Create new contract via .call()

Question

If _tois left empty, and bytecode is a new contract, should _to.call(bytecode) create a new contract ? Or is it so that when a _to address is included in the transaction then the EVM processes it as a non-contract-creating transaction ?

EDIT: I'm trying to create a new contract via a proposal on the http://ethereum.org/dao framework. This article said that its possible, but it does not work. So my question is, is it possible to create a new contract using .call() ?

Answer 1

Here's an example of how to use the create opcode:

contract Factory {
    function create(bytes code) returns (address addr){
        assembly {
            addr := create(0,add(code,0x20), mload(code))
            jumpi(invalidJumpLabel,iszero(extcodesize(addr)))
        }
    }
}

contract Adder {
    function add(uint a, uint b) returns (uint){
        return a+b;
    }
}

contract Tester {
    Adder a;

    function Tester(address factory){
        a = Adder(Factory(factory).create(
        hex"606060405234610000575b60ad806100186000396000f30060606040526000357c0100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000900463ffffffff168063771602f714603c575b6000565b34600057605d60048080359060200190919080359060200190919050506073565b6040518082815260200191505060405180910390f35b600081830190505b929150505600a165627a7a723058205d7bec00c6d410f7ea2a3b03112b597bb3ef544439889ecc1294a77b85eab15e0029"
            ));
        if(address(a) == 0) throw;
    }

    function test(uint x, uint y) constant returns (uint){
        return a.add(x,y);
    }
}

Just deploy the Factory, pass its address into the Tester, and the Tester will create a new Adder, which it will use to add together integers passed to the test function.

The factory will throw if the create failed.

Answer 2

TL;DR: You can use the inline assembly code create,
(as @Eth pointed out in the comments)

call() is made to expose opcode CALL, not to call the opcode CREATE(s,v,p).

From the documentation:

All three functions call, delegatecall and callcode are very low-level functions and should only be used as a last resort as they break the type-safety of Solidity.

They are low level functions that implement directly the opcodes. CREATE is not one of them.

This can be inferred from the following links:

Here you see create and call opcodes: http://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/control-structures.html?highlight=create

Here you see an explanation of calling a function of an ABI dynamically: http://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/frequently-asked-questions.html#what-does-p-recipient-call-value-p-amount-p-data-do

Answer 3

According to Ethereum Yellow Paper, the OPCODE CALL is used for "message-call into an account". Therefore, essentially, CALL cannot be used directly to deploy a contract.

However, CALL can be used to invoke the public function A of another contract C. If function A further invokes the constructor of C, then this CALL behavior will eventually deploy a new contract, the bytecode of which is exactly the same as C.