cli: add -generate option #17700

brakmic · 2019-12-09T09:14:25Z

This PR is related to #16000 and should "bring back" the generate call.

bitcoin-cli would get a new option -generate that mimics the original API.

The allowed (optional) parameters are nblocks and maxtries.
For example:

bitcoin-cli -generate
bitcoin-cli -generate 2
bitcoin-cli -generate 3 10000

laanwj · 2019-12-09T09:35:49Z

Concept ACK, seems useful for testing
(vaguely related to #17314 as for improving -cli user experience)

promag · 2019-12-09T11:25:56Z

Mind adding some test to test/functional/interface_bitcoin_cli.py?

brakmic · 2019-12-09T11:28:36Z

Mind adding some test to test/functional/interface_bitcoin_cli.py?

Yes, I spoke about it in the original posting, but I am not sure how to do it the correct way.

But I'll look into it.

promag · 2019-12-09T11:31:37Z

@brakmic something like call bitcoin-cli -generate ... and check the response format and maybe also check the new tip against getblockchaininfo.

src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

brakmic · 2019-12-09T13:57:49Z

@brakmic something like call bitcoin-cli -generate ... and check the response format and maybe also check the new tip against getblockchaininfo.

I've added tests in test/functional/rpc_generate.py
However, I am not sure if it should be prefixed with "rpc", because under the hood it uses CLI to mimic the old generate API. So maybe it should rather be called "cli_generate" or something along the line.

The current test checks for:

block generation (default, with or without args nblocks & maxtries)
errors (when args invalid)

maflcko

ACK

src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

Co-Authored-By: MarcoFalke <falke.marco@gmail.com>

src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

Co-Authored-By: MarcoFalke <falke.marco@gmail.com>

src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

jonasschnelli · 2019-12-16T06:02:28Z

Nice.
Although I would prefer something that is also possible through the GUI console (maybe server side) instead of in both clients?

laanwj · 2019-12-16T10:20:01Z

Although I would prefer something that is also possible through the GUI console (maybe server side) instead of in both clients?

I'm definitely opposed to adding more mining functionality back server-side.

But I guess in the longer term we could have a new library that's shared between the GUI console and cli, for these kind of features.

I think GUI is out of scope here though.

adamjonas · 2019-12-16T17:24:47Z

Concept ACK. I did a little playing around with this and had two main pieces of feedback:

One of the reasons I'm such a big supporter for bringing back generate is because many of the historical tutorials were broken when it was removed (for example https://btcinformation.org/en/developer-examples#regtest-mode). Unfortunately, this isn't corrected here. I'm aware that adding the dash is based on the -getinfo precedent, but at the very least, catching generate client side and providing user feedback, even if it refers to adding the dash or gives fuller instructions on how to use generatetoaddress, would reduce a lot of head scratching for first-time users.
The JSON that's returned could be improved.

I think returning a blockhash string similar to generatetoaddress would be ideal. But if we are going to include key/values, I'd argue that both the blockhashes and the newly generated address should be displayed. This would educate the user as to what is going on under the hood and allow testers to access the address that would be otherwise lost. If we decide to omit the addresses, we can just return the blockhashes in an array like generatetoaddress rather than putting it a level deep inside of "result" ("result" should probably be renamed to "blockhashes"). But regardless, removing the "error" field in the absence of errors and taking out the "id" field would clean it up a lot.

brakmic · 2019-12-17T00:24:21Z

The JSON that's returned could be improved.

I've changed the structure of JSON result and it now looks like this:

./src/bitcoin-cli -regtest -generate 3
{
  "address": "bcrt1qxwysj6war3v4jf6kcderstxsecq534umcalefc",
  "blocks": [
    "6f78253c94c0e5b180ae7002c366811a9f70a32b70fc17a81e42fd69d351ecf9",
    "46f1b2790fe2e973fe67531c1acb7f29298005a5107b80cd56d510050599316b",
    "34d3c018be1455fcfd40a07ba5e55f245af9515e9e9f50116f4948399378ff59"
  ]
}

jonatack

Concept ACK

src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

test/functional/rpc_generate.py

cvengler · 2020-01-29T18:31:54Z

Concept NACK
If this option is for testing, why not make a simple shell script locally to do that?
What's the advantage of having this?

brakmic · 2020-01-29T18:33:42Z

Concept NACK
If this option is for testing, why not make a simple shell script locally to do that?
What's the advantage of having this?

Please, check the original discussion which this PR is based on: #16000

cvengler · 2020-01-29T18:36:51Z

@brakmic I flew over the old discussion but I saw that the old point wasn't pointed out somewhere.
Maybe I oversaw could you point me to thing you think I may missed?

brakmic · 2020-01-29T18:42:47Z

@brakmic I flew over the old discussion but I saw that the old point wasn't pointed out somewhere.
Maybe I oversaw could you point me to thing you think I may missed?

Old point? Not sure what you mean with it.

All in all, the reason for "resurrecting" this retired API call is to create something that behaves similarly to -getinfo. As we all know, In the past getinfo was one of the RPC calls that later got removed (and subsequently reintroduced as a CLI-only -getinfo option). Now, the same should happen with -generate which is not an RPC call but a purely CLI-thing.

In a way, it already functions like a shell script would do (and could also itself be reused in other shell scripts too, in my opinion).

I hope my explanation helps you further.

DrahtBot · 2020-04-13T01:54:29Z

The following sections might be updated with supplementary metadata relevant to reviewers and maintainers.

Conflicts

Reviewers, this pull request conflicts with the following ones:

cli: display multiwallet balances in -getinfo #18594 (cli: display multiwallet balances in -getinfo by jonatack)

If you consider this pull request important, please also help to review the conflicting pull requests. Ideally, start with the one that should be merged first.

src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

jonatack · 2020-05-28T20:20:08Z

Hi @brakmic, would you have any objection if I relaunch and update this, building on some of your commits?

brakmic · 2020-05-28T20:22:57Z

Hi @brakmic, would you have any objection if I relaunch and update this, building on some of your commits?

No problem. Take anything that could be of use to you.

jonatack · 2020-06-01T12:39:06Z

Thanks @brakmic! Continued the work in #19133.

22cb303 rpc: add missing space in JSON parsing error message, update test (Jon Atack) bf53ebe test: add multiwallet tests for bitcoin-cli -generate (Jon Atack) 4b859cf cli: add multiwallet capability to GetNewAddress and -generate (Jon Atack) 18f9354 test: add tests for bitcoin-cli -generate (Jon Atack) 4818124 cli: create bitcoin-cli -generate command (Jon Atack) ff41a36 cli: extract ParseResult() and ParseError() (Jon Atack) f4185b2 cli: create GenerateToAddressRequestHandler class (Harris) f7c65a3 cli: create GetNewAddress() (Jon Atack) 9be7fd3 rpc: make generatetoaddress locals const (Jon Atack) cb00510 rpc: create rpc/mining.h, hoist default max tries values to constant (Jon Atack) Pull request description: This PR continues and completes the work begun in #17700 working on issue #16000 to create a client-side version of RPC `generate`. Basically, `bitcoin-cli -generate` wraps calling `generatenewaddress` followed by `generatetoaddress [nblocks] [maxtries]` and prints the following: ``` $ bitcoin-cli -generate { "address": "bcrt1qn4aszr2y2xvpa70y675a76wsu70wlkwvdyyln6" "blocks": [ "01d2ebcddf663da90b28da7f6805115e2ba7818f16fe747258836646a43a0bb5", ] } $ bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=wallet-name -generate 3 100 { "address": "bcrt1q4cunfw0gnsj7g7e6mk0v0uuvvau9mwr09dj45l", "blocks": [ "7a6650ca5e0c614992ee64fb148a7e5e022af842e4b6003f81abd8baf1e75136", "01d2ebcddf663da90b28da7f6805115e2ba7818f16fe747258836646a43a0bb5", "3f8795ec40b1ad812b818c177680841be319a3f6753d4e32dc7dfb5bafe5d00e" ] } ``` Help doc: ``` $ bitcoin-cli -h | grep -A5 "\-generate" -generate Generate blocks immediately, equivalent to RPC generatenewaddress followed by RPC generatetoaddress. Optional positional arguments are number of blocks to generate (default: 1) and maximum iterations to try (default: 1000000), equivalent to RPC generatetoaddress nblocks and maxtries arguments. Example: bitcoin-cli -generate 4 1000 ``` Quite a bit of test coverage turned out to be needed to cover the change and the different cases (arguments, multiwallet mode) and error-handling. This PR also improves some things that working on these changes brought to light. Credit to Harris Brakmić for the initial work in #17700. ACKs for top commit: adamjonas: utACK 22cb303 meshcollider: utACK 22cb303 Tree-SHA512: 94f67f632fe093d076f614e0ecff09ce7342ac6e424579200d5211a6615260e438d857861767fb788950ec6da0b26ef56dc8268c430012a3b3d4822b24ca6fbf

22cb303 rpc: add missing space in JSON parsing error message, update test (Jon Atack) bf53ebe test: add multiwallet tests for bitcoin-cli -generate (Jon Atack) 4b859cf cli: add multiwallet capability to GetNewAddress and -generate (Jon Atack) 18f9354 test: add tests for bitcoin-cli -generate (Jon Atack) 4818124 cli: create bitcoin-cli -generate command (Jon Atack) ff41a36 cli: extract ParseResult() and ParseError() (Jon Atack) f4185b2 cli: create GenerateToAddressRequestHandler class (Harris) f7c65a3 cli: create GetNewAddress() (Jon Atack) 9be7fd3 rpc: make generatetoaddress locals const (Jon Atack) cb00510 rpc: create rpc/mining.h, hoist default max tries values to constant (Jon Atack) Pull request description: This PR continues and completes the work begun in bitcoin#17700 working on issue bitcoin#16000 to create a client-side version of RPC `generate`. Basically, `bitcoin-cli -generate` wraps calling `generatenewaddress` followed by `generatetoaddress [nblocks] [maxtries]` and prints the following: ``` $ bitcoin-cli -generate { "address": "bcrt1qn4aszr2y2xvpa70y675a76wsu70wlkwvdyyln6" "blocks": [ "01d2ebcddf663da90b28da7f6805115e2ba7818f16fe747258836646a43a0bb5", ] } $ bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=wallet-name -generate 3 100 { "address": "bcrt1q4cunfw0gnsj7g7e6mk0v0uuvvau9mwr09dj45l", "blocks": [ "7a6650ca5e0c614992ee64fb148a7e5e022af842e4b6003f81abd8baf1e75136", "01d2ebcddf663da90b28da7f6805115e2ba7818f16fe747258836646a43a0bb5", "3f8795ec40b1ad812b818c177680841be319a3f6753d4e32dc7dfb5bafe5d00e" ] } ``` Help doc: ``` $ bitcoin-cli -h | grep -A5 "\-generate" -generate Generate blocks immediately, equivalent to RPC generatenewaddress followed by RPC generatetoaddress. Optional positional arguments are number of blocks to generate (default: 1) and maximum iterations to try (default: 1000000), equivalent to RPC generatetoaddress nblocks and maxtries arguments. Example: bitcoin-cli -generate 4 1000 ``` Quite a bit of test coverage turned out to be needed to cover the change and the different cases (arguments, multiwallet mode) and error-handling. This PR also improves some things that working on these changes brought to light. Credit to Harris Brakmić for the initial work in bitcoin#17700. ACKs for top commit: adamjonas: utACK 22cb303 meshcollider: utACK 22cb303 Tree-SHA512: 94f67f632fe093d076f614e0ecff09ce7342ac6e424579200d5211a6615260e438d857861767fb788950ec6da0b26ef56dc8268c430012a3b3d4822b24ca6fbf

f0aa8ae test: add rpc_generate functional test (Jon Atack) 92d94ff rpc: print useful help and error message for generate (Jon Atack) 8d32d20 test: consider generate covered in _get_uncovered_rpc_commands() (Jon Atack) Pull request description: This was a requested follow-up to #19133 and #17700 to alleviate confusion and head-scratching by people following tutorials that use `generate`. See #19455 (comment) below, #19133 (comment) and #17700 (comment). before ``` $ bitcoin-cli help generate help: unknown command: generate $ bitcoin-cli generate error code: -32601 error message: Method not found ``` after ``` $ bitcoin-cli help generate generate ( nblocks maxtries ) has been replaced by the -generate cli option. Refer to -help for more information. $ bitcoin-cli generate error code: -32601 error message: generate ( nblocks maxtries ) has been replaced by the -generate cli option. Refer to -help for more information. ``` In the general help it remains hidden, as requested by laanwj. ``` $ bitcoin-cli help == Generating == generateblock "output" ["rawtx/txid",...] generatetoaddress nblocks "address" ( maxtries ) generatetodescriptor num_blocks "descriptor" ( maxtries ) ``` ACKs for top commit: adamjonas: utACK f0aa8ae pinheadmz: ACK f0aa8ae Tree-SHA512: d083652589ad3e8228c733455245001db22397559c3946e7e573cf9bd01c46e9e88b72d934728ec7f4361436ae4c74adb8f579670b09f479011924357e729af5

f0aa8ae test: add rpc_generate functional test (Jon Atack) 92d94ff rpc: print useful help and error message for generate (Jon Atack) 8d32d20 test: consider generate covered in _get_uncovered_rpc_commands() (Jon Atack) Pull request description: This was a requested follow-up to bitcoin#19133 and bitcoin#17700 to alleviate confusion and head-scratching by people following tutorials that use `generate`. See bitcoin#19455 (comment) below, bitcoin#19133 (comment) and bitcoin#17700 (comment). before ``` $ bitcoin-cli help generate help: unknown command: generate $ bitcoin-cli generate error code: -32601 error message: Method not found ``` after ``` $ bitcoin-cli help generate generate ( nblocks maxtries ) has been replaced by the -generate cli option. Refer to -help for more information. $ bitcoin-cli generate error code: -32601 error message: generate ( nblocks maxtries ) has been replaced by the -generate cli option. Refer to -help for more information. ``` In the general help it remains hidden, as requested by laanwj. ``` $ bitcoin-cli help == Generating == generateblock "output" ["rawtx/txid",...] generatetoaddress nblocks "address" ( maxtries ) generatetodescriptor num_blocks "descriptor" ( maxtries ) ``` ACKs for top commit: adamjonas: utACK f0aa8ae pinheadmz: ACK f0aa8ae Tree-SHA512: d083652589ad3e8228c733455245001db22397559c3946e7e573cf9bd01c46e9e88b72d934728ec7f4361436ae4c74adb8f579670b09f479011924357e729af5

laanwj added the RPC/REST/ZMQ label Dec 9, 2019

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brakmic and others added 3 commits December 9, 2019 20:05

Update src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

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Co-Authored-By: MarcoFalke <falke.marco@gmail.com>

cleanups

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adapt command help-info

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Co-Authored-By: MarcoFalke <falke.marco@gmail.com>

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brakmic added 3 commits January 18, 2020 20:47

put -generate before -getinfo in bitcoin-cli.cpp

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don't ask for clean chain in test

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execute tests in run_test directly

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cli: display multiwallet balances in -getinfo #18594

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rpc, cli, test: add bitcoin-cli -generate command #19133

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Newsletters: add 103 (2020-06-24) bitcoinops/bitcoinops.github.io#425

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rpc generate: print useful help and error message #19455

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cli: add -generate option #17700

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