81 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
81 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
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# Rebuilding transaction history
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It is unlikely, but possible and unfortunate, that transaction history in the
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wallet database may not represent reality. This may be due to a programming
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mistake or the transaction database becoming corrupted. Thankfully, all
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transactions are publicly recorded on the blockchain, and transactions
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necessary for a fully functional wallet can be recovered. This process is
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called rescanning, and the following guide will demonstrate how to force such a
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rescan.
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Rescans are automatically performed each time the wallet syncs to the network.
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These are used to "catch up" the wallet to the newest best block in the block
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chain. For example, the following log messages at startup indicate that an
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out-of-sync wallet started a rescan for all addresses and unspent outputs since
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some block.
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```
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13:45:03 2015-04-13 [INF] WLLT: Started rescan from block 00000000001703b1a9dfd4865d587cd3f3cbb2f8e6ce9b44668e78ad8d4a7377 (height 205921) for 1 address
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...
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13:45:49 2015-04-13 [INF] WLLT: Finished rescan for 1 address (synced to block 0000000005cecab1013ecb1275a3e0c9623c4a497a57b6b6bf0fc1525aca1fbf, height 335146)
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```
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During the rescan, relevant transactions from previously unseen blocks are added
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to the wallet database and spend tracking is updated accordingly. After the
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rescan at startup finishes, a wallet is marked in sync with the chain.
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When wallet is started without any transaction history, a rescan is performed
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for all blocks since the creation date of the wallet's first address. There are
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two situations when this holds true:
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1. The wallet is newly created or was recreated from the seed
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2. The transaction history is explicitly deleted
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The second case is how a forced rescan is performed.
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btcwallet will not drop transaction history by itself, as this is something that
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should not be necessary under normal wallet operation. However, a tool,
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`dropwtxmgr`, is provided in the `cmd/dropwtxmgr` directory which may be used to
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drop the wallet transaction manager (wtxmgr) history from a wallet database.
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The tool may already be installed in your PATH, but if not, installing it is easy:
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```
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$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/btcsuite/btcwallet/cmd/dropwtxmgr
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$ go get
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```
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Dropping transaction history given the default database location can be
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performed by stopping wallet (to release the database) and running the tool,
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answering yes to the prompt:
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```
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$ dropwtxmgr
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Database path: /home/username/.btcwallet/mainnet/wallet.db
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Drop all btcwallet transaction history? [y/N] y
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Dropping wtxmgr namespace
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```
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If the wallet database is in another location or transaction history for a
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different network (e.g. testnet or simnet) must be dropped, the full database
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path may be specified:
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```
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$ dropwtxmgr --db ~/.btcwallet/testnet/wallet.db
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Database path: /home/username/.btcwallet/testnet/wallet.db
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Drop all btcwallet transaction history? [y/N] y
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Dropping wtxmgr namespace
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```
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After dropping transaction history, btcwallet may be restarted and a full rescan
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will be triggered to sync the wallet:
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```
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$ btcwallet
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14:05:31 2015-04-13 [INF] BTCW: No recorded transaction history -- needs full rescan
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...
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14:05:31 2015-04-13 [INF] WLLT: Started rescan from block 000000000000e37b0f99af2e434834123b5459e31e17937169ce81ed0cc4d61c (height 193191) for 1 address
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...
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14:07:06 2015-04-13 [INF] WLLT: Finished rescan for 1 address (synced to block 00000000049041b5bd7f8ac86c8f1d32065053aefbe8c31e25ed03ef015a725a, height 335482)
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```
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