Automated builds are available for stable releases and the unstable master branch. Binary
archives are published at https://geth.ethereum.org/downloads/.
## Building the source
For prerequisites and detailed build instructions please read the [Installation Instructions](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Building-Ethereum) on the wiki.
Building `geth` requires both a Go (version 1.13 or later) and a C compiler. You can install
them using your favourite package manager. Once the dependencies are installed, run
```shell
make geth
```
or, to build the full suite of utilities:
```shell
make all
```
## Executables
The go-ethereum project comes with several wrappers/executables found in the `cmd`
| **`geth`** | Our main Ethereum CLI client. It is the entry point into the Ethereum network (main-, test- or private net), capable of running as a full node (default), archive node (retaining all historical state) or a light node (retrieving data live). It can be used by other processes as a gateway into the Ethereum network via JSON RPC endpoints exposed on top of HTTP, WebSocket and/or IPC transports. `geth --help` and the [CLI Wiki page](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Command-Line-Options) for command line options. |
| `abigen` | Source code generator to convert Ethereum contract definitions into easy to use, compile-time type-safe Go packages. It operates on plain [Ethereum contract ABIs](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Ethereum-Contract-ABI) with expanded functionality if the contract bytecode is also available. However, it also accepts Solidity source files, making development much more streamlined. Please see our [Native DApps](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Native-DApps:-Go-bindings-to-Ethereum-contracts) wiki page for details. |
| `bootnode` | Stripped down version of our Ethereum client implementation that only takes part in the network node discovery protocol, but does not run any of the higher level application protocols. It can be used as a lightweight bootstrap node to aid in finding peers in private networks. |
| `evm` | Developer utility version of the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) that is capable of running bytecode snippets within a configurable environment and execution mode. Its purpose is to allow isolated, fine-grained debugging of EVM opcodes (e.g. `evm --code 60ff60ff --debug run`). |
| `gethrpctest` | Developer utility tool to support our [ethereum/rpc-test](https://github.com/ethereum/rpc-tests) test suite which validates baseline conformity to the [Ethereum JSON RPC](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JSON-RPC) specs. Please see the [test suite's readme](https://github.com/ethereum/rpc-tests/blob/master/README.md) for details. |
| `rlpdump` | Developer utility tool to convert binary RLP ([Recursive Length Prefix](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/RLP)) dumps (data encoding used by the Ethereum protocol both network as well as consensus wise) to user-friendlier hierarchical representation (e.g. `rlpdump --hex CE0183FFFFFFC4C304050583616263`). |
| `puppeth` | a CLI wizard that aids in creating a new Ethereum network. |
## Running `geth`
Going through all the possible command line flags is out of scope here (please consult our
[CLI Wiki page](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Command-Line-Options)),
but we've enumerated a few common parameter combos to get you up to speed quickly
on how you can run your own `geth` instance.
### Full node on the main Ethereum network
By far the most common scenario is people wanting to simply interact with the Ethereum
network: create accounts; transfer funds; deploy and interact with contracts. For this
particular use-case the user doesn't care about years-old historical data, so we can
fast-sync quickly to the current state of the network. To do so:
```shell
$ geth console
```
This command will:
* Start `geth` in fast sync mode (default, can be changed with the `--syncmode` flag),
causing it to download more data in exchange for avoiding processing the entire history
of the Ethereum network, which is very CPU intensive.
* Start up `geth`'s built-in interactive [JavaScript console](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/JavaScript-Console),
(via the trailing `console` subcommand) through which you can invoke all official [`web3` methods](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JavaScript-API)
as well as `geth`'s own [management APIs](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Management-APIs).
This tool is optional and if you leave it out you can always attach to an already running
`geth` instance with `geth attach`.
### A Full node on the Görli test network
Transitioning towards developers, if you'd like to play around with creating Ethereum
contracts, you almost certainly would like to do that without any real money involved until
you get the hang of the entire system. In other words, instead of attaching to the main
network, you want to join the **test** network with your node, which is fully equivalent to
the main network, but with play-Ether only.
```shell
$ geth --goerli console
```
The `console` subcommand has the exact same meaning as above and they are equally
useful on the testnet too. Please, see above for their explanations if you've skipped here.
Specifying the `--goerli` flag, however, will reconfigure your `geth` instance a bit:
* Instead of connecting the main Ethereum network, the client will connect to the Görli
test network, which uses different P2P bootnodes, different network IDs and genesis
states.
* Instead of using the default data directory (`~/.ethereum` on Linux for example), `geth`
will nest itself one level deeper into a `goerli` subfolder (`~/.ethereum/goerli` on
Linux). Note, on OSX and Linux this also means that attaching to a running testnet node
requires the use of a custom endpoint since `geth attach` will try to attach to a
production node endpoint by default, e.g.,
`geth attach <datadir>/goerli/geth.ipc`. Windows users are not affected by
this.
*Note: Although there are some internal protective measures to prevent transactions from
crossing over between the main network and test network, you should make sure to always
use separate accounts for play-money and real-money. Unless you manually move
accounts, `geth` will by default correctly separate the two networks and will not make any
accounts available between them.*
### Full node on the Rinkeby test network
Go Ethereum also supports connecting to the older proof-of-authority based test network
called [*Rinkeby*](https://www.rinkeby.io) which is operated by members of the community.
```shell
$ geth --rinkeby console
```
### Full node on the Ropsten test network
In addition to Görli and Rinkeby, Geth also supports the ancient Ropsten testnet. The
Ropsten test network is based on the Ethash proof-of-work consensus algorithm. As such,
it has certain extra overhead and is more susceptible to reorganization attacks due to the
network's low difficulty/security.
```shell
$ geth --ropsten console
```
*Note: Older Geth configurations store the Ropsten database in the `testnet` subdirectory.*
### Configuration
As an alternative to passing the numerous flags to the `geth` binary, you can also pass a
configuration file via:
```shell
$ geth --config /path/to/your_config.toml
```
To get an idea how the file should look like you can use the `dumpconfig` subcommand to
export your existing configuration:
```shell
$ geth --your-favourite-flags dumpconfig
```
*Note: This works only with `geth` v1.6.0 and above.*
#### Docker quick start
One of the quickest ways to get Ethereum up and running on your machine is by using
Docker:
```shell
docker run -d --name ethereum-node -v /Users/alice/ethereum:/root \
-p 8545:8545 -p 30303:30303 \
ethereum/client-go
```
This will start `geth` in fast-sync mode with a DB memory allowance of 1GB just as the
above command does. It will also create a persistent volume in your home directory for
saving your blockchain as well as map the default ports. There is also an `alpine` tag
available for a slim version of the image.
Do not forget `--rpcaddr 0.0.0.0`, if you want to access RPC from other containers
and/or hosts. By default, `geth` binds to the local interface and RPC endpoints is not
accessible from the outside.
### Programmatically interfacing `geth` nodes
As a developer, sooner rather than later you'll want to start interacting with `geth` and the
Ethereum network via your own programs and not manually through the console. To aid
this, `geth` has built-in support for a JSON-RPC based APIs ([standard APIs](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JSON-RPC)
and [`geth` specific APIs](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Management-APIs)).
These can be exposed via HTTP, WebSockets and IPC (UNIX sockets on UNIX based
platforms, and named pipes on Windows).
The IPC interface is enabled by default and exposes all the APIs supported by `geth`,
whereas the HTTP and WS interfaces need to manually be enabled and only expose a
subset of APIs due to security reasons. These can be turned on/off and configured as
you'd expect.
HTTP based JSON-RPC API options:
*`--rpc` Enable the HTTP-RPC server
*`--rpcaddr` HTTP-RPC server listening interface (default: `localhost`)
*`--rpcport` HTTP-RPC server listening port (default: `8545`)
*`--rpcapi` API's offered over the HTTP-RPC interface (default: `eth,net,web3`)
*`--rpccorsdomain` Comma separated list of domains from which to accept cross origin requests (browser enforced)
*`--ws` Enable the WS-RPC server
*`--wsaddr` WS-RPC server listening interface (default: `localhost`)
*`--wsport` WS-RPC server listening port (default: `8546`)
*`--wsapi` API's offered over the WS-RPC interface (default: `eth,net,web3`)
*`--wsorigins` Origins from which to accept websockets requests
*`--ipcdisable` Disable the IPC-RPC server
*`--ipcapi` API's offered over the IPC-RPC interface (default: `admin,debug,eth,miner,net,personal,shh,txpool,web3`)
*`--ipcpath` Filename for IPC socket/pipe within the datadir (explicit paths escape it)
You'll need to use your own programming environments' capabilities (libraries, tools, etc) to
connect via HTTP, WS or IPC to a `geth` node configured with the above flags and you'll
need to speak [JSON-RPC](https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification) on all transports. You
can reuse the same connection for multiple requests!
**Note: Please understand the security implications of opening up an HTTP/WS based
transport before doing so! Hackers on the internet are actively trying to subvert
Ethereum nodes with exposed APIs! Further, all browser tabs can access locally
running web servers, so malicious web pages could try to subvert locally available
APIs!**
### Operating a private network
Maintaining your own private network is more involved as a lot of configurations taken for
granted in the official networks need to be manually set up.
#### Defining the private genesis state
First, you'll need to create the genesis state of your networks, which all nodes need to be
aware of and agree upon. This consists of a small JSON file (e.g. call it `genesis.json`):
* Code must be documented adhering to the official Go [commentary](https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#commentary)
guidelines.
* Pull requests need to be based on and opened against the `master` branch.
* Commit messages should be prefixed with the package(s) they modify.
* E.g. "eth, rpc: make trace configs optional"
Please see the [Developers' Guide](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Developers'-Guide)
for more details on configuring your environment, and testing procedures, also see [golang modules](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Modules) for managing project dependencies.
## License
The go-ethereum library (i.e. all code outside of the `cmd` directory) is licensed under the
[GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.en.html),
also included in our repository in the `COPYING.LESSER` file.
The go-ethereum binaries (i.e. all code inside of the `cmd` directory) is licensed under the
[GNU General Public License v3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html), also