabling in-browser and server-side compilation without native code.

Solc supports multiple Solidity language versions and targets various EVM versions. It offers an optimizer and can emit artifacts via command-line options or the standard JSON input/output format, which allows tooling to request bytecode, ABI, and metadata in a structured way.

Typical usage includes compiling a file with solc --bin --abi, optionally enabling optimization (--optimize). The standard JSON workflow accepts a JSON object with sources and settings and returns a structured payload containing the compiled outputs.

Solc integrates with major development environments such as Remix, Hardhat, and Truffle, and is used by verification services to match source code to deployed bytecode. When upgrading Solidity, users should pin a compiler version and settings to preserve build reproducibility.

Versioning follows ongoing releases (for example, v0.8.x, v0.9.x) with language and optimizer improvements. The project is open source and maintained by the Ethereum community, with continuous updates and broad ecosystem support.