Truffle v5 has arrived!

We have just released the most awaited version of Truffle just in time for the holidays! There are SO many exciting things that we would like to mention that will make your Truffle experience a rich one. Highlighted below are the new exciting things Truffle has to offer.

👯 Download Truffle v5 or check out the full Release Notes. 👯

  • Bring your own compiler! You can now choose any solc-js version available at solc-bin. Just tell Truffle which version you want to use and it will automatically fetch it for you! This feature also includes the ability to use Docker and native binaries in an advanced way.

  • Web3 1.0 - The truffle-contract package is now using Web3.js 1.0! This will greatly improve error handling!

  • New migrations command - In v5, the migrate command has been completely rewritten. We have included better error messages: e.g., when a deployment fails Truffle will notify you and give you an idea of possible fixes. Truffle will now also give you more information about what is going on when you deploy a contract. This includes cost summaries and real time status updates about the amount of time a transaction has been pending.

Dry run simulations also now run automatically if you are deploying to a known public network and using the --interactive flag on the command line will give you a prompt between dry runs and real deployments.

Another improvement is the ability to configure the amount of block confirmations in between deployments. This allows the user to specify the number of blocks to wait before transactions time out.

  • Usage analytics - Usage analytics have been added and users can opt-in by running truffle config --enable-analytics. We think this feature will be a vital tool that will help us to make informed decisions about the future of Truffle and to determine what is most valuable to our users. When enabled, Truffle will collect information about your version number, the commands you run, and whether commands succeed or fail. And of course, it will do so in an anonymous fashion.

  • truffle run <command> - Truffle now gives users the ability to create custom command plugins. This feature is still in its infancy so let us know what you think!

  • Vyper support - Another added feature is that Truffle will now compile *.vy contracts. We have published a Truffle Box to help you get started with Vyper. You can access it by running:

$ truffle unbox vyper-example

(Make sure you have Vyper installed.)

  • Solidity v0.5.0 - Truffle also now ships with Solidity v0.5.0 by default. Solidity v0.4.xx is still supported and can be used by specifying the version you wish to use in your Truffle config.

  • Structured function parameters - Truffle has been upgraded to use Web3.js v1.0. This has allowed us to include support for passing/returning ‘struct’s in Solidity functions. To use this ability, you need to specify the following at the top of your contracts:

pragma experimental ABIEncoderV2

This feature allows you to use complex function arguments and have the values returned so that they can interact with other contracts via truffle-contract’s JS interface.

  • Help system - Now access Truffle’s built in help system by running: 
    $ truffle help <command>

This allows you to see all the available options for the command as well as a description of what it does.

  • Unique truffle develop mnemonics - Truffle will now generate random mnemonics that will persist only for you. Use caution with crypto security when working with mnemonics and private keys!

  • Debugger improvements - v5 includes debugger breakpoints! Add breakpoints using the ’b’ command and remove them using the ‘B’ command. Additionally we have added mapping support for the debugger!

  • truffle init / truffle unbox - These commands have been improved and you are now asked if you want to overwrite files in the case of name conflicts in the target directory. A force option (--force) has also been added in the case where you wish to overwrite the files automatically and avoid the prompt.

  • async/await - Support for async/await syntax in the Truffle console is also now available!

Looking towards the future we intend to add third-party plugins and hope through our fancy, improved analaytics to provide features the community needs most!

V5 Breaking Changes

Thank you to all who have helped make this release of Truffle possible! We hope you enjoy this new Truffle release and ask that you let us know if you have any suggestions or problems on our community Gitter channel or on our GitHub page!

Get started with Truffle v5 today!