Start a node

ting is both the node and the command-line tool that controls it. This page installs it and runs a node on the production network. A development chain, for experiments and program development, is described at the end.

Install#

From a source checkout, build and install the CLI:

cargo install --path node --locked

The Rust toolchain is pinned in rust-toolchain.toml; rustup installs it on the first build.

Initialize and start#

ting init
ting start
ting status

init creates a data directory with a configuration file, the production network's genesis, which is built into the node, and a private control token. start launches the node in the background and waits until it answers. Use ting run instead to keep it in the foreground; Ctrl+C stops it, as does SIGTERM on Linux and macOS, which service managers such as systemd and container runtimes send.

The node needs no peer address. It looks up the network's seed nodes at every start and finds further peers through them (finding more peers), then downloads and validates every block from genesis. ting status shows the height it has reached, and ting peers the peers it is connected to.

The default directory is ~/.ting (%USERPROFILE%\.ting on Windows), so every command finds the same node from any working directory. Use --data-dir DIRECTORY to work with another node.

Reachability#

The peer listener binds 0.0.0.0:18442 by default, every IPv4 address of the machine. A node that cannot be reached from outside, behind a firewall or a NAT without a forwarded port, still takes part fully: it connects out to its peers and exchanges blocks and transactions over those connections. Opening TCP port 18442 to the internet lets other nodes connect in as well, which helps the network. The control channel always stays on the loopback interface, and REST stays off until you turn it on.

REST, the explorer and this wiki#

ting api enable
ting docs
ting api disable
ting api enable --cors
ting stop

ting api enable, or --api at init, turns on the REST interface, which serves the explorer and the API and this wiki, by default at 127.0.0.1:18441. The CLI talks to the node over a separate, authenticated loopback connection, so it keeps working while REST is disabled. ting docs prints the current wiki and API addresses, and ting status shows the ports actually bound. --cors lets browser applications served from other origins, such as a wallet running in a web page, call the API; leave it off unless you need that.

Mining#

A node validates and relays blocks without mining. ting miner start runs the built-in CPU miner, on any network: it builds a block template on the node's tip, searches nonces for it, submits a block when it finds one and starts over with a fresh template, until ting miner stop. --threads N sets its search threads, and the setting is kept in config.json, so a restarted node resumes mining. A template tries every pending transaction in arrival order and includes each one the block still has room for.

The protocol pays no reward. Programs that pay block producers read the block's producer data, which ting miner producer HEX sets. Templates for external mining software, producer data and capacity votes are covered in Mining and voting.

Command reference#

Every command accepts --data-dir DIRECTORY and prints its result as JSON, except ting run, which prints Ting ready: and its listener addresses once the node listens, and then any messages the node writes. A command that fails prints ting: and the error to standard error.

Peer, REST, miner and producer settings can also be changed while the node is stopped; the CLI then edits config.json itself. Details are on The reference node, Mining and voting and Access and exposure.

The data directory#

The operating-system lock on node.lock stops two nodes from using the same directory.

A development chain#

For experiments and program development, ting init --dev creates a chain of your own. Its genesis is the development genesis, the experimental profile with a two-week voting epoch, whose target is easy enough that blocks appear almost at once, and its peer listener stays on the loopback interface. Give it a data directory of its own:

ting --data-dir dev init --dev --api
ting --data-dir dev start
ting --data-dir dev mine --count 3
ting --data-dir dev status

ting mine runs a bounded nonce search in one request: a template, the search and the solution, for each of up to N blocks. With no transactions pending it mines empty blocks, which are still valid and still fully checked. To keep mining in the background instead, run ting --data-dir dev miner start --spacing 10, which mines at most one block every ten seconds, and ting --data-dir dev miner stop to end it.

A relative directory such as dev is resolved against your current directory. The development node uses the same ports as a production node, so stop that one first, or give this one others at init with --control, --p2p and --api-bind, as Connect two nodes does. Deploy a first program continues on this chain.

Not a secured network. A development chain has an easy mining target and is meant for experiments. It is not an economically secured network.