= NODE

Bitcoin Node. Connects to the network and downloads the blockchain into local storage.

== Usage

To run the node with the default options (download the blockchain into ./bitcoin.db
using the sequel::sqlite3 STORAGE backend):

 bitcoin_node

You can specify options (see +--help+) or pass a config file with +--config+ (see CONFIG).

Some common options you might want to use:

<tt>-n --network</tt> <i><name></i>::
  Network to use. Usually +bitcoin+. Support for +namecoin+ is also quite good.
  Use +testnet+ for development.

<tt>-c --config</tt> <i><file></i>::
  Read options from config file. See also CONFIG.

<tt>--connect</tt> <i><ip:port></i>::
  List of peers to connect to.

<tt>-s --storage</tt> <i><backend-string></i>::
  Storage backend to use. See also STORAGE.

<tt>--import</tt> <i><blockchain dir></i>::
  Import blockchain in bitcoind/qt format from given directory.

<tt>--skip-validation</tt>::
  Skip validation of received blockchain data. Can be used to speed up import/sync when
  blockchain data is received from a trusted source.

<tt>--check-blocks <i><count></i>::
  Check consistency of the +count+ most recent blocks. Pass -1 to check all blocks.

<tt>-v --verbose</tt>::
  Display debug output.

<tt>-h --help</tt>::
  Display all available options.

It will take a long time to download/store the entire blockchain at first, so be patient ;)


== Command socket

The node opens a separate command socket which you can connect to and query statistics
or get notified about new blocks/tx, etc. See below for a list of available commands.

=== CLI interface

The easiest way is to just call `bitcoin_node` again in the same way you started it,
but with an extra command argument:

 bitcoin_node info
 bitcoin_node -c config.yml info
 bitcoin_node monitor "block tx"


=== CommandClient

If you are programming in an EventMachine context, you might find the
Bitcoin::Network::CommandClient convenient.

=== Raw socket

Of course you can also connect to the socket by any other means you like, just
send [<command>, <params>] pairs and receive [<command>, <response>] pairs back (both
encoded in JSON):

 $ echo -e '["tslb", []]\0' | nc 127.0.0.1 9999
 ["tslb",{"tslb":2700}]


=== Commands

==== info

Get various statistics.

 bitcoin_node info

==== config

Get the currently active configuration.

 bitcoin_node config

==== connections

Get currently connected peers.

 bitcoin_node connections

==== connect

Connect to given peer(s).

 bitcoin_node connect <ip>:<port>[,<ip>:<port>]

==== disconnect

Disconnect given peer(s).

 bitcoin_node disconnect <ip>:<port>[,<ip>,<port>]

==== getblocks

Trigger the node to ask its peers for new blocks.

 bitcoin_node getblocks

==== getaddr

Trigger the node to ask its for new peer addresses.

 bitcoin_node getaddr

==== addrs

Get known peer addresses (used by bin/bitcoin_dns_seed)

 bitcoin_node addrs [count]

==== tslb

Get Time Since Last Block.

 bitcoin_node tslb

==== create_tx

TODO

==== assemble_tx

TODO

==== relay_tx

Relay given transaction (in hex).

 bitcoin_node relay_tx <tx in hex>

==== store_block

Validate and store given block (in hex) as if it was received by a peer.

 bitcoin_node store_block <block in hex>

==== store_tx

Store given transaction (in hex) as if it was received by a peer.

 bitcoin_node store_tx <tx in hex>

==== stop

Stop the bitcoin node.

 bitcoin_node stop

==== help

List all available commands.

 bitcoin_node help