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Command Line Options

Giuseppe Bertone edited this page Aug 23, 2015 · 53 revisions

Command line options

geth [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

VERSION:
   1.0.0

COMMANDS:
   recover      attempts to recover a corrupted database by setting a new block by number or hash. See help recover.
   blocktest    loads a block test file
   import       import a blockchain file
   export       export blockchain into file
   upgradedb    upgrade chainblock database
   removedb     Remove blockchain and state databases
   dump         dump a specific block from storage
   monitor      Geth Monitor: node metrics monitoring and visualization
   makedag      generate ethash dag (for testing)
   version      print ethereum version numbers
   wallet       ethereum presale wallet
   account      manage accounts
   console      Geth Console: interactive JavaScript environment
   attach       Geth Console: interactive JavaScript environment (connect to node)
   js           executes the given JavaScript files in the Geth JavaScript VM
   help         Shows a list of commands or help for one command

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --identity                                                           Custom node name
   --unlock                                                             Unlock the account given until this program exits (prompts for password). '--unlock n' unlocks the n-th account in order or creation.
   --password                                                           Path to password file to use with options and subcommands needing a password
   --genesis                                                            Inserts/Overwrites the genesis block (json format)
   --bootnodes                                                          Space-separated enode URLs for p2p discovery bootstrap
   --datadir "/Users/tron/Library/Ethereum"                             Data directory to be used
   --blockchainversion "3"                                              Blockchain version (integer)
   --jspath "."                                                         JS library path to be used with console and js subcommands
   --port "30303"                                                       Network listening port
   --maxpeers "25"                                                      Maximum number of network peers (network disabled if set to 0)
   --maxpendpeers "0"                                                   Maximum number of pending connection attempts (defaults used if set to 0)
   --etherbase "0"                                                      Public address for block mining rewards. By default the address first created is used
   --gasprice "1000000000000"                                           Sets the minimal gasprice when mining transactions
   --minerthreads "8"                                                   Number of miner threads
   --mine                                                               Enable mining
   --autodag                                                            Enable automatic DAG pregeneration
   --nat "any"                                                          NAT port mapping mechanism (any|none|upnp|pmp|extip:<IP>)
   --natspec                                                            Enable NatSpec confirmation notice
   --nodiscover                                                         Disables the peer discovery mechanism (manual peer addition)
   --nodekey                                                            P2P node key file
   --nodekeyhex                                                         P2P node key as hex (for testing)
   --rpc                                                                Enable the JSON-RPC server
   --rpcaddr "127.0.0.1"                                                Listening address for the JSON-RPC server
   --rpcport "8545"                                                     Port on which the JSON-RPC server should listen
   --rpcapi "db,eth,net,web3"                                           Specify the API's which are offered over the HTTP RPC interface
   --ipcdisable                                                         Disable the IPC-RPC server
   --ipcapi "admin,db,eth,debug,miner,net,shh,txpool,personal,web3"     Specify the API's which are offered over the IPC interface
   --ipcpath "/Users/tron/Library/Ethereum/geth.ipc"                    Filename for IPC socket/pipe
   --exec                                                               Execute javascript statement (only in combination with console/attach)
   --shh                                                                Enable whisper
   --vmdebug                                                            Virtual Machine debug output
   --networkid "1"                                                      Network Id (integer)
   --rpccorsdomain                                                      Domain on which to send Access-Control-Allow-Origin header
   --verbosity "3"                                                      Logging verbosity: 0-6 (0=silent, 1=error, 2=warn, 3=info, 4=core, 5=debug, 6=debug detail)
   --backtrace_at ":0"                                                  If set to a file and line number (e.g., "block.go:271") holding a logging statement, a stack trace will be logged
   --logtostderr                                                        Logs are written to standard error instead of to files.
   --vmodule ""                                                         The syntax of the argument is a comma-separated list of pattern=N, where pattern is a literal file name (minus the ".go" suffix) or "glob" pattern and N is a log verbosity level.
   --logfile                                                            Send log output to a file
   --logjson                                                            Send json structured log output to a file or '-' for standard output (default: no json output)
   --pprof                                                              Enable the profiling server on localhost
   --pprofport "6060"                                                   Port on which the profiler should listen
   --metrics                                                            Enables metrics collection and reporting
   --solc "solc"                                                        solidity compiler to be used
   --gpomin "1000000000000"                                             Minimum suggested gas price
   --gpomax "100000000000000"                                           Maximum suggested gas price
   --gpofull "80"                                                       Full block threshold for gas price calculation (%)
   --gpobasedown "10"                                                   Suggested gas price base step down ratio (1/1000)
   --gpobaseup "100"                                                    Suggested gas price base step up ratio (1/1000)
   --gpobasecf "110"                                                    Suggested gas price base correction factor (%)
   --help, -h                                                           show help

Note that the default for datadir is platform-specific. See backup & restore for more information.

Examples

Accounts

See Account management

Import ether presale wallet into your node (prompts for password):

geth wallet import /path/to/my/etherwallet.json

Import an EC privatekey into an ethereum account (prompts for password):

geth account import /path/to/key.prv

Geth JavaScript Runtime Environment

See Geth javascript console

Bring up the geth javascript console:

geth --verbosity 5 --jspath /mydapp/js console 2>> /path/to/logfile

Execute test.js javascript using js API and log Debug-level messages to /path/to/logfile:

geth --verbosity 6 js test.js  2>> /path/to/logfile

Import/export chains and dump blocks

Import a blockchain from file:

geth import blockchain.bin

Upgrade chainblock database

When the consensus algorithm is changed blocks in the blockchain must be reimported with the new algorithm. Geth will inform the user with instructions when and how to do this when it's necessary.

geth upgradedb

Mining and networking

Start two mining nodes using different data directories listening on ports 30303 and 30304, respectively:

geth --mine --minerthreads 4 --datadir /usr/local/share/ethereum/30303 --port 30303
geth --mine --minerthreads 4 --datadir /usr/local/share/ethereum/30304 --port 30304

Start an rpc client on port 8000:

geth --rpc=true --rpcport 8000 --rpccorsdomain '"*"'

Launch the client without network:

geth --maxpeers 0 --nodiscover --networdid 3301 js justwannarunthis.js

Resetting the blockchain

In the datadir, delete the blockchain directory. For an example above:

rm -rf /usr/local/share/ethereum/30303/blockchain

Sample usage in testing environment

The lines below are meant only for test network and safe environments for non-interactive scripted use.

geth --datadir /tmp/eth/42 --password <(echo -n notsosecret) account new 2>> /tmp/eth/42.log
geth --datadir /tmp/eth/42 --port 30342  js <(echo 'console.log(admin.nodeInfo().NodeUrl)') > enode 2>> /tmp/eth/42.log
geth --datadir /tmp/eth/42 --port 30342 --password <(echo -n notsosecret) --unlock primary --minerthreads 4 --mine 2>> /tmp/eth/42.log

Attach

Attach a console to a running geth instance. By default this happens over IPC over the default IPC endpoint but when necessary a custom endpoint could be specified:

geth attach ipc:/some/path
geth attach rpc:http://host:8545

Alternative ways to set flags

WARNING: This is not available for the latest frontier.

The same flags can be set via config file (by default <datadir>/conf.ini) as well as environment variables.

Precedence: default < config file < environment variables < command line

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