Admin

The Admin group of commands allows you to query the status of the TrueBlocks system and manage various aspects including the Unchained Index. You may query the status; query for information about TrueBlocks caches; control the creation, sharing, and pinning of the Unchained Index; and even serve the data through an API.

See the API documentation for all information about using the API.

To the right is a list of commands in this group. Click on a command to see its full documentation.

chifra config#

The chifra config program allows you to manage the various TrueBlocks caches. You may list all of the caches, some of the cache, or even individual caches either in terse or full detail. The cache of interest is specified with the modes option.

TrueBlocks maintains caches for the index of address appearances, named addresses, abi files, as well as other data including blockchain data, and address monitors.

Purpose:
  Report on and edit the configuration of the TrueBlocks system.

Usage:
  chifra config <mode> [flags]

Arguments:
  mode - either show or edit the configuration
	One of [ show | edit ]

Flags:
  -a, --paths        show the configuration paths for the system
  -x, --fmt string   export format, one of [none|json*|txt|csv]
  -v, --verbose      enable verbose output
  -h, --help         display this help screen

Data models produced by this tool:

• chain

Links:

• api docs
• source code

chifra status#

The chifra status tool reports on the state (and size) of the various TrueBlocks local binary caches. TrueBlocks produces nine difference caches: abis, blocks, monitors, names, objs, recons, slurps, traces, transactions. In general practice, these caches may take up a few GB of hard drive space, however, for very popular smart contract the size of the caches may grow rather large. Keep an eye on it.

The chifra status program allows you to manage the various TrueBlocks caches. You may list all of the caches, some of the cache, or even individual caches either in terse or full detail. The cache of interest is specified with the modes option.

TrueBlocks maintains caches for the index of address appearances, named addresses, abi files, as well as other data including blockchain data, and address monitors.

Purpose:
  Report on the state of the internal binary caches.

Usage:
  chifra status <mode> [mode...] [flags]

Arguments:
  modes - the (optional) name of the binary cache to report on, terse otherwise
	One or more of [ index | blooms | blocks | transactions | traces | logs | statements | results | state | tokens | monitors | names | abis | slurps | staging | unripe | maps | some | all ]

Flags:
  -d, --diagnose            same as the default but with additional diagnostics
  -c, --first_record uint   the first record to process
  -e, --max_records uint    the maximum number of records to process (default 10000)
  -a, --chains              include a list of chain configurations in the output
  -x, --fmt string          export format, one of [none|json*|txt|csv]
  -v, --verbose             enable verbose output
  -h, --help                display this help screen

Notes:
  - The some mode includes index, monitors, names, slurps, and abis.
  - If no mode is supplied, a terse report is generated.

Data models produced by this tool:

• cacheitem
• chain
• status

Links:

• api docs
• source code

chifra daemon#

chifra daemon manages chifra’s API server. Each of the chifra commands along with all of its options, are provided not only by the command line, but also the API server. We call this process the flame server, which is written in Go. chifra serve is an alias for the chifra daemon command.

In the future, this daemon may also manage other long-running processes such as chifra scrape and chifra monitors, but for now, it’s only managing the API server.

The --grpc option turns on a GRPC server that may speed up certain command such as chifra names, although this option is experimental and therefore not recommended for production use.

If the default port for the API server is in use, you may change it with the --port option.

To get help for any command, please see the API documentation on our website. But, you may also run chifra --help or chifra <cmd> --help on your command line to get help.

See below for an example of converting command line options to a call to the API. There’s a one-to-one correspondence between the command line tools and options and the API routes and their options.

Purpose:
  Initialize and control long-running processes such as the API and the scrapers.

Usage:
  chifra daemon [flags]

Aliases:
  daemon, serve

Flags:
  -u, --url string   specify the API server's url and optionally its port (default "localhost:8080")
  -g, --grpc         run gRPC server to serve names
  -v, --verbose      enable verbose output
  -h, --help         display this help screen

Notes:
  - To start API open terminal window and run chifra daemon.
  - See the API documentation (https://trueblocks.io/api) for more information.

Data models produced by this tool:

• none

Links:

• no api for this command
• source code

further information#

To convert the options for a command line tool to an API call, do the following:

1. Any --snake_case argument to the command line should be converted to camelCase. For example, --no_header on the command line should be sent as &noHeader to the API server.
2. Any switch on the command line, (i.e., options whose presence indicates true and whose absence indicates false) should be sent as a boolean to the API server. For example, --no_header on the command line should be sent as &noHeader=true to the API server. If the option is fales, you do not need to send it to the API server.
3. Positionals such as the addresses, topics, and four-bytes for chifra export, must be prepended with their positional name. For example, chifra export <address> <topic> should be sent as &addrs=<address>&topics=<topic> to the API server. For some commands (experiment) you may send more than one value for a positional with %20 separating the entries or by sending multiple positionals (i.e., &addrs=<address1>&addrs=<address2>).

chifra scrape#

The chifra scrape application creates TrueBlocks’ chunked index of address appearances – the fundamental data structure of the entire system. It also, optionally, pins each chunk of the index to IPFS.

chifra scrape is a long running process, therefore we advise you run it as a service or in terminal multiplexer such as tmux. You may start and stop chifra scrape as needed, but doing so means the scraper will not be keeping up with the front of the blockchain. The next time it starts, it will have to catch up to the chain, a process that may take several hours depending on how long ago it was last run. See the section below and the “Papers” section of our website for more information on how the scraping process works and prerequisites for its proper operation.

You may adjust the speed of the index creation with the --sleep and --block_cnt options. On some machines, or when running against some EVM node software, the scraper may overburden the hardware. Slowing things down will ensure proper operation. Finally, you may optionally --pin each new chunk to IPFS which naturally shards the database among all users. By default, pinning is against a locally running IPFS node, but the --remote option allows pinning to an IPFS pinning service such as Pinata.

Purpose:
  Scan the chain and update the TrueBlocks index of appearances.

Usage:
  chifra scrape [flags]

Flags:
  -n, --block_cnt uint   maximum number of blocks to process per pass (default 2000)
  -s, --sleep float      seconds to sleep between scraper passes (default 14)
  -l, --touch uint       first block to visit when scraping (snapped back to most recent snap_to_grid mark)
  -v, --verbose          enable verbose output
  -h, --help             display this help screen

Notes:
  - The --touch option may only be used for blocks after the latest scraped block (if any). It will be snapped back to the latest snap_to block.

Data models produced by this tool:

• chunkrecord
• manifest

Links:

• api docs
• source code

configuration#

Each of the following additional configurable command line options are available.

Configuration file: trueBlocks.toml
Configuration group: [scrape.<chain>]

Note that for Ethereum mainnet, the default values for appsPerChunk and firstSnap are 2,000,000 and 2,300,000 respectively. See the specification for a justification of these values.

These items may be set in three ways, each overriding the preceding method:

– in the above configuration file under the [scrape.<chain>] group,
– in the environment by exporting the configuration item as upper case (with underbars removed) and prepended with (TB underbar SCRAPE underbar CHAIN) with the underbars included, or
– on the command line using the configuration item with leading dashes and in snake case (i.e., --snake_case).

further information#

Each time chifra scrape runs, it begins at the last block it completed processing (plus one). With each pass, the scraper descends as deeply as is possible into each block’s data. (This is why TrueBlocks requires a --tracing node.) As the scraper encounters appearances of address in the block’s data, it adds those appearances to a growing index. Periodically (after processing the block that contains the 2,000,000th appearance), the system consolidates an index chunk.

An index chunk is a portion of the index containing approximately 2,000,000 records (although, this number is adjustable for different chains). As part of the consolidation, the scraper creates a Bloom filter representing the set membership in the associated index portion. The Bloom filters are an order of magnitude smaller than the index chunks. The system then pushes both the index chunk and the Bloom filter to IPFS. In this way, TrueBlocks creates an immutable, uncapturable index of appearances that can be used not only by TrueBlocks, but any member of the community who needs it. (Hint: We all need it.)

Users of the TrueBlocks Explorer (or any other software) may subsequently download the Bloom filters, query them to determine which index chunks need to be downloaded, and thereby build a historical list of transactions for a given address. This is accomplished while imposing a minimum amount of resource requirement on the end user’s machine.

Recently, we enabled the ability for the end user to pin these downloaded index chunks and blooms on their own machines. The user needs the data for the software to operate–sharing requires minimal effort and makes the data available to other people. Everyone is better off. A naturally-occuring network effect.

prerequisites#

chifra scrape works with any EVM-based blockchain, but does not currently work without a “tracing, archive” RPC endpoint. The Erigon blockchain node, given its minimal disc footprint for an archive node and its support of the required trace_ endpoint routines, is highly recommended.

Please see this article for more information about running the scraper and building and sharing the index of appearances.

chifra chunks#

The chifra chunks routine provides tools for interacting with, checking the validity of, cleaning up, and analyzing the Unchained Index. It provides options to list pins, the Manifest, summary data on the index, Bloom filters, addresses, and appearances. While still in its early stages, this tool will eventually allow users to clean their local index, clean their remote index, study the indexes, etc. Stay tuned.

Purpose:
  Manage, investigate, and display the Unchained Index.

Usage:
  chifra chunks <mode> [flags] [blocks...] [address...]

Arguments:
  mode - the type of data to process (required)
	One of [ manifest | index | blooms | pins | addresses | appearances | stats ]
  blocks - an optional list of blocks to intersect with chunk ranges

Flags:
  -c, --check              check the manifest, index, or blooms for internal consistency
  -i, --pin                pin the manifest or each index chunk and bloom
  -p, --publish            publish the manifest to the Unchained Index smart contract
  -r, --remote             prior to processing, retrieve the manifest from the Unchained Index smart contract
  -b, --belongs strings    in index mode only, checks the address(es) for inclusion in the given index chunk
  -F, --first_block uint   first block to process (inclusive)
  -L, --last_block uint    last block to process (inclusive)
  -m, --max_addrs uint     the max number of addresses to process in a given chunk
  -d, --deep               if true, dig more deeply during checking (manifest only)
  -e, --rewrite            for the --pin --deep mode only, writes the manifest back to the index folder (see notes)
  -U, --count              for the pins mode only, display only the count of records
  -s, --sleep float        for --remote pinning only, seconds to sleep between API calls
  -x, --fmt string         export format, one of [none|json*|txt|csv]
  -v, --verbose            enable verbose output
  -h, --help               display this help screen

Notes:
  - Mode determines which type of data to display or process.
  - Certain options are only available in certain modes.
  - If blocks are provided, only chunks intersecting with those blocks are displayed.
  - The --truncate option updates the manifest and removes local data, but does not alter remote pins.
  - The --belongs option is only available in the index mode.
  - The --first_block and --last_block options apply only to addresses, appearances, and index --belongs mode.
  - The --pin option requires a locally running IPFS node or a pinning service API key.
  - The --publish option requires a private key.
  - The --publisher option is ignored with the --publish option since the sender of the transaction is recorded as the publisher.
  - Without --rewrite, the manifest is written to the temporary cache. With it, the manifest is rewritten to the index folder.

Data models produced by this tool:

• appearance
• appearancetable
• chunkaddress
• chunkbloom
• chunkindex
• chunkpinreport
• chunkrecord
• chunkstats
• ipfspin
• manifest
• reportcheck

Links:

• api docs
• source code

chifra init#

When invoked, chifra init reads a value from a smart contract called The Unchained Index (0x0c316b7042b419d07d343f2f4f5bd54ff731183d).

This value (manifestHashMap) is an IPFS hash pointing to a pinned file (called the Manifest) that contains a large collection of other IPFS hashes. These other hashes point to each of the Bloom filter and Index Chunk. TrueBlocks periodically publishes the Manifest’s hash to the smart contract. This makes the index available for our software to use and impossible for us to withhold. Both of these aspects of the manifest are by design.

If you stop chifra init before it finishes, it will pick up again where it left off the next time you run it.

Certain parts of the system (chifra list and chifra export for example) if you have not previously run chifra init or chifra scrape. You will be warned by the system until it’s satisfied.

If you run chifra init and allow it to complete, the next time you run chifra scrape, it will start where init finished. This means that only the blooms will be stored on your hard drive. Subsequent scraping will produce both chunks and blooms, although you can, if you wish delete chunks that are not being used. You may periodically run chifra init if you prefer not to scrape.

Purpose:
  Initialize the TrueBlocks system by downloading the Unchained Index from IPFS.

Usage:
  chifra init [flags]

Flags:
  -a, --all                in addition to Bloom filters, download full index chunks (recommended)
  -d, --dry_run            display the results of the download without actually downloading
  -F, --first_block uint   do not download any chunks earlier than this block
  -s, --sleep float        seconds to sleep between downloads
  -v, --verbose            enable verbose output
  -h, --help               display this help screen

Notes:
  - If run with no options, this tool will download or freshen only the Bloom filters.
  - The --first_block option will fall back to the start of the containing chunk.
  - You may re-run the tool as often as you wish. It will repair or freshen the index.

Data models produced by this tool:

• chunkrecord
• manifest

Links:

• api docs
• source code

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