How can I tell from raw transaction data if it succeeded or failed?

Question

I am getting into a bit of chain analysis and am using web3.eth.getTransaction('0x8ab08c56c46ca42091ec44c7c9148fe5eb6e0355eeffb29acb5f6c3326139f9e') to get the following transaction details:

{ blockHash: '0x2e5521db5cb9ea805cf50d979684969656fc3ecda22db58f16881af9d15da083',
  blockNumber: 48729,
  from: '0x3d0768da09ce77d25e2d998e6a7b6ed4b9116c2d',
  gas: 115510,
  gasPrice: { [String: '55866980572'] s: 1, e: 10, c: [ 55866980572 ] },
  hash: '0x8ab08c56c46ca42091ec44c7c9148fe5eb6e0355eeffb29acb5f6c3326139f9e',
  input: '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',
  nonce: 8,
  to: null,
  transactionIndex: 0,
  value: { [String: '0'] s: 1, e: 0, c: [ 0 ] },
  v: '0x1b',
  r: '0x323e3ddd61c16d168fc73e1935e584b79e114a782fd424697abae985ee5d5906',
  s: '0x7f0b4c986006eebb87342b04e6b147778ca678393d520ced5f336c1ab081bab9' }

Etherscan tells me that this transaction failed. How can I deduce that information from the above data?

UPDATE: Using web3.eth.getTransactionReceipt('0x8ab08c56c46ca42091ec44c7c9148fe5eb6e0355eeffb29acb5f6c3326139f9e') does not yield much more info either:

{ blockHash: '0x2e5521db5cb9ea805cf50d979684969656fc3ecda22db58f16881af9d15da083',
  blockNumber: 48729,
  contractAddress: '0xf914866d52b690553c0aacece3b38cc8b463ea50',
  cumulativeGasUsed: 115510,
  from: '0x3d0768da09ce77d25e2d998e6a7b6ed4b9116c2d',
  gasUsed: 115510,
  logs: [],
  logsBloom: '0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000',
  root: '0xab42de6a98857259b73d8a1081ed068942cbff6e6b673a931ce97df3dc3350ee',
  to: null,
  transactionHash: '0x8ab08c56c46ca42091ec44c7c9148fe5eb6e0355eeffb29acb5f6c3326139f9e',
  transactionIndex: 0 }

Answer 1

One way is to check if gas sent == gas used. If so, you can be reasonably certain the transaction aborted. Gas sent is in the getTransaction info: 115510; gas used is in the getTransactionReceipt info, also 115510. See this comprehensive write-up.

To access further info I think you'll need to enable transaction tracing on your node and use the node-specific tools to explore the trace logs. See Parity's trace module for example. This is able to return success status of all transactions etc. I think Geth's debug management API can do similar.

Answer 2

When using the web3 1.x, the returned result from web3.eth.getTransactionReceipt(hash) hast a status field which if true, the transaction was successful

 {
  blockHash: '0x1ddd1e460746115186874a9c1c1d232fc9f65bc60e4ffc740f36e85f629eb6f5',
  blockNumber: 16038776,
  contractAddress: null,
  cumulativeGasUsed: 10223841,
  effectiveGasPrice: 10608032517,
  from: '0x046b7aa8c3edb1022b9b9e0e59f4bfdb2f328191',
  gasUsed: 48513,
  logs: [
    {
      address: '0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48',
      blockHash: '0x1ddd1e460746115186874a9c1c1d232fc9f65bc60e4ffc740f36e85f629eb6f5',
      blockNumber: 16038776,
      data: '0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000004c4b40',
      logIndex: 191,
      removed: false,
      topics: [Array],
      transactionHash: '0xcfd490f3e7a5d0916de22b7fd788fda2e72df6b75baa268f8028380c434684f3',
      transactionIndex: 126,
      id: 'log_b092b10b'
    }
  ],
  logsBloom: '0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000008100008000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000001000000000000000800000000000000010000000000000000000000000000000000200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002000001000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000800000000000000000000000000000',
  status: true,
  to: '0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb0ce3606eb48',
  transactionHash: '0xcfd490f3e7a5d0916de22b7fd788fda2e72df6b75baa268f8028380c434684f3',
  transactionIndex: 126,
  type: '0x0'
}