The addblock utility was originally written as a quick debug tool during
initial development to populate blocks into the database. However, now
that it has been designated as the standard way to import bootstrap.dat
(and indeed block data files in general), it was lacking a few features
such as properly checking against the chain rules and known good
checkpoints.
This commit reworks and improves the utility in several ways:
- Imported blocks are now checked against the chain rules including
checkpoints to ensure they match the known good chain
- The utility now properly shuts down after processing all blocks
- Attempting to import orphan blocks (blocks which build off a block you
don't yet have in the database) returns an error
- Blocks that are already known are now skipped instead of causing an
error which means you can stop and restart the import mid-way through
without issues or start it after you've already downloaded a
portion of the chain
- The block height is no longer assumed to start at 0 which means input
files that start later in the chain will work properly so long as you
already have the chain at least up to the point of the block just before
the first one in the input file
- Improved error handling and reporting
- How often the progress display is shown is now configurable
- Statistics about how many blocks were processed, imported, and already
known are now displayed after the input file has been fully processed
This resolves comments made in #60.
This commit adds a new function to btcctl that shows the results as
properly indented JSON instead of relying on spew and changes all of the
commands that used spew to the new function. The output of btcctl
should be more user-facing than developer-facing.
