github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum@v1.14.3/README.md (about) 1 ## Go Ethereum 2 3 Golang execution layer implementation of the Ethereum protocol. 4 5 [](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum?tab=doc) 8 [](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum) 9 [](https://app.travis-ci.com/github/ethereum/go-ethereum) 10 [](https://discord.gg/nthXNEv) 11 12 Automated builds are available for stable releases and the unstable master branch. Binary 13 archives are published at https://geth.ethereum.org/downloads/. 14 15 ## Building the source 16 17 For prerequisites and detailed build instructions please read the [Installation Instructions](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/getting-started/installing-geth). 18 19 Building `geth` requires both a Go (version 1.21 or later) and a C compiler. You can install 20 them using your favourite package manager. Once the dependencies are installed, run 21 22 ```shell 23 make geth 24 ``` 25 26 or, to build the full suite of utilities: 27 28 ```shell 29 make all 30 ``` 31 32 ## Executables 33 34 The go-ethereum project comes with several wrappers/executables found in the `cmd` 35 directory. 36 37 | Command | Description | 38 | :--------: | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 39 | **`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 page](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/fundamentals/command-line-options) for command line options. | 40 | `clef` | Stand-alone signing tool, which can be used as a backend signer for `geth`. | 41 | `devp2p` | Utilities to interact with nodes on the networking layer, without running a full blockchain. | 42 | `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://docs.soliditylang.org/en/develop/abi-spec.html) 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://geth.ethereum.org/docs/developers/dapp-developer/native-bindings) page for details. | 43 | `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. | 44 | `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 run`). | 45 | `rlpdump` | Developer utility tool to convert binary RLP ([Recursive Length Prefix](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/data-structures-and-encoding/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`). | 46 47 ## Running `geth` 48 49 Going through all the possible command line flags is out of scope here (please consult our 50 [CLI Wiki page](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/fundamentals/command-line-options)), 51 but we've enumerated a few common parameter combos to get you up to speed quickly 52 on how you can run your own `geth` instance. 53 54 ### Hardware Requirements 55 56 Minimum: 57 58 * CPU with 2+ cores 59 * 4GB RAM 60 * 1TB free storage space to sync the Mainnet 61 * 8 MBit/sec download Internet service 62 63 Recommended: 64 65 * Fast CPU with 4+ cores 66 * 16GB+ RAM 67 * High-performance SSD with at least 1TB of free space 68 * 25+ MBit/sec download Internet service 69 70 ### Full node on the main Ethereum network 71 72 By far the most common scenario is people wanting to simply interact with the Ethereum 73 network: create accounts; transfer funds; deploy and interact with contracts. For this 74 particular use case, the user doesn't care about years-old historical data, so we can 75 sync quickly to the current state of the network. To do so: 76 77 ```shell 78 $ geth console 79 ``` 80 81 This command will: 82 * Start `geth` in snap sync mode (default, can be changed with the `--syncmode` flag), 83 causing it to download more data in exchange for avoiding processing the entire history 84 of the Ethereum network, which is very CPU intensive. 85 * Start the built-in interactive [JavaScript console](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/interacting-with-geth/javascript-console), 86 (via the trailing `console` subcommand) through which you can interact using [`web3` methods](https://github.com/ChainSafe/web3.js/blob/0.20.7/DOCUMENTATION.md) 87 (note: the `web3` version bundled within `geth` is very old, and not up to date with official docs), 88 as well as `geth`'s own [management APIs](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/interacting-with-geth/rpc). 89 This tool is optional and if you leave it out you can always attach it to an already running 90 `geth` instance with `geth attach`. 91 92 ### A Full node on the Görli test network 93 94 Transitioning towards developers, if you'd like to play around with creating Ethereum 95 contracts, you almost certainly would like to do that without any real money involved until 96 you get the hang of the entire system. In other words, instead of attaching to the main 97 network, you want to join the **test** network with your node, which is fully equivalent to 98 the main network, but with play-Ether only. 99 100 ```shell 101 $ geth --goerli console 102 ``` 103 104 The `console` subcommand has the same meaning as above and is equally 105 useful on the testnet too. 106 107 Specifying the `--goerli` flag, however, will reconfigure your `geth` instance a bit: 108 109 * Instead of connecting to the main Ethereum network, the client will connect to the Görli 110 test network, which uses different P2P bootnodes, different network IDs and genesis 111 states. 112 * Instead of using the default data directory (`~/.ethereum` on Linux for example), `geth` 113 will nest itself one level deeper into a `goerli` subfolder (`~/.ethereum/goerli` on 114 Linux). Note, on OSX and Linux this also means that attaching to a running testnet node 115 requires the use of a custom endpoint since `geth attach` will try to attach to a 116 production node endpoint by default, e.g., 117 `geth attach <datadir>/goerli/geth.ipc`. Windows users are not affected by 118 this. 119 120 *Note: Although some internal protective measures prevent transactions from 121 crossing over between the main network and test network, you should always 122 use separate accounts for play and real money. Unless you manually move 123 accounts, `geth` will by default correctly separate the two networks and will not make any 124 accounts available between them.* 125 126 ### Configuration 127 128 As an alternative to passing the numerous flags to the `geth` binary, you can also pass a 129 configuration file via: 130 131 ```shell 132 $ geth --config /path/to/your_config.toml 133 ``` 134 135 To get an idea of how the file should look like you can use the `dumpconfig` subcommand to 136 export your existing configuration: 137 138 ```shell 139 $ geth --your-favourite-flags dumpconfig 140 ``` 141 142 *Note: This works only with `geth` v1.6.0 and above.* 143 144 #### Docker quick start 145 146 One of the quickest ways to get Ethereum up and running on your machine is by using 147 Docker: 148 149 ```shell 150 docker run -d --name ethereum-node -v /Users/alice/ethereum:/root \ 151 -p 8545:8545 -p 30303:30303 \ 152 ethereum/client-go 153 ``` 154 155 This will start `geth` in snap-sync mode with a DB memory allowance of 1GB, as the 156 above command does. It will also create a persistent volume in your home directory for 157 saving your blockchain as well as map the default ports. There is also an `alpine` tag 158 available for a slim version of the image. 159 160 Do not forget `--http.addr 0.0.0.0`, if you want to access RPC from other containers 161 and/or hosts. By default, `geth` binds to the local interface and RPC endpoints are not 162 accessible from the outside. 163 164 ### Programmatically interfacing `geth` nodes 165 166 As a developer, sooner rather than later you'll want to start interacting with `geth` and the 167 Ethereum network via your own programs and not manually through the console. To aid 168 this, `geth` has built-in support for a JSON-RPC based APIs ([standard APIs](https://ethereum.github.io/execution-apis/api-documentation/) 169 and [`geth` specific APIs](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/interacting-with-geth/rpc)). 170 These can be exposed via HTTP, WebSockets and IPC (UNIX sockets on UNIX based 171 platforms, and named pipes on Windows). 172 173 The IPC interface is enabled by default and exposes all the APIs supported by `geth`, 174 whereas the HTTP and WS interfaces need to manually be enabled and only expose a 175 subset of APIs due to security reasons. These can be turned on/off and configured as 176 you'd expect. 177 178 HTTP based JSON-RPC API options: 179 180 * `--http` Enable the HTTP-RPC server 181 * `--http.addr` HTTP-RPC server listening interface (default: `localhost`) 182 * `--http.port` HTTP-RPC server listening port (default: `8545`) 183 * `--http.api` API's offered over the HTTP-RPC interface (default: `eth,net,web3`) 184 * `--http.corsdomain` Comma separated list of domains from which to accept cross origin requests (browser enforced) 185 * `--ws` Enable the WS-RPC server 186 * `--ws.addr` WS-RPC server listening interface (default: `localhost`) 187 * `--ws.port` WS-RPC server listening port (default: `8546`) 188 * `--ws.api` API's offered over the WS-RPC interface (default: `eth,net,web3`) 189 * `--ws.origins` Origins from which to accept WebSocket requests 190 * `--ipcdisable` Disable the IPC-RPC server 191 * `--ipcapi` API's offered over the IPC-RPC interface (default: `admin,debug,eth,miner,net,personal,txpool,web3`) 192 * `--ipcpath` Filename for IPC socket/pipe within the datadir (explicit paths escape it) 193 194 You'll need to use your own programming environments' capabilities (libraries, tools, etc) to 195 connect via HTTP, WS or IPC to a `geth` node configured with the above flags and you'll 196 need to speak [JSON-RPC](https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification) on all transports. You 197 can reuse the same connection for multiple requests! 198 199 **Note: Please understand the security implications of opening up an HTTP/WS based 200 transport before doing so! Hackers on the internet are actively trying to subvert 201 Ethereum nodes with exposed APIs! Further, all browser tabs can access locally 202 running web servers, so malicious web pages could try to subvert locally available 203 APIs!** 204 205 ### Operating a private network 206 207 Maintaining your own private network is more involved as a lot of configurations taken for 208 granted in the official networks need to be manually set up. 209 210 #### Defining the private genesis state 211 212 First, you'll need to create the genesis state of your networks, which all nodes need to be 213 aware of and agree upon. This consists of a small JSON file (e.g. call it `genesis.json`): 214 215 ```json 216 { 217 "config": { 218 "chainId": <arbitrary positive integer>, 219 "homesteadBlock": 0, 220 "eip150Block": 0, 221 "eip155Block": 0, 222 "eip158Block": 0, 223 "byzantiumBlock": 0, 224 "constantinopleBlock": 0, 225 "petersburgBlock": 0, 226 "istanbulBlock": 0, 227 "berlinBlock": 0, 228 "londonBlock": 0 229 }, 230 "alloc": {}, 231 "coinbase": "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000", 232 "difficulty": "0x20000", 233 "extraData": "", 234 "gasLimit": "0x2fefd8", 235 "nonce": "0x0000000000000042", 236 "mixhash": "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000", 237 "parentHash": "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000", 238 "timestamp": "0x00" 239 } 240 ``` 241 242 The above fields should be fine for most purposes, although we'd recommend changing 243 the `nonce` to some random value so you prevent unknown remote nodes from being able 244 to connect to you. If you'd like to pre-fund some accounts for easier testing, create 245 the accounts and populate the `alloc` field with their addresses. 246 247 ```json 248 "alloc": { 249 "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000001": { 250 "balance": "111111111" 251 }, 252 "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000002": { 253 "balance": "222222222" 254 } 255 } 256 ``` 257 258 With the genesis state defined in the above JSON file, you'll need to initialize **every** 259 `geth` node with it prior to starting it up to ensure all blockchain parameters are correctly 260 set: 261 262 ```shell 263 $ geth init path/to/genesis.json 264 ``` 265 266 #### Creating the rendezvous point 267 268 With all nodes that you want to run initialized to the desired genesis state, you'll need to 269 start a bootstrap node that others can use to find each other in your network and/or over 270 the internet. The clean way is to configure and run a dedicated bootnode: 271 272 ```shell 273 $ bootnode --genkey=boot.key 274 $ bootnode --nodekey=boot.key 275 ``` 276 277 With the bootnode online, it will display an [`enode` URL](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/networking-layer/network-addresses/#enode) 278 that other nodes can use to connect to it and exchange peer information. Make sure to 279 replace the displayed IP address information (most probably `[::]`) with your externally 280 accessible IP to get the actual `enode` URL. 281 282 *Note: You could also use a full-fledged `geth` node as a bootnode, but it's the less 283 recommended way.* 284 285 #### Starting up your member nodes 286 287 With the bootnode operational and externally reachable (you can try 288 `telnet <ip> <port>` to ensure it's indeed reachable), start every subsequent `geth` 289 node pointed to the bootnode for peer discovery via the `--bootnodes` flag. It will 290 probably also be desirable to keep the data directory of your private network separated, so 291 do also specify a custom `--datadir` flag. 292 293 ```shell 294 $ geth --datadir=path/to/custom/data/folder --bootnodes=<bootnode-enode-url-from-above> 295 ``` 296 297 *Note: Since your network will be completely cut off from the main and test networks, you'll 298 also need to configure a miner to process transactions and create new blocks for you.* 299 300 #### Running a private miner 301 302 303 In a private network setting a single CPU miner instance is more than enough for 304 practical purposes as it can produce a stable stream of blocks at the correct intervals 305 without needing heavy resources (consider running on a single thread, no need for multiple 306 ones either). To start a `geth` instance for mining, run it with all your usual flags, extended 307 by: 308 309 ```shell 310 $ geth <usual-flags> --mine --miner.threads=1 --miner.etherbase=0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 311 ``` 312 313 Which will start mining blocks and transactions on a single CPU thread, crediting all 314 proceedings to the account specified by `--miner.etherbase`. You can further tune the mining 315 by changing the default gas limit blocks converge to (`--miner.targetgaslimit`) and the price 316 transactions are accepted at (`--miner.gasprice`). 317 318 ## Contribution 319 320 Thank you for considering helping out with the source code! We welcome contributions 321 from anyone on the internet, and are grateful for even the smallest of fixes! 322 323 If you'd like to contribute to go-ethereum, please fork, fix, commit and send a pull request 324 for the maintainers to review and merge into the main code base. If you wish to submit 325 more complex changes though, please check up with the core devs first on [our Discord Server](https://discord.gg/invite/nthXNEv) 326 to ensure those changes are in line with the general philosophy of the project and/or get 327 some early feedback which can make both your efforts much lighter as well as our review 328 and merge procedures quick and simple. 329 330 Please make sure your contributions adhere to our coding guidelines: 331 332 * Code must adhere to the official Go [formatting](https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#formatting) 333 guidelines (i.e. uses [gofmt](https://golang.org/cmd/gofmt/)). 334 * Code must be documented adhering to the official Go [commentary](https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#commentary) 335 guidelines. 336 * Pull requests need to be based on and opened against the `master` branch. 337 * Commit messages should be prefixed with the package(s) they modify. 338 * E.g. "eth, rpc: make trace configs optional" 339 340 Please see the [Developers' Guide](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/developers/geth-developer/dev-guide) 341 for more details on configuring your environment, managing project dependencies, and 342 testing procedures. 343 344 ### Contributing to geth.ethereum.org 345 346 For contributions to the [go-ethereum website](https://geth.ethereum.org), please checkout and raise pull requests against the `website` branch. 347 For more detailed instructions please see the `website` branch [README](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/tree/website#readme) or the 348 [contributing](https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/developers/geth-developer/contributing) page of the website. 349 350 ## License 351 352 The go-ethereum library (i.e. all code outside of the `cmd` directory) is licensed under the 353 [GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.en.html), 354 also included in our repository in the `COPYING.LESSER` file. 355 356 The go-ethereum binaries (i.e. all code inside of the `cmd` directory) are licensed under the 357 [GNU General Public License v3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html), also 358 included in our repository in the `COPYING` file.