Intro for new developers and witnesses

This is a quick introduction to get new developers and witnesses up to speed on Peerplays blockchain. It is intended for witnesses plannig to join a live, already deployed blockchain.

Starting A Peerplays Node

For Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and up users, see this link first: https://github.com/cryptonomex/graphene/wiki/build-ubuntu

and then proceed with:

git clone https://github.com/pbsa/peerplays.git
cd peerplays
git submodule update --init --recursive
cmake -DBOOST_ROOT="$BOOST_ROOT" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .
make
./programs/witness_node/witness_node

Launching the witness creates required directories. Next, stop the witness and continue.

vi witness_node_data_dir/config.ini
p2p-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:9777
rpc-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090
seed-node = 213.184.225.234:59500

Start the witness back up

./programs/witness_node/witness_node

Upgrading A Peerplays Node

To minimize downtime of your peerplays node when upgrading, one upgrade idea was written in this steemit article: https://steemit.com/peerplays/@joseph/peerplays-update-setting-a-backup-witness-server-switching-servers

Wallet Setup

Then, in a separate terminal window, start the command-line wallet cli_wallet:

./programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet

To set your initial password to 'password' use:

>>> set_password password
>>> unlock password

A list of CLI wallet commands is available here.

Testnet

• chain-id - 5b37954aa0d33a8e0d57b084995c262a7c13dbc0693d3e96654e63ff45a9ceec

Register your username at the faucet address

https://595-dev.pixelplex.by/

Use the get_private_key_from_password command

You will to generate owner and active keys

get_private_key_from_password your_witness_username active the_key_you_received_from_the_faucet

This will reveal an array for your active key ["PPYxxx", "xxxx"]

import_keys into your cli_wallet

• use the second value in the array returned from the previous step for the private key
• be sure to wrap your username in quotes
• import the key with this command

import_key "your_witness_username" xxxx

Upgrade your account to lifetime membership

upgrade_account your_witness_username true

Create your witness (substitute the url for your witness information)

• place quotes around url

create_witness your_witness_username "url" true

Be sure to take note of the block_signing_key

IMPORTANT (issue below command using block_signing_key just obtained)

get_private_key block_signing_key

Compare this result to

dump_private_keys

You should see 3 pairs of keys. One of the pairs should match your block_signing_key and this is the one you will use in the next step!

Get your witness id

get_witness username (note the "id" for your config)

Modify your witness_node config.ini to include your witness id and private key pair.

Comment out the existing private-key before adding yours

vim witness_node_data_dir/config.ini

witness-id = "1.6.x"
private-key = ["block_signing_key","private_key_for_your_block_signing_key"]

start your witness back up

./programs/witness_node/witness_node

If it fails to start, try with these flags (not for permanent use)

./programs/witness_node/witness_node --resync --replay

Vote for yourself

vote_for_witness your_witness_account your_witness_account true true

Ask to be voted in!

Join @Peerplays Telegram group to find information about the witness group. http://t.me/@peerplayswitness

You will get logs that look like this:

2070264ms th_a       application.cpp:506           handle_block         ] Got block: #87913 time: 2017-05-27T16:34:30 latency: 264 ms from: bhuz-witness  irreversible: 87903 (-10)
2071000ms th_a       witness.cpp:204               block_production_loo ] Not producing block because slot has not yet arrived
2072000ms th_a       witness.cpp:204               block_production_loo ] Not producing block because slot has not yet arrived
2073000ms th_a       witness.cpp:201               block_production_loo ] Not producing block because it isn't my turn

Assuming you've received votes, you will start producing as a witness at the next maintenance interval (once per hour). You can check your votes with.

get_witness your_witness_account

systemd

It's important for your witness to start when your system boots up. The filepaths here assume that you installed your witness into /home/ubuntu/peerplays

Create a logfile to hold your stdout/err logging

sudo touch /var/log/peerplays.log

Save this file in your peerplays directory. vi /home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

#!/bin/bash

cd /home/ubuntu/peerplays
./programs/witness_node/witness_node &> /var/log/peerplays.log

Make it executable

chmod 744 /home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

Create this file: sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/peerplays.service Note the path for start.sh. Change it to match where your start.sh file is if necessary.

[Unit]
Description=Peerplays Witness
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target

Enable the service

sudo systemctl enable peerplays.service

Make sure you don't get any errors

sudo systemctl status peerplays.service

Stop your witness if it is currently running from previous steps, then start it with the service.

sudo systemctl start peerplays.service

Check your logfile for entries

tail -f /var/log/peerplays.log

Running specific tests

• tests/chain_tests -t block_tests/name_of_test