github.com/4000d/go-ethereum@v1.8.2-0.20180223170251-423c8bb1d821/README.md (about) 1 ## Go Ethereum 2 3 Official golang implementation of the Ethereum protocol. 4 5 [![API Reference]( 6 https://camo.githubusercontent.com/915b7be44ada53c290eb157634330494ebe3e30a/68747470733a2f2f676f646f632e6f72672f6769746875622e636f6d2f676f6c616e672f6764646f3f7374617475732e737667 7 )](https://godoc.org/github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum) 8 [![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum) 9 [![Gitter](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/ethereum/go-ethereum?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge) 10 11 Automated builds are available for stable releases and the unstable master branch. 12 Binary archives are published at https://geth.ethereum.org/downloads/. 13 14 ## Building the source 15 16 For prerequisites and detailed build instructions please read the 17 [Installation Instructions](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Building-Ethereum) 18 on the wiki. 19 20 Building geth requires both a Go (version 1.7 or later) and a C compiler. 21 You can install them using your favourite package manager. 22 Once the dependencies are installed, run 23 24 make geth 25 26 or, to build the full suite of utilities: 27 28 make all 29 30 ## Executables 31 32 The go-ethereum project comes with several wrappers/executables found in the `cmd` directory. 33 34 | Command | Description | 35 |:----------:|-------------| 36 | **`geth`** | Our main Ethereum CLI client. It is the entry point into the Ethereum network (main-, test- or private net), capable of running as a full node (default) archive node (retaining all historical state) or a light node (retrieving data live). It can be used by other processes as a gateway into the Ethereum network via JSON RPC endpoints exposed on top of HTTP, WebSocket and/or IPC transports. `geth --help` and the [CLI Wiki page](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Command-Line-Options) for command line options. | 37 | `abigen` | Source code generator to convert Ethereum contract definitions into easy to use, compile-time type-safe Go packages. It operates on plain [Ethereum contract ABIs](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Ethereum-Contract-ABI) with expanded functionality if the contract bytecode is also available. However it also accepts Solidity source files, making development much more streamlined. Please see our [Native DApps](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Native-DApps:-Go-bindings-to-Ethereum-contracts) wiki page for details. | 38 | `bootnode` | Stripped down version of our Ethereum client implementation that only takes part in the network node discovery protocol, but does not run any of the higher level application protocols. It can be used as a lightweight bootstrap node to aid in finding peers in private networks. | 39 | `evm` | Developer utility version of the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) that is capable of running bytecode snippets within a configurable environment and execution mode. Its purpose is to allow isolated, fine-grained debugging of EVM opcodes (e.g. `evm --code 60ff60ff --debug`). | 40 | `gethrpctest` | Developer utility tool to support our [ethereum/rpc-test](https://github.com/ethereum/rpc-tests) test suite which validates baseline conformity to the [Ethereum JSON RPC](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JSON-RPC) specs. Please see the [test suite's readme](https://github.com/ethereum/rpc-tests/blob/master/README.md) for details. | 41 | `rlpdump` | Developer utility tool to convert binary RLP ([Recursive Length Prefix](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/RLP)) dumps (data encoding used by the Ethereum protocol both network as well as consensus wise) to user friendlier hierarchical representation (e.g. `rlpdump --hex CE0183FFFFFFC4C304050583616263`). | 42 | `swarm` | swarm daemon and tools. This is the entrypoint for the swarm network. `swarm --help` for command line options and subcommands. See https://swarm-guide.readthedocs.io for swarm documentation. | 43 | `puppeth` | a CLI wizard that aids in creating a new Ethereum network. | 44 45 ## Running geth 46 47 Going through all the possible command line flags is out of scope here (please consult our 48 [CLI Wiki page](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Command-Line-Options)), but we've 49 enumerated a few common parameter combos to get you up to speed quickly on how you can run your 50 own Geth instance. 51 52 ### Full node on the main Ethereum network 53 54 By far the most common scenario is people wanting to simply interact with the Ethereum network: 55 create accounts; transfer funds; deploy and interact with contracts. For this particular use-case 56 the user doesn't care about years-old historical data, so we can fast-sync quickly to the current 57 state of the network. To do so: 58 59 ``` 60 $ geth console 61 ``` 62 63 This command will: 64 65 * Start geth in fast sync mode (default, can be changed with the `--syncmode` flag), causing it to 66 download more data in exchange for avoiding processing the entire history of the Ethereum network, 67 which is very CPU intensive. 68 * Start up Geth's built-in interactive [JavaScript console](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/JavaScript-Console), 69 (via the trailing `console` subcommand) through which you can invoke all official [`web3` methods](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JavaScript-API) 70 as well as Geth's own [management APIs](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Management-APIs). 71 This too is optional and if you leave it out you can always attach to an already running Geth instance 72 with `geth attach`. 73 74 ### Full node on the Ethereum test network 75 76 Transitioning towards developers, if you'd like to play around with creating Ethereum contracts, you 77 almost certainly would like to do that without any real money involved until you get the hang of the 78 entire system. In other words, instead of attaching to the main network, you want to join the **test** 79 network with your node, which is fully equivalent to the main network, but with play-Ether only. 80 81 ``` 82 $ geth --testnet console 83 ``` 84 85 The `console` subcommand have the exact same meaning as above and they are equally useful on the 86 testnet too. Please see above for their explanations if you've skipped to here. 87 88 Specifying the `--testnet` flag however will reconfigure your Geth instance a bit: 89 90 * Instead of using the default data directory (`~/.ethereum` on Linux for example), Geth will nest 91 itself one level deeper into a `testnet` subfolder (`~/.ethereum/testnet` on Linux). Note, on OSX 92 and Linux this also means that attaching to a running testnet node requires the use of a custom 93 endpoint since `geth attach` will try to attach to a production node endpoint by default. E.g. 94 `geth attach <datadir>/testnet/geth.ipc`. Windows users are not affected by this. 95 * Instead of connecting the main Ethereum network, the client will connect to the test network, 96 which uses different P2P bootnodes, different network IDs and genesis states. 97 98 *Note: Although there are some internal protective measures to prevent transactions from crossing 99 over between the main network and test network, you should make sure to always use separate accounts 100 for play-money and real-money. Unless you manually move accounts, Geth will by default correctly 101 separate the two networks and will not make any accounts available between them.* 102 103 ### Full node on the Rinkeby test network 104 105 The above test network is a cross client one based on the ethash proof-of-work consensus algorithm. As such, it has certain extra overhead and is more susceptible to reorganization attacks due to the network's low difficulty / security. Go Ethereum also supports connecting to a proof-of-authority based test network called [*Rinkeby*](https://www.rinkeby.io) (operated by members of the community). This network is lighter, more secure, but is only supported by go-ethereum. 106 107 ``` 108 $ geth --rinkeby console 109 ``` 110 111 ### Configuration 112 113 As an alternative to passing the numerous flags to the `geth` binary, you can also pass a configuration file via: 114 115 ``` 116 $ geth --config /path/to/your_config.toml 117 ``` 118 119 To get an idea how the file should look like you can use the `dumpconfig` subcommand to export your existing configuration: 120 121 ``` 122 $ geth --your-favourite-flags dumpconfig 123 ``` 124 125 *Note: This works only with geth v1.6.0 and above.* 126 127 #### Docker quick start 128 129 One of the quickest ways to get Ethereum up and running on your machine is by using Docker: 130 131 ``` 132 docker run -d --name ethereum-node -v /Users/alice/ethereum:/root \ 133 -p 8545:8545 -p 30303:30303 \ 134 ethereum/client-go 135 ``` 136 137 This will start geth in fast-sync mode with a DB memory allowance of 1GB just as the above command does. It will also create a persistent volume in your home directory for saving your blockchain as well as map the default ports. There is also an `alpine` tag available for a slim version of the image. 138 139 Do not forget `--rpcaddr 0.0.0.0`, if you want to access RPC from other containers and/or hosts. By default, `geth` binds to the local interface and RPC endpoints is not accessible from the outside. 140 141 ### Programatically interfacing Geth nodes 142 143 As a developer, sooner rather than later you'll want to start interacting with Geth and the Ethereum 144 network via your own programs and not manually through the console. To aid this, Geth has built in 145 support for a JSON-RPC based APIs ([standard APIs](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JSON-RPC) and 146 [Geth specific APIs](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Management-APIs)). These can be 147 exposed via HTTP, WebSockets and IPC (unix sockets on unix based platforms, and named pipes on Windows). 148 149 The IPC interface is enabled by default and exposes all the APIs supported by Geth, whereas the HTTP 150 and WS interfaces need to manually be enabled and only expose a subset of APIs due to security reasons. 151 These can be turned on/off and configured as you'd expect. 152 153 HTTP based JSON-RPC API options: 154 155 * `--rpc` Enable the HTTP-RPC server 156 * `--rpcaddr` HTTP-RPC server listening interface (default: "localhost") 157 * `--rpcport` HTTP-RPC server listening port (default: 8545) 158 * `--rpcapi` API's offered over the HTTP-RPC interface (default: "eth,net,web3") 159 * `--rpccorsdomain` Comma separated list of domains from which to accept cross origin requests (browser enforced) 160 * `--ws` Enable the WS-RPC server 161 * `--wsaddr` WS-RPC server listening interface (default: "localhost") 162 * `--wsport` WS-RPC server listening port (default: 8546) 163 * `--wsapi` API's offered over the WS-RPC interface (default: "eth,net,web3") 164 * `--wsorigins` Origins from which to accept websockets requests 165 * `--ipcdisable` Disable the IPC-RPC server 166 * `--ipcapi` API's offered over the IPC-RPC interface (default: "admin,debug,eth,miner,net,personal,shh,txpool,web3") 167 * `--ipcpath` Filename for IPC socket/pipe within the datadir (explicit paths escape it) 168 169 You'll need to use your own programming environments' capabilities (libraries, tools, etc) to connect 170 via HTTP, WS or IPC to a Geth node configured with the above flags and you'll need to speak [JSON-RPC](http://www.jsonrpc.org/specification) 171 on all transports. You can reuse the same connection for multiple requests! 172 173 **Note: Please understand the security implications of opening up an HTTP/WS based transport before 174 doing so! Hackers on the internet are actively trying to subvert Ethereum nodes with exposed APIs! 175 Further, all browser tabs can access locally running webservers, so malicious webpages could try to 176 subvert locally available APIs!** 177 178 ### Operating a private network 179 180 Maintaining your own private network is more involved as a lot of configurations taken for granted in 181 the official networks need to be manually set up. 182 183 #### Defining the private genesis state 184 185 First, you'll need to create the genesis state of your networks, which all nodes need to be aware of 186 and agree upon. This consists of a small JSON file (e.g. call it `genesis.json`): 187 188 ```json 189 { 190 "config": { 191 "chainId": 0, 192 "homesteadBlock": 0, 193 "eip155Block": 0, 194 "eip158Block": 0 195 }, 196 "alloc" : {}, 197 "coinbase" : "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000", 198 "difficulty" : "0x20000", 199 "extraData" : "", 200 "gasLimit" : "0x2fefd8", 201 "nonce" : "0x0000000000000042", 202 "mixhash" : "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000", 203 "parentHash" : "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000", 204 "timestamp" : "0x00" 205 } 206 ``` 207 208 The above fields should be fine for most purposes, although we'd recommend changing the `nonce` to 209 some random value so you prevent unknown remote nodes from being able to connect to you. If you'd 210 like to pre-fund some accounts for easier testing, you can populate the `alloc` field with account 211 configs: 212 213 ```json 214 "alloc": { 215 "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000001": {"balance": "111111111"}, 216 "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000002": {"balance": "222222222"} 217 } 218 ``` 219 220 With the genesis state defined in the above JSON file, you'll need to initialize **every** Geth node 221 with it prior to starting it up to ensure all blockchain parameters are correctly set: 222 223 ``` 224 $ geth init path/to/genesis.json 225 ``` 226 227 #### Creating the rendezvous point 228 229 With all nodes that you want to run initialized to the desired genesis state, you'll need to start a 230 bootstrap node that others can use to find each other in your network and/or over the internet. The 231 clean way is to configure and run a dedicated bootnode: 232 233 ``` 234 $ bootnode --genkey=boot.key 235 $ bootnode --nodekey=boot.key 236 ``` 237 238 With the bootnode online, it will display an [`enode` URL](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/enode-url-format) 239 that other nodes can use to connect to it and exchange peer information. Make sure to replace the 240 displayed IP address information (most probably `[::]`) with your externally accessible IP to get the 241 actual `enode` URL. 242 243 *Note: You could also use a full fledged Geth node as a bootnode, but it's the less recommended way.* 244 245 #### Starting up your member nodes 246 247 With the bootnode operational and externally reachable (you can try `telnet <ip> <port>` to ensure 248 it's indeed reachable), start every subsequent Geth node pointed to the bootnode for peer discovery 249 via the `--bootnodes` flag. It will probably also be desirable to keep the data directory of your 250 private network separated, so do also specify a custom `--datadir` flag. 251 252 ``` 253 $ geth --datadir=path/to/custom/data/folder --bootnodes=<bootnode-enode-url-from-above> 254 ``` 255 256 *Note: Since your network will be completely cut off from the main and test networks, you'll also 257 need to configure a miner to process transactions and create new blocks for you.* 258 259 #### Running a private miner 260 261 Mining on the public Ethereum network is a complex task as it's only feasible using GPUs, requiring 262 an OpenCL or CUDA enabled `ethminer` instance. For information on such a setup, please consult the 263 [EtherMining subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/EtherMining/) and the [Genoil miner](https://github.com/Genoil/cpp-ethereum) 264 repository. 265 266 In a private network setting however, a single CPU miner instance is more than enough for practical 267 purposes as it can produce a stable stream of blocks at the correct intervals without needing heavy 268 resources (consider running on a single thread, no need for multiple ones either). To start a Geth 269 instance for mining, run it with all your usual flags, extended by: 270 271 ``` 272 $ geth <usual-flags> --mine --minerthreads=1 --etherbase=0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 273 ``` 274 275 Which will start mining blocks and transactions on a single CPU thread, crediting all proceedings to 276 the account specified by `--etherbase`. You can further tune the mining by changing the default gas 277 limit blocks converge to (`--targetgaslimit`) and the price transactions are accepted at (`--gasprice`). 278 279 ## Contribution 280 281 Thank you for considering to help out with the source code! We welcome contributions from 282 anyone on the internet, and are grateful for even the smallest of fixes! 283 284 If you'd like to contribute to go-ethereum, please fork, fix, commit and send a pull request 285 for the maintainers to review and merge into the main code base. If you wish to submit more 286 complex changes though, please check up with the core devs first on [our gitter channel](https://gitter.im/ethereum/go-ethereum) 287 to ensure those changes are in line with the general philosophy of the project and/or get some 288 early feedback which can make both your efforts much lighter as well as our review and merge 289 procedures quick and simple. 290 291 Please make sure your contributions adhere to our coding guidelines: 292 293 * Code must adhere to the official Go [formatting](https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#formatting) guidelines (i.e. uses [gofmt](https://golang.org/cmd/gofmt/)). 294 * Code must be documented adhering to the official Go [commentary](https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#commentary) guidelines. 295 * Pull requests need to be based on and opened against the `master` branch. 296 * Commit messages should be prefixed with the package(s) they modify. 297 * E.g. "eth, rpc: make trace configs optional" 298 299 Please see the [Developers' Guide](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Developers'-Guide) 300 for more details on configuring your environment, managing project dependencies and testing procedures. 301 302 ## License 303 304 The go-ethereum library (i.e. all code outside of the `cmd` directory) is licensed under the 305 [GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.en.html), also 306 included in our repository in the `COPYING.LESSER` file. 307 308 The go-ethereum binaries (i.e. all code inside of the `cmd` directory) is licensed under the 309 [GNU General Public License v3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html), also included 310 in our repository in the `COPYING` file.