write-package.md

title
Write a Sui Move Package

In order to build a Move package and run code defined in this package, first install Sui binaries.

Creating the package

First, create an empty Move package:

$ sui move new my_first_package

This creates a skeleton Move project in the my_first_package directory. Let's take a look at the package manifest created by this command:

$ cat my_first_package/Move.toml
[package]
name = "my_first_package"
version = "0.0.1"

[dependencies]
Sui = { git = "https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui.git", subdir = "crates/sui-framework", rev = "devnet" }

[addresses]
my_first_package = "0x0"
sui = "0x2"

This file contains:

• Package metadata such as name and version ([package] section)
• Other packages that this package depends on ([dependencies] section). This package only depends on the Sui Framework, but other third-party dependencies should be added here.
• A list of named addresses ([addresses] section). These names can be used as convenient aliases for the given addresses in the source code.

Defining the package

Let's start by creating a source file in the package:

$ touch my_first_package/sources/my_module.move

and adding the following code to the my_module.move file:

module my_first_package::my_module {
    // Part 1: imports
    use sui::object::{Self, UID};
    use sui::transfer;
    use sui::tx_context::{Self, TxContext};

    // Part 2: struct definitions
    struct Sword has key, store {
        id: UID,
        magic: u64,
        strength: u64,
    }

    struct Forge has key, store {
        id: UID,
        swords_created: u64,
    }

    // Part 3: module initializer to be executed when this module is published
    fun init(ctx: &mut TxContext) {
        let admin = Forge {
            id: object::new(ctx),
            swords_created: 0,
        };
        // transfer the forge object to the module/package publisher
        transfer::transfer(admin, tx_context::sender(ctx));
    }

    // Part 4: accessors required to read the struct attributes
    public fun magic(self: &Sword): u64 {
        self.magic
    }

    public fun strength(self: &Sword): u64 {
        self.strength
    }

    public fun swords_created(self: &Forge): u64 {
        self.swords_created
    }

    // part 5: public/ entry functions (introduced later in the tutorial)
    // part 6: private functions (if any)
}

Let's break down the four different parts of this code:

1. Imports: allow our module to use types and functions declared in other modules. In this case, we pull in imports from three different modules.

2. Struct declarations: define types that can be created/destroyed by this module. Here the key abilities indicate that these structs are Sui objects that can be transferred between addresses. The store ability on the sword struct allows it to appear in other struct's fields and be transferred freely.

3. Module initializer: a special function that is invoked exactly once when the module is published.

4. Accessor functions: allow the fields of the module's structs to be read from other modules.