eth Interactive Console

In order to interact with the client you have two options. If you have no client running, you can start one and provide the -i argument, which will start a client with the interactive console. Alternatively, if you already have a client running, and you started it with the -j flag, you can just run ethconsole, which will give you exactly the same environment without running a second client.

The interactive console is a javascript console which contains a subset of the JSON-RPC api plus some administration functions. To see all available functions type web3 in the console prompt and press enter. For only the administrative functions type web3.admin.

• Network connectivity
• Mining
• Miscellaneous administration

Network connectivity

Querying network information

To figure out if you have any peers and if you are properly connected to the network you can type web3.net. This will conveniently provide something like:

> web3.net
{
  listening: true,
  getListening: [Function],
  peerCount: 2,
  getPeerCount: [Function]
}

To query any individual value you can just call it. For example:

> web3.net.peerCount
2

Interacting with the network

If you would like to interact with the network you can use the network admin functions. You can query them with web3.admin.net.

> web3.admin.net
{
  start: [Function],
  stop: [Function],
  connect: [Function],
  peers: [Function],
  nodeInfo: [Function]
}

Starting the network

If the client is not connected to the network you can start listening with web3.admin.net.start()

> web3.net.listening
false
> web3.admin.net.start()
 ⚡   12:52:24|p2p  Worker stopping 17126 ms
 ⚡   12:52:24|ethsync  Worker stopping 17146 ms
  ℹ  12:52:24|p2p  UPnP device not found.
> true
> web3.net.listening
true

Stopping the network

In the same spirit you can stop listening with web3.admin.net.stop()

> web3.net.listening
true
> web3.admin.net.stop()
true
> web3.net.listening
false
>

Getting a list of peers

If you would like to obtain a list with information on the peers you are connected to you can use web3.admin.net.peers().

> web3.admin.net.peers()
[{
  caps: {
    eth: 61
  },
  clientVersion: 'Geth/v1.0.2-4591ae56/linux/go1.4.2',
  host: '52.16.188.185',
  id: 'a979fb575495b8d6db44f750317d0f4622bf4c2aa3365d6af7c284339968eef29b69ad0dce72a4d8db5ebb4968de0e3bec910127f134779fbcb0cb6d3331163c',
  lastPing: 41,
  notes: {
    ask: 'nothing',
    manners: 'nice',
    sync: 'ongoing'
  },
  port: 0
}, {
  caps: {
    eth: 61
  },
  clientVersion: '++eth-v0.9.40-a1e4483e/Gav's Node//RelWithDebInfo-Linux/g++/int',
  host: '92.51.165.126',
  id: '5374c1bff8df923d3706357eeb4983cd29a63be40a269aaa2296ee5f3b2119a8978c0ed68b8f6fc84aad0df18790417daadf91a4bfbb786a16c9b0a199fa254a',
  lastPing: 18,
  notes: {
    ask: 'nothing',
    manners: 'nice',
    sync: 'holding'
  },
  port: 30300
}]
>

Getting your node information

To obtain your node ID along with other information acout your node's address in the network then use web3.admin.net.nodeInfo()

> web3.admin.net.nodeInfo()
{
  address: '209.131.41.48',
  enode: 'enode://5bf4613faca50a0ff181915b2d8e5f0a87c82ed5a57dabc9812937bdacb167cf1420652930143a743d6238e0279bd91862c72f9d1d0cbb73b86c4ca1cf966432@209.131.41.48:30303',
  id: '5bf4613faca50a0ff181915b2d8e5f0a87c82ed5a57dabc9812937bdacb167cf1420652930143a743d6238e0279bd91862c72f9d1d0cbb73b86c4ca1cf966432',
  listenAddr: '209.131.41.48:30303',
  name: '++eth-v0.9.41-cb61d09d/Lefteris'\ node//RelWithDebInfo-Linux/g++/int',
  port: 30303
}

Connecting to other nodes

Sometimes, peer discovery may not work properly, or you may want to connect to a particular node in the network. In those cases you can use the web3.admin.net.connect() function to manually connect to a peer.

> web3.admin.net.connect("5.1.83.226:30303")                                                                                                                                                      
true

If the above was succesfull we can see our new peer in the list:

> web3.admin.net.peers()
[{
  caps: {
    eth: 61
  },
  clientVersion: '++eth-v0.9.40-7faadaf4/EthDEV Frontier//RelWithDebInfo-Linux/g++/JIT',
  host: '5.1.83.226',
  id: '979b7fa28feeb35a4741660a16076f1943202cb72b6af70d327f053e248bab9ba81760f39d0701ef1d8f89cc1fbd2cacba0710a12cd5314d5e0c9021aa3637f9',
  lastPing: 31,
  notes: {
    ask: 'nothing',
    manners: 'nice',
    sync: 'holding'
  },
  port: 30303
}, {
  caps: {
    eth: 61
  },
  clientVersion: 'Geth/v1.0.2-4591ae56/linux/go1.4.2',
  host: '52.16.188.185',
  id: 'a979fb575495b8d6db44f750317d0f4622bf4c2aa3365d6af7c284339968eef29b69ad0dce72a4d8db5ebb4968de0e3bec910127f134779fbcb0cb6d3331163c',
  lastPing: 41,
  notes: {
    ask: 'nothing',
    manners: 'nice',
    sync: 'ongoing'
  },
  port: 0
}, {
  caps: {
    eth: 61
  },
  clientVersion: '++eth-v0.9.40-a1e4483e/Gav's Node//RelWithDebInfo-Linux/g++/int',
  host: '92.51.165.126',
  id: '5374c1bff8df923d3706357eeb4983cd29a63be40a269aaa2296ee5f3b2119a8978c0ed68b8f6fc84aad0df18790417daadf91a4bfbb786a16c9b0a199fa254a',
  lastPing: 17,
  notes: {
    ask: 'nothing',
    manners: 'nice',
    sync: 'ongoing'
  },
  port: 30300
}]

Mining

You can also start and stop mining using the interactive console. To start mining use web3.admin.eth.setMining(true)

> web3.admin.eth.setMining(true)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  ℹ  13:48:01|miner0  Loading full DAG of seedhash: #b903bd76…
> web3.admin.eth.setMining(ttrue
DAG  13:48:01|miner0  Generating DAG file. Progress: 0 %
DAG  13:48:04|miner0  Generating DAG file. Progress: 1 %
DAG  13:48:07|miner0  Generating DAG file. Progress: 2 %
 ⚡   13:48:08|eth  Stop worker 249 ms
 ⚡   13:48:09|eth  Stop worker 479 ms
 ⚡   13:48:09|eth  pause 480 ms
 ⚡   13:48:09|eth  Stop worker 480 ms
 ⚡   13:48:09|eth  pause 480 ms

Then again to stop mining simply invoke web3.admin.eth.setMining(false)

Miscellaneous administration

Exiting the client

You can exit the client with a Ctrl-C signal but you can also use web3.admin.exit()

> web3.admin.exit()
true
 ⚡   13:36:50|eth  Stop worker 510 ms
  ℹ  13:36:50|eth  Closing blockchain DB
  ℹ  13:36:50|eth  Closing state DB
 ⚡   13:36:50|ethsync  Worker stopping 582 ms
 ⚡   13:36:50|p2p  Worker stopping 581 ms
lefteris@archlenovo ~/ew/cpp-ethereum$

Changing the log verbosity

If you would like to see more log messages you can change the log verbosity by web3.admin.setVerbosity(). This function takes a numeric argument from 0 to 99.

> web3.admin.setVerbosity(4)
true
⧎ ◌  13:40:21|p2p|17417d7b…|Geth/v1.0.1-99216f4a/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 119085 - 119596 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:21|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116890 - 116890 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:21|p2p|17417d7b…|Geth/v1.0.1-99216f4a/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlocks ( 16 entries)
⧎ ◌  13:40:21|p2p|17417d7b…|Geth/v1.0.1-99216f4a/linux/go1.4.2  16 blocks known and returned; 0 blocks unknown; 0 blocks ignored
⧎ ◌  13:40:22|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116430 - 116430 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:22|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116660 - 116660 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:22|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116545 - 116545 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:22|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116487 - 116487 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:22|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116516 - 116516 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:22|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116530 - 116530 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116523 - 116523 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116526 - 116526 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116524 - 116524 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116525 - 116525 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|0c88df87…|Geth/Siberia19/v1.0.2-9fb7bc74/linux/go1.4.2  GetBlockHashesByNumber ( 116525 - 117036 )
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p  Hello: Geth/v1.0.1/linux/go1.4.2 V[ 4 ] ##55581d43… (eth,61) 0
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|55581d43…|Geth/v1.0.1/linux/go1.4.2  Status: 61 / 1 / #95e83250… , TD: 582573549 = #a4f70ef1…
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|55581d43…|Geth/v1.0.1/linux/go1.4.2  Disconnect (reason: Unknown reason. )
⧎ ◌  13:40:23|p2p|55581d43…|Geth/v1.0.1/linux/go1.4.2  Closing peer session :-(

For a healthy logging level use the value of 1.