solc compiler --allow-paths fails

Question

I'm trying to compile a contract using standard JSON through a script via the solc compiler CLI. I have a folder structure for storing the .sol files, the input JSON, and the compiled JSON output. No matter what variation I use in --allow-paths it tells me the file does not exist, yet if I open the supposedly non-existent file in vim it opens just fine.

I know the problem is with the --allow-paths argument, but I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Say the folder structure is:

• /var/www/html/path/to/file/sub/test.sol for Solidity files
• /var/www/html/path/to/input/sub/input.json for input JSON files
• /var/www/html/path/to/compiled/sub/compiled.json for compiled JSON files

The commands I've tried are:

• solc --standard-json --allow-paths "/var/www/html/path/to/file/sub/" < /var/www/html/path/to/input/sub/input.json > /var/www/html/path/to/compiled/sub/compiled.json
• solc --standard-json --allow-paths /var/www/html/path/to/file/sub/ < /var/www/html/path/to/input/sub/input.json > /var/www/html/path/to/compiled/sub/compiled.json
• solc --standard-json --allow-paths "/var/www/html/path/to/file/sub" < /var/www/html/path/to/input/sub/input.json > /var/www/html/path/to/compiled/sub/compiled.json
• solc --standard-json --allow-paths /var/www/html/path/to/file/sub < /var/www/html/path/to/input/sub/input.json > /var/www/html/path/to/compiled/sub/compiled.json
• solc --standard-json --allow-paths "/var/www/html/path/to/file" < /var/www/html/path/to/input/sub/input.json > /var/www/html/path/to/compiled/sub/compiled.json
• solc --standard-json --allow-paths /var/www/html/path/to/file < /var/www/html/path/to/input/sub/input.json > /var/www/html/path/to/compiled/sub/compiled.json
• all variations above using relative paths instead from /var/www/html/path

I've verified multiple times that the path to the Solidity file in the input JSON is correct, but no matter what I try I keep getting a file not found error:

{"component":"general","formattedMessage":"Cannot import url (\"/var/www/html/path/to/file/sub/test.sol\"): File not found.","message":"Cannot import url (\"/var/www/html/path/to/file/sub/test.sol\"): File not found.","severity":"error","type":"IOError"}

Answer 1

The documentation doesn't make it clear, but even with --allow-paths solc will still not look outside the home directory and it's subs and the install folder for solc.

Therefore, I had to create a new user and use that users home directory, and things worked fine.