Solana and Anchor Setup Guide

This guide will help you set up your development environment for building and testing Solana programs using Rust and Anchor.

Install Rust

First, install Rust, the programming language used for writing Solana programs.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y
rustc --version

Install Solana

Next, install the Solana CLI tools. These tools are essential for interacting with the Solana blockchain.

sh -c "$(curl -sSfL https://release.anza.xyz/stable/install)"
export PATH="$HOME/.local/share/solana/install/active_release/bin:$PATH"
solana --version

Update Solana to the latest version:

agave-install update

For more information, check the Solana installation guide.

Test Solana and Use Localhost Testnet

To test Solana locally, you can use the Solana test validator. Note that this doesn't work in Windows mounted folders.

In a new terminal, run:

cd ~
solana-test-validator

Then, configure Solana to use the localhost testnet:

solana address
solana account <address from above>
solana config set --url localhost
solana-test-validator

Setup Solana

Generate a new keypair and configure Solana:

solana-keygen new
solana address
solana config set -ud
solana airdrop 2
solana balance

Install Anchor

Anchor is a framework for Solana's Sealevel runtime providing several developer tools.

Install Anchor CLI:

cargo install --git https://github.com/coral-xyz/anchor avm --locked --force
avm install latest

Install missing dependencies:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get install -y pkg-config build-essential libudev-dev libssl-dev

For more information, check the Anchor installation guide.

Create a New Project

Initialize a new Anchor project:

anchor init solana-app --javascript

Build and Test the Project

Build the project:

anchor build

Run tests:

anchor test

To skip the local validator during tests:

anchor test --skip-local-validator

Create Dynamically Generated Program ID

Generate a new keypair for your program:

solana-keygen new -o ./target/deploy/solana_app-keypair.json
solana address -k ./target/deploy/solana_app-keypair.json

Replace the program ID in your project:

In mysolanaapp/src/lib.rs:

declare_id!("your-program-id");

In Anchor.toml:

[programs.localnet]
mysolanaapp = "your-program-id"

Clean Up

Clean the project:

cargo clean

Remove the target directory if needed.

Important Notes

To copy the idl file to the frontend, use:

node ./copy-idl.js

There are no read operations in Solana programs. To read the contents of a program, request the account, and you can view all of the program's state.

l3lackcurtains/solana-setup-guide