|
|
|
@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
|
|
|
|
|
# Block and Transaction Broadcasting With ZeroMQ
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ZeroMQ](http://zeromq.org/) is a lightweight wrapper around TCP
|
|
|
|
|
connections, inter-process communications, and shared-memory,
|
|
|
|
|
connections, inter-process communication, and shared-memory,
|
|
|
|
|
providing various message-oriented semantics such as publish/subcribe,
|
|
|
|
|
request/reply, and push/pull.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@ -14,17 +14,18 @@ requesting blockchain related data. However, there exists only a
|
|
|
|
|
limited service to notify external software of events like the arrival
|
|
|
|
|
of new blocks or transactions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The ZeroMQ facility implements a notification interface through a
|
|
|
|
|
set of specific notifiers. Currently there are notifiers that publish
|
|
|
|
|
The ZeroMQ facility implements a notification interface through a set
|
|
|
|
|
of specific notifiers. Currently there are notifiers that publish
|
|
|
|
|
blocks and transactions. This read-only facility requires only the
|
|
|
|
|
connection of a corresponding ZeroMQ subscriber port in receiving
|
|
|
|
|
software; it is not authenticated nor is there any two-way protocol
|
|
|
|
|
involvement. Therefore, subscribers should validate the received data
|
|
|
|
|
since it may be out of date, incomplete or even invalid.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ZeroMQ sockets are self-connecting and self-healing; that is, connects
|
|
|
|
|
made between two endpoints will be automatically restored after an
|
|
|
|
|
outage, and either end may be freely started or stopped in any order.
|
|
|
|
|
ZeroMQ sockets are self-connecting and self-healing; that is,
|
|
|
|
|
connections made between two endpoints will be automatically restored
|
|
|
|
|
after an outage, and either end may be freely started or stopped in
|
|
|
|
|
any order.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Because ZeroMQ is message oriented, subscribers receive transactions
|
|
|
|
|
and blocks all-at-once and do not need to implement any sort of
|
|
|
|
@ -32,13 +33,13 @@ buffering or reassembly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Prerequisites
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The ZeroMQ feature in Bitcoin Core uses only a very small part of the
|
|
|
|
|
ZeroMQ C API, and is thus compatible with any version of ZeroMQ
|
|
|
|
|
from 2.1 onward, including all versions in the 3.x and 4.x release
|
|
|
|
|
series. Typically, it is packaged by distributions as something like
|
|
|
|
|
*libzmq-dev*.
|
|
|
|
|
The ZeroMQ feature in Bitcoin Core requires ZeroMQ API version 4.x or
|
|
|
|
|
newer. Typically, it is packaged by distributions as something like
|
|
|
|
|
*libzmq3-dev*. The C++ wrapper for ZeroMQ is *not* needed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The C++ wrapper for ZeroMQ is *not* needed.
|
|
|
|
|
In order to run the example Python client scripts in contrib/ one must
|
|
|
|
|
also install *python-zmq*, though this is not necessary for daemon
|
|
|
|
|
operation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Enabling
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@ -60,17 +61,19 @@ Currently, the following notifications are supported:
|
|
|
|
|
-zmqpubrawblock=address
|
|
|
|
|
-zmqpubrawtx=address
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The socket type is PUB and the address must be a valid ZeroMQ
|
|
|
|
|
socket address. The same address can be used in more than one notification.
|
|
|
|
|
The socket type is PUB and the address must be a valid ZeroMQ socket
|
|
|
|
|
address. The same address can be used in more than one notification.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For instance:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ bitcoind -zmqpubhashtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:28332 -zmqpubrawtx=ipc:///tmp/bitcoind.tx.raw
|
|
|
|
|
$ bitcoind -zmqpubhashtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:28332 \
|
|
|
|
|
-zmqpubrawtx=ipc:///tmp/bitcoind.tx.raw
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Each PUB notification has a topic and body, where the header
|
|
|
|
|
corresponds to the notification type. For instance, for the notification
|
|
|
|
|
`-zmqpubhashtx` the topic is `hashtx` (no null terminator) and the body is the
|
|
|
|
|
hexadecimal transaction hash (32 bytes).
|
|
|
|
|
corresponds to the notification type. For instance, for the
|
|
|
|
|
notification `-zmqpubhashtx` the topic is `hashtx` (no null
|
|
|
|
|
terminator) and the body is the hexadecimal transaction hash (32
|
|
|
|
|
bytes).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
These options can also be provided in bitcoin.conf.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@ -78,9 +81,9 @@ ZeroMQ endpoint specifiers for TCP (and others) are documented in the
|
|
|
|
|
[ZeroMQ API](http://api.zeromq.org).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Client side, then, the ZeroMQ subscriber socket must have the
|
|
|
|
|
ZMQ_SUBSCRIBE option set to one or either of these prefixes (for instance, just `hash`); without
|
|
|
|
|
doing so will result in no messages arriving. Please see `contrib/zmq/zmq_sub.py`
|
|
|
|
|
for a working example.
|
|
|
|
|
ZMQ_SUBSCRIBE option set to one or either of these prefixes (for
|
|
|
|
|
instance, just `hash`); without doing so will result in no messages
|
|
|
|
|
arriving. Please see `contrib/zmq/zmq_sub.py` for a working example.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Remarks
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@ -93,6 +96,6 @@ No authentication or authorization is done on connecting clients; it
|
|
|
|
|
is assumed that the ZeroMQ port is exposed only to trusted entities,
|
|
|
|
|
using other means such as firewalling.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note that when the block chain tip changes, a reorganisation may occur and just
|
|
|
|
|
the tip will be notified. It is up to the subscriber to retrieve the chain
|
|
|
|
|
from the last known block to the new tip.
|
|
|
|
|
Note that when the block chain tip changes, a reorganisation may occur
|
|
|
|
|
and just the tip will be notified. It is up to the subscriber to
|
|
|
|
|
retrieve the chain from the last known block to the new tip.
|
|
|
|
|