eris-db is Eris' blockchain-client. It consists of a Tendermint node wrapped by a simple server. Tendermint is a blockchain-client with a PoS consensus system for agreeing on blocks. This makes it perfect for Eris chains.

The server allows requests to be made over HTTP - either using JSON-RPC 2.0 or a RESTlike web-api - and websocket (JSON-RPC 2.0). The documentation can be found here. We also have javascript bindings for the RPC methods in erisdb-js.

There are no binary downloads, and probably won't be before 1.0.

Make sure you have the proper Go distribution for your OS and architecture. The recommended version is 1.4.2. Follow the instructions on how to set up GOROOT and GOPATH.

You will also need the following libraries: git, mercurial, libgmp3-dev

On Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install git mercurial libgmp3-dev

Next you pull in the code:

go get github.com/eris-ltd/eris-db/cmd/erisdb

This will build and install the erisdb executable and put it in $GOPATH/bin, which should be on your PATH. If not, then add it.

To run erisdb, just type $ erisdb /path/to/working/folder

This will start the node using the provided folder as working dir. If the path is omitted it defaults to ~/.erisdb

The server itself run on Windows, and it is possible to tweak Tendermint so that it works on Windows too (did so myself, mostly just some network and file stuff), but we do not recommend that. Eris programs are supposed to run on Linux; preferably through docker. One reason for this is security. The new eris command-line tool (formerly epm) will make the management of these containers easy.

Tendermint officially supports only 64 bit Ubuntu.

Work in progress.

$ ./docker_build.sh to build the image. After that, use $ ./docker_run.sh to run with the default workdir (/home/.eris/.eris-db).

The simplest way to get started is by simply running $ erisdb. That will start a fresh node with ~/.erisdb as the working directory, and the default settings. You will be asked to type in a hostname, which could be anything. anonymous is a commonly used one.

Once the server has started, it will begin syncing up with the network. At that point you may begin using it. The preferred way is through our javascript api, but it is possible to connect directly via HTTP or websocket. The JSON-RPC and web-api reference can be found here.

There will be more info on how to set up a private net when this is added to Tendermint. That would include information about the various different fields in config.toml, genesis.json, and priv_validator.json.

The server configuration file looks like this:

[bind]
  address= <string>
  port= <number>
[TLS]
  tls= <boolean>
  cert_path= <string>
  key_path= <string>
[CORS]
  enable            <boolean>
  allow_origins     <[]string>
  allow_credentials <boolean>
  allow_methods     <[]string>
  allow_headers     <[]string>
  expose_headers    <[]string>
  max_age           <number>
[HTTP]
  json_rpc_endpoint= <string>
[web_socket]
  websocket_endpoint= <string>
  max_websocket_sessions= <number>
  read_buffer_size = <number>
  write_buffer_size = <number>
[logging]
  console_log_level= <string>
  file_log_level= <string>
  log_file= <string>

NOTE: CORS and TLS are not yet fully implemented, and cannot be used. CORS is implemented through gin middleware, and TLS through the standard Go http package via the graceful library.

• address is the address.
• port is the port number

• tls is used to enable/disable TLS
• cert_path is the absolute path to the certificate file.
• key_path is the absolute path to the key file.

• enable is whether or not the CORS middleware should be added at all.

Details about the other fields and how this is implemented can be found here.

• json_rpc_endpoint is the name of the endpoint used for JSON-RPC (2.0) over HTTP.

• websocket_endpoint is the name of the endpoint that is used to establish a websocket connection.
• max_websocket_connections is the maximum number of websocket connections that is allowed at the same time.
• read_buffer_size is the size of the read buffer for each socket in bytes.
• read_buffer_size is the size of the write buffer for each socket in bytes.

• console_log_level is the logging level used for the console.
• file_log_level is the logging level used for the log file.
• log_file is the path to the log file. Leaving this empty means file logging will not be used.

The possible log levels are these: crit, error, warn, info, debug.

The server log level will override the log level set in the Tendermint config.toml.

[bind]
address="0.0.0.0"
port=1337
[TLS]
tls=false
cert_path=""
key_path=""
[CORS]
enable=false
allow_origins=[]
allow_credentials=false
allow_methods=[]
allow_headers=[]
expose_headers=[]
max_age=0
[HTTP]
json_rpc_endpoint="/rpc"
[web_socket]
websocket_endpoint="/socketrpc"
max_websocket_sessions=50
read_buffer_size = 2048
write_buffer_size = 2048
[logging]
console_log_level="info"
file_log_level="warn"
log_file=""

The library includes a "server-server". This server accepts POST requests with some chain data (such as priv_validator.json and genesis.json), and will use that to create a new working directory in the temp folder, write the data, deploy a new node in that folder, generate a port, use it to serve that node and then pass the url back in the response. It will also manage all the servers and shut them down as they become inactive.

NOTE: This is not safe in production, as it requires private keys to be passed over a network, but it is useful when doing tests. If the same chain data is used, then each node is guaranteed to give the same output (for the same input) when calling the methods.

To start one up, just run go install in the erisdb/cmd/erisdbss directory, then run erisdbss. It takes no parameters. There are many examples on how to call it in the javascript library, and if people find it useful there will be a tutorial.

Run using go test as usual. There are 3 tiers of tests:

• Tier 1 is unit tests of components, such as the http/websocket servers, query parser and event cache.
• Tier 2 is a full client-server test of erisdb using a mock implementation of the Pipe.
• Tier 3 is a full client-server test of erisdb using a live node.

More tests will be added continuously.

The tests uses test data in JSON form. This means the same data can be used to do integration tests with clients; whether it's our own javascript client (it uses the server-server btw) or if we or someone else decides to create clients in other languages.

As of 0.9.0, the test-data needs to be cleaned up a bit, and there really should be some tools available for generating new sets. It will probably take a few minor versions before it is convenient to work with.

As of 0.9.0, there are no benchmarks. We aim to have a framework built before 1.0.