Intro for new developers
This is a quick introduction to get new developers up to speed on Decent.
Installing prerequisites in Linux
For Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (for extra actions needed for 14.04 LTS, 14.10, or 16.10 see notes below), execute in console:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential autotools-dev automake autoconf libtool make cmake checkinstall realpath gcc g++ clang flex bison doxygen gettext git qt5-default libqt5svg5-dev libreadline-dev libcrypto++-dev libgmp-dev libdb-dev libdb++-dev libssl-dev libncurses5-dev libboost-all-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev python-dev libicu-dev libbz2-dev
(Ubuntu 16.10 only) Note, that the default version of Boost installed in Ubuntu 16.10 is too high and not supported. In order to install a supported one, in addition to the common commands above, execute the following in console:
# Uninstall the default Boost and install Boost 1.60.0
$ sudo apt-get remove libboost-all-dev
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
$ sudo apt-get install libboost1.60-all-dev
(Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 14.10 only; and only boost part for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS case) Note, that the default versions of GCC, CMake, and Boost installed in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS or 14.10 are too old and not supported. In order to install and use the supported ones, in addition to the common commands above, execute the following in console (in the same shell session, where you are going to build Decent itself):
# Install GCC 5 and Clang 3.5
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install gcc-5 g++-5 clang-3.5
# Now use either gcc-5 and g++-5, or clang-3.5 and clang++-3.5 as C and C++ compilers.
$ export CC=gcc-5
$ export CXX=g++-5
# Download and build CMake 3.7.2
$ mkdir -p ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-third-party
$ cd ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-third-party
$ rm -rf cmake-3.7.2*
$ wget https://cmake.org/files/v3.7/cmake-3.7.2.tar.gz
$ tar xvf cmake-3.7.2.tar.gz
$ mkdir cmake-3.7.2_prefix
$ cd cmake-3.7.2
$ CMAKE_ROOT=$(realpath ../cmake-3.7.2_prefix)
$ ./configure --prefix=$CMAKE_ROOT
$ make
$ make install
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf cmake-3.7.2 cmake-3.7.2.tar.gz
$ export PATH=$CMAKE_ROOT/bin:$PATH
# Download and build Boost 1.60.0
$ mkdir -p ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-third-party
$ cd ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-third-party
$ rm -rf boost_1_60_0* boost-1.60.0*
$ wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.60.0/boost_1_60_0.tar.gz
$ tar xvf boost_1_60_0.tar.gz
$ mkdir boost-1.60.0_prefix
$ cd boost_1_60_0
$ export BOOST_ROOT=$(realpath ../boost-1.60.0_prefix)
$ ./bootstrap.sh --prefix=$BOOST_ROOT
$ ./b2 install
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf boost_1_60_0 boost_1_60_0.tar.gz
At this point, $CC
and $CXX
should be set to your compilers, cmake
command should be picked up from $CMAKE_ROOT/bin
, and CMake configure should find the Boost distribution in the exported $BOOST_ROOT
.
For Fedora 24 or later, execute in console:
$ sudo dnf clean metadata
$ sudo dnf install automake autoconf libtool make cmake gcc clang flex bison doxygen gettext-devel git qt5-qtbase-devel qt5-qtsvg-devel readline-devel cryptopp-devel gmp-devel libdb-devel libdb-cxx-devel openssl-devel libcurl-devel ncurses-devel boost-devel boost-static python-devel libicu-devel bzip2-devel
Installing prerequisites in macOS
- Install Xcode and Command Line Tools as described in http://railsapps.github.io/xcode-command-line-tools.html
- Install Homebrew, see http://brew.sh
Then, execute in console:
$ brew doctor
$ brew tap homebrew/versions
$ brew update
$ brew install automake autoconf libtool cmake berkeley-db boost@1.60 qt5 cryptopp doxygen byacc flex gettext git pbc gmp ipfs openssl readline
Obtaining the sources, building, and installing Decent in Unix (macOS or Linux)
After all the prerequisites are installed, execute the following commands in console, in order to clone the repo, build, and install/stage Decent:
# Clone the repo.
$ mkdir -p ~/dev/DECENTfoundation
$ cd ~/dev/DECENTfoundation
$ git clone git@github.com:DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network.git
$ cd DECENT-Network
$ git submodule update --init --recursive
# Build and install Decent.
$ mkdir -p ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build
$ cd ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build
$ cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network
$ cmake --build . --target all -- -j -l 3.0
$ cmake --build . --target install
Note that, in case of "Unix Makefiles" CMake generator, the last two commands are equivalent to:
$ make -j -l 3.0 $ make install
By this time you should have Decent files installed at ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build/artifacts/prefix
directory. You can specify any other custom install prefix for cmake
during the initial configuration, for example, by adding -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-prefix
to the command line.
You can use any path instead of ~/dev/DECENTfoundation
in the steps above.
You can use Xcode, or any other CMake generator, and then, if it is an IDE generator, instead of building and installing via cmake
in terminal, open the generated project/solution file in the corresponding IDE and perform ALL_BUILD
and INSTALL
(or install
) actions from there.
Installing prerequisites, obtaining the sources, building, and installing Decent in Windows
TODO
Starting Decent
In the commands below, change
~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build/artifacts/prefix
to~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-prefix
or to any other install location, that you specified during initial configuration.
On first run decentd
will create .decent
in the home directory, if doesn't exist already.
$ ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build/artifacts/prefix/bin/decentd
Optionally, now press Ctrl-C to stop decentd
. You can edit configuration in ~/.decent/data/decentd/config.ini
.
Then, run the decent daemon again:
$ ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build/artifacts/prefix/bin/decentd
This will launch the decent daemon node with the default genesis.
Then, in a separate console, start the command-line wallet by executing:
$ cd ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-working-dir
$ ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build/artifacts/prefix/bin/cli_wallet
To set your initial password to mypassword
, execute:
>>> set_password mypassword
>>> unlock mypassword
To import your account keys, execute:
>>> import_key [name] [private_wif_key]
Decent daemon
The role of the decent daemon is to broadcast transactions, download blocks, and optionally sign them.
$ ~/dev/DECENTfoundation/DECENT-Network-build/artifacts/prefix/bin/decentd --rpc-endpoint 127.0.0.1:8090 --enable-stale-production -w '"1.4.0"'
Testing Decent
Seeder plugin is responsible for automatically announce seeder's capablity, downloading content, seeding it and distributing keys. In order to enable it follow these steps:
-
Generarate El-Gamal keys using cli_wallet command (first one is private, second one is public)
generate_el_gamal_keys
-
Add parameters to the decent daemon
--seeder [account-id] --seeder-private-key [private_wif_key] --content-private-key [el_gamal_private_key] --packages-path [path] --seeding-price [price] --free-space [free-space]
where [account-id] is one of your accounts, [private_wif_key] corresponding active key, [el_gamal_private_key] is the generated El-Gamal key, [path] is a filesystem location with at least [space] Megabytes available, and [price] is publishing price per MB per day, in satoshis.
Using the API
We provide several different API's. Each API has its own ID.
When running decentd
, initially two API's are available:
API 0 provides read-only access to the database, while API 1 is
used to login and gain access to additional, restricted API's.
Here is an example using wscat
package from npm
for websockets:
$ npm install -g wscat
$ wscat -c ws://127.0.0.1:8090
> {"id":1, "method":"call", "params":[0,"get_accounts",[["1.2.0"]]]}
< {"id":1,"result":[{"id":"1.2.0","annotations":[],"membership_expiration_date":"1969-12-31T23:59:59","registrar":"1.2.0","referrer":"1.2.0","lifetime_referrer":"1.2.0","network_fee_percentage":2000,"lifetime_referrer_fee_percentage":8000,"referrer_rewards_percentage":0,"name":"committee-account","owner":{"weight_threshold":1,"account_auths":[],"key_auths":[],"address_auths":[]},"active":{"weight_threshold":6,"account_auths":[["1.2.5",1],["1.2.6",1],["1.2.7",1],["1.2.8",1],["1.2.9",1],["1.2.10",1],["1.2.11",1],["1.2.12",1],["1.2.13",1],["1.2.14",1]],"key_auths":[],"address_auths":[]},"options":{"memo_key":"GPH1111111111111111111111111111111114T1Anm","voting_account":"1.2.0","num_miner":0,"num_committee":0,"votes":[],"extensions":[]},"statistics":"2.7.0","whitelisting_accounts":[],"blacklisting_accounts":[]}]}
We can do the same thing using an HTTP client such as curl
for API's which do not require login or other session state:
$ curl --data '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "call", "params": [0, "get_accounts", [["1.2.0"]]], "id": 1}' http://127.0.0.1:8090/rpc
{"id":1,"result":[{"id":"1.2.0","annotations":[],"membership_expiration_date":"1969-12-31T23:59:59","registrar":"1.2.0","referrer":"1.2.0","lifetime_referrer":"1.2.0","network_fee_percentage":2000,"lifetime_referrer_fee_percentage":8000,"referrer_rewards_percentage":0,"name":"committee-account","owner":{"weight_threshold":1,"account_auths":[],"key_auths":[],"address_auths":[]},"active":{"weight_threshold":6,"account_auths":[["1.2.5",1],["1.2.6",1],["1.2.7",1],["1.2.8",1],["1.2.9",1],["1.2.10",1],["1.2.11",1],["1.2.12",1],["1.2.13",1],["1.2.14",1]],"key_auths":[],"address_auths":[]},"options":{"memo_key":"GPH1111111111111111111111111111111114T1Anm","voting_account":"1.2.0","num_miner":0,"num_committee":0,"votes":[],"extensions":[]},"statistics":"2.7.0","whitelisting_accounts":[],"blacklisting_accounts":[]}]}
API 0 is accessible using regular JSON-RPC:
$ curl --data '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "get_accounts", "params": [["1.2.0"]], "id": 1}' http://127.0.0.1:8090/rpc
Accessing restricted API's
You can restrict API's to particular users by specifying an apiaccess
file in config.ini
. Here is an example apiaccess
file which allows
user bytemaster
with password supersecret
to access four different API's, while allowing any other user to access the three public API's
necessary to use the wallet:
{
"permission_map" :
[
[
"aaa",
{
"password_hash_b64" : "9e9GF7ooXVb9k4BoSfNIPTelXeGOZ5DrgOYMj94elaY=",
"password_salt_b64" : "INDdM6iCi/8=",
"allowed_apis" : ["database_api", "network_broadcast_api", "history_api", "network_node_api"]
}
],
[
"*",
{
"password_hash_b64" : "*",
"password_salt_b64" : "*",
"allowed_apis" : ["database_api", "network_broadcast_api", "history_api"]
}
]
]
}
Passwords are stored in base64
as salted sha256
hashes. A simple Python script, saltpass.py
is avaliable to obtain hash and salt values from a password.
A single asterisk "*"
may be specified as username or password hash to accept any value.
With the above configuration, here is an example of how to call add_node
from the network_node
API:
{"id":1, "method":"call", "params":[1,"login",["bytemaster", "supersecret"]]}
{"id":2, "method":"call", "params":[1,"network_node",[]]}
{"id":3, "method":"call", "params":[2,"add_node",["127.0.0.1:9090"]]}
Note, the call to network_node
is necessary to obtain the correct API identifier for the network API. It is not guaranteed that the network API identifier will always be 2
.
Questions
-
Is there a way to generate help with parameter names and method descriptions?
Yes. Documentation of the code base, including APIs, can be generated using Doxygen. Simply run
doxygen
in this directory.If both Doxygen and perl are available in your build environment, the CLI wallet's
help
andgethelp
commands will display help generated from the doxygen documentation.If your CLI wallet's
help
command displays descriptions without parameter names likesigned_transaction transfer(string, string, string, string, string, bool)
it means CMake was unable to find Doxygen or perl during configuration. If found, the output should look like this:signed_transaction transfer(string from, string to, string amount, string asset_symbol, string memo, bool broadcast)
-
Is there a way to allow external program to drive
cli_wallet
via websocket, JSONRPC, or HTTP?Yes. External programs may connect to the CLI wallet and make its calls over a websockets API. To do this, run the wallet in server mode, i.e.
cli_wallet -s "127.0.0.1:9999"
and then have the external program connect to it over the specified port (in this example, port 9999). -
Is there a way to access methods which require login over HTTP?
No. Login is inherently a stateful process (logging in changes what the server will do for certain requests, that's kind of the point of having it). If you need to track state across HTTP RPC calls, you must maintain a session across multiple connections. This is a famous source of security vulnerabilities for HTTP applications. Additionally, HTTP is not really designed for "server push" notifications, and we would have to figure out a way to queue notifications for a polling client.
Websockets solves all these problems. If you need to access Graphene's stateful methods, you need to use Websockets.
-
What is the meaning of
a.b.c
numbers?The first number specifies the space. Space 1 is for protocol objects, 2 is for implementation objects. Protocol space objects can appear on the wire, for example in the binary form of transactions. Implementation space objects cannot appear on the wire and solely exist for implementation purposes, such as optimization or internal bookkeeping.
The second number specifies the type. The type of the object determines what fields it has. For a complete list of type ID's, see
enum object_type
andenum impl_object_type
intypes.hpp
.The third number specifies the instance. The instance of the object is different for each individual object.
-
The answer to the previous question was really confusing. Can you make it clearer?
All account ID's are of the form
1.2.x
. If you were the 9735th account to be registered, your account's ID will be1.2.9735
. Account0
is special (it's the "committee account," which is controlled by the committee members and has a few abilities and restrictions other accounts do not).All asset ID's are of the form
1.3.x
. If you were the 29th asset to be registered, your asset's ID will be1.3.29
. Asset0
is special (it's BTS, which is considered the "core asset").The first and second number together identify the kind of thing you're talking about (
1.2
for accounts,1.3
for assets). The third number identifies the particular thing. -
How do I get the
network_add_nodes
command to work? Why is it so complicated?You need to follow the instructions in the "Accessing restricted API's" section to allow a username/password access to the
network_node
API. Then you need to pass the username/password to thecli_wallet
on the command line or in a config file.It's set up this way so that the default configuration is secure even if the RPC port is publicly accessible. It's fine if your
decentd
allows the general public to query the database or broadcast transactions (in fact, this is how the hosted web UI works). It's less fine if yourdecent
allows the general public to control which p2p nodes it's connecting to. Therefore the API to add p2p connections needs to be set up with proper access controls.