83
votes
Accepted
What is Geth's "light" sync, and why is it so fast?
I'll take my shot. Experts, please correct me.
"Full" Sync: Gets the block headers, the block bodies, and validates every element from genesis block.
Fast Sync: Gets the block headers, the block ...
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74
votes
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What is Geth's "fast" sync, and why is it faster?
There's a lot of detail on this PR on github. Here's a quote:
Instead of processing the entire block-chain one link at a time, and replay all transactions that ever happened in history, fast ...
- 2,559
63
votes
How can I get a geth node to download the blockchain quickly?
Don't forget to use an SSD
If you're able to, using an NVMe SSD is even better.
If you have limited space on SSD see
Can chaindata be split across two (or more) locations?
That said, the Ethereum ...
60
votes
How to check my sync status on Geth 1.5.5, Raspberry Pi 3
Continuing to research, need to enter the geth node console to enter special commands. The following works:
geth attach
Sends user to the geth node console.
eth.syncing
Produces a result like ...
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51
votes
Help with very slow mist sync
I am using Windows 10, Mist Wallet 0.7.2 which includes geth v1.3.6, a non-SSD hard drive and ethernet connection to 16Mbs modem.
I had incredibly slow syncing of the blockchain, even with 25 peers ...
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votes
How to check my sync status on Geth 1.5.5, Raspberry Pi 3
After running your normal geth --fast command you can open a new window and run the "geth attach" command as this will attach you to the javascript interface
$ geth attach
Then you can use this ...
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44
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How can I find out what the highest block is?
For Geth, in another terminal, attach to the Geth console, such as geth attach. This will allow you to keep your syncing node running, without restarting, and you will not see the noisy logs as you ...
eth♦
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41
votes
Help with very slow mist sync
Use --fast and don't forget --cache with Geth
Everyone mentions --fast but you probably also need --cache=1024 (and --jitvm may also help). Without it, you are running with the default which is --...
eth♦
- 85k
41
votes
How long is the first sync supposed to last?
Do following steps to check the sync state:
1.) open a new geth instance and type in geth attach
2.) now type in eth.syncing
This shows you the "currentBlock" and the "highestBlock".
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votes
What is Geth's "fast" sync, and why is it faster?
Don't forget to use an SSD
If you're able to, using an NVMe SSD is even better.
If you have limited space on SSD see Can chaindata be split across two (or more) locations?
That said, the Ethereum ...
eth♦
- 85k
35
votes
Why is my node synchronization stuck/extremely slow at block 2,306,843?
Update Mar 5 2017
The state cleaning was announced by Vitalik Buterin in the tweet State clearing 100% complete dated 23:07 Nov 29 2016. This time corresponds to block 2,718,436.
The Clearing ...
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33
votes
Accepted
Geth node starts to sync from the beginning after fast sync
Why Does Fast Sync Restart
As stated in Péter Szilágyi's comment above, you will have to wait for --fast syncing to complete, otherwise you will have to restart the process again. The message you ...
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31
votes
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Difference between a pruned and unpruned blockchain
Lets take it one step at a time.
Blockchains generally work by having an origin (genesis) state with a few accounts having funds, and then every block that you place on top of the chain moves those ...
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30
votes
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Possible to store the blockchain in a different directory?
The --datadir flag specifies the location data directory.
geth --datadir <path to data directory>
This directory should contain the following subdirectories:
chaindata
keystore
nodes
On ...
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26
votes
How can i tell if geth is done running?
The way I check is:
Find out what the last block is. https://etherchain.org
Start geth with console (https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Command-Line-Options)
When geth is running enter the ...
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22
votes
Accepted
Can I download the whole blockchain from somewhere?
Answer
If you want to download the blockchain data from an external source that is up to you, but that does come with risks of the data being corrupted or sabotaged in a way to compromise your machine ...
- 4,601
22
votes
Accepted
What is the parity light pruning mode?
geth and parity have differents methods to save the ethereum blockchain in their internal format. I made many benchs because i find it so long just to use a Wallet.
The pruning mode is how the block ...
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21
votes
Accepted
Fatal: Could not open database: resource temporarily unavailable
Your geth client is already running in the background. You can attach to it by typing:
$ geth attach
in your command line. This will allow you to run commands on the geth client console.
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20
votes
How can I find out what the highest block is?
If you are using Geth:
geth attach http://host
then enter:
web3.eth.blockNumber
It will give you the block number as integer, here's the function documentation. If you are looking for the block ...
- 2,471
20
votes
Accepted
What is Parity's “warp” sync, and why is it faster than Geth "fast"?
It's difficult to give an answer without just re-hashing the explanation on the Parity wiki...
The pertinent part is as follows:
These snapshots can be used to quickly get a full copy of the state at ...
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18
votes
How can I get a geth node to download the blockchain quickly?
The --fast command line option will sync more quickly. You have to use it from scratch though, you can't use it if the blockchain has been downloaded already. If you have a node which is already ...
18
votes
Accepted
How much faster is it to sync with --jitvm?
geth 1.5 is way faster but there are problems to keep connections with peers. When there is a high latency, it removes agressively the peer connection. I use the patch 2630 from Péter Szilágyi in the ...
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17
votes
Accepted
Why isn't fast sync the default?
Two reasons:
Fast sync indeed has one additional weakness compared to full sync. As long as an attacker can keep you isolated from the main chain (e.g. infect your router), it may construct an ...
- 10.4k
16
votes
Accepted
How can I empty the blockchain?
To remove your blockchain with geth, run: geth removedb
Then:
Use --fast but you probably also need --cache=1024 (and --jitvm may also help). Without it, you are running with the default which is --...
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15
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't my Ethereum node have any peers?
By default, geth uses port 30303 for connection to other nodes. You may need to modify your firewall to allow traffic over this port.
You can check your peer count as well as getting a list of peers ...
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votes
Accepted
Can I run Geth without syncing?
geth --maxpeers 0 will not sync. geth --maxpeers 0 console may be more helpful and will bring you the console: you don't even need the RPC, and can paste in and execute Javascript.
eth♦
- 85k
15
votes
Accepted
How to reduce chaindata database size?
There is state trie pruning in the works, which would be able to constantly delete old data that is not needed any more. Hand in hand with pruning is the fast sync, which sync to the network in such a ...
- 10.4k
13
votes
What is the parity light pruning mode?
With each block state (contracts storage and balances) is changing.
By default (archive) we keep in database full state of every block.
With different pruning algorithms we are ditching state data ...
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votes
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What is knownStates?
during fast sync, web3.eth.syncing downloads the state trie.
knownStates is the number of trie nodes that the sync algo knows about
pulledStates is the number it already downloaded
there's no way to ...
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11
votes
How can I get a geth node to download the blockchain quickly?
There are 2 ways using geth, that i am aware of
1. sync with the --fast
you can start with geth --fast which Enables fast syncing through state downloads
2. use import command in geth
to do this, ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible