TrueBlocks

Using chifra

Like git, TrueBlocks has a command called chifra that gives you access to all of the other subcommands.

Type:

chifra

You will see a long list of commands similar to this

  Usage:    chifra command
  Purpose:  Access to all TrueBlocks tools (chifra <cmd> --help for more).

  Where:
  Accounts:
    list          list every appearance of an address anywhere on the chain
    export        export full details of transactions for one or more addresses
    monitors      add, remove, clean, and list address monitors
    names         query addresses or names of well-known accounts
    abis          fetches the ABI for a smart contract
  Chain Data:
    blocks        retrieve one or more blocks from the chain or local cache
    transactions  retrieve one or more transactions from the chain or local cache
    receipts      retrieve receipts for the given transaction(s)
    logs          retrieve logs for the given transaction(s)
    traces        retrieve traces for the given transaction(s)
    when          find block(s) based on date, blockNum, timestamp, or 'special'
  Chain State:
    state         retrieve account balance(s) for one or more addresses at given block(s)
    tokens        retrieve token balance(s) for one or more addresses at given block(s)
  Admin:
    config        report on and edit the configuration of the TrueBlocks system
    daemon        initialize and control long-running processes such as the API and the scrapers
    scrape        scan the chain and update the TrueBlocks index of appearances
    chunks        manage, investigate, and display the Unchained Index
    init          initialize the TrueBlocks system by downloading from IPFS
  Other:
    explore       open a local or remote explorer for one or more addresses, blocks, or transactions
    slurp         fetch data from Etherscan for any address

You may get more help on any command by typing chifra <cmd> --help.

Getting status

Let’s look at an easy command to get started called config.

chifra config

If you get a valid response, congratulations, your installation is working. You may skip ahead to the ‘Using TrueBlocks’ section below.

Troubleshooting

Depending on your setup, you may get the following error message when you run some chifra commands:

  Warning: A request to your Ethereum node (http://localhost:8545) resulted
  in the following error [Could not connect to server]. Specify a valid
  rpcProvider by editing $CONFIG/trueblocks.toml.

If you get this error, edit the configuration file mentioned. The file is well documented, so refer to that file for further information.

When the chifra config command returns a valid response, you may move to the next section. If you continue to have trouble, join our discord disscussion.

Using chifra

If you’ve gotten this far, you’re ready to use TrueBlocks.

Let’s try another simple command to show Ethereum block data. This command shows every 10th block between the first and the 100,000th.

chifra blocks 0-100000:10

Hit Control+C to stop the processing.

This shows one of the basic ideas behind TrueBlocks: make the Ethereum data easier to use.

Play around with other options. See what you can do.

Conclusion

By this point, you should have TrueBlocks properly installed and be able to get simple blockchain data from your node. All of the chifra commands should now work. The next section further introduces you to chifra.

Please see the Using Chifra page to proceed.

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