This commit converts all block height references to int32 instead of
int64. The current target block production rate is 10 mins per block
which means it will take roughly 40,800 years to reach the maximum
height an int32 affords. Even if the target rate were lowered to one
block per minute, it would still take roughly another 4,080 years to
reach the maximum.
In the mean time, there is no reason to use a larger type which results
in higher memory and disk space usage. However, for now, in order to
avoid having to reserialize a bunch of database information, the heights
are still serialized to the database as 8-byte uint64s.
This is being mainly being done in preparation for further upcoming
infrastructure changes which will use the smaller and more efficient
4-byte serialization in the database as well.
This commit refactors the consensus rule checks for block headers and
blocks in the blockchain package into separate functions. These changes
contain no modifications to consensus rules and the code still passes all
block consensus tests. It is only a refactoring.
This is being done to help pave the way toward supporting concurrent
downloads. While the package already supports headers-first mode up
through the latest checkpoint through the use of the BFFastAdd flag and
hard-coded checkpoints, it currently only works when downloading from a
single peer. In order to support concurrent downloads from multiple
peers, the ability for the caller to do things such as independently
checking a block header (both context-free and full-context checks) will
be needed.
There are several more changes that will be necessary to support
concurrent downloads as well, such as making the package concurrent safe,
modifying it to make use of the new database API, etc. Those changes are
planned for future commits.
In order to avoid prior situations of stalled syncs due to
outdated peer height data, we now update block heights up peers in
real-time as we learn of their announced
blocks.
Updates happen when:
* A peer sends us an orphan block. We update based on
the height embedded in the scriptSig for the coinbase tx
* When a peer sends us an inv for a block we already know
of
* When peers announce new blocks. Subsequent
announcements that lost the announcement race are
recognized and peer heights are updated accordingly
Additionally, the `getpeerinfo` command has been modified
to include both the starting height, and current height of
connected peers.
Docs have been updated with `getpeerinfo` extension.
This commit moves the definition of the flags which are needed to check
transaction scripts higher up the call stack to pave the way for adding
support for v3 blocks. While here, also spruce up a couple of sections.
There are no functional changes in this commit.
This commit contains the entire btcchain repository along with several
changes needed to move all of the files into the blockchain directory in
order to prepare it for merging. This does NOT update btcd or any of the
other packages to use the new location as that will be done separately.
- All import paths in the old btcchain test files have been changed to
the new location
- All references to btcchain as the package name have been changed to
blockchain
