Which anchor version to use

Question

I rarely tried to write Solana programs and have a dev question.

I notice that Solana pretty often updates versions. Half a year ago I was trying to write token programs, and the Anchor 0.27 -> 0.29 version transition seemed to have major interface changes, so it was hard to implement old tutorials with the newer version as non-expert. But now I am starting new project, and it will definitely reuse some code from articles or other protocols.

The current version is 0.30.1, but most code and tools like Sol Playground still use 0.29 default. The Orca protocol that I am currently look as the best practice for start, is also using 0.29

So what is your recommendation regarding the version to use? Is it okay to start a new project on 0.29 and how compatible it will be if I want someday to upgrade the version to 0.30.+? Or, in other circumstances, does it make sense to upgrade the existing codebase to 0.30.1?

Answer 1

TL;DR

anchor-cli 0.30.1
solana-cli 1.18.11 (src:48254fa2; feat:3469865029, client:Agave)

0.30.0 had some issues and that's why that patch 0.30.1, check release logs here https://www.anchor-lang.com/release-notes/0.30.1

# uncomment the line below if you don't have anchor installed
# avm install latest 
avm use latest

solana-install init 1.18.17

You also have to make the same with your solana version.

In my observation using the latest bleeding-edge release will nuke your deploys and I've been struggling with deployment issues as documented here Deploying program errors out with `Error: 184 write transactions failed`.

Using an older version will probably result in an error if you want to make CPIs into other programs.