geth-dev-assistant

Quickly configure and launch a geth --dev ephemeral POA network. Helpful when using geth in CI.

• Pulls a specified geth docker image from Docker Hub
• Launches a docker geth instance as a background process
• Waits until geth is ready to receive calls over http / websockets
• (Optionally) creates, unlocks and funds some password generated accounts
• (Optionally) mines blocks with no-op txs until a gas limit target is reached.

Geth --dev seeds with a single funded account and has a relatively low default block gas limit (~ 10 mil). If the client's mining period is set to 0, it needs to be spun with transactions before a higher gas limit target is reached.

Install

npm install --save-dev geth-dev-assistant

Run

npx geth-dev-assistant [options]

Usage Example

npx geth-dev-assistant \
    --tag 'latest' \
    --accounts 5 \
    --balance 50 \
    --gasLimit 12000000

# Run tests
npx mocha

# Clean-up
docker stop geth-client

Options

Option	Description	Type	Default
accounts	number of accounts to create / unlock	number	0 (use default acct)
password	for geth accounts	string	"left-hand-of-darkness"
balance	new account starting balances (in ETH)	number	100
gasLimit	block gas limit target to mine towards	number	(varies by geth version)
launch	pull and launch a geth docker instance	bool	true
repo	root docker repo (useful for forks)	string	'ethereum/client-go'
tag	geth version / docker tag to fetch	string	'stable'
offline	do not pull image from docker hub	bool	false
sleep	max seconds to wait for geth to spin up	number	10
period	automining interval	number	0 (insta-mine)
port	http port to connect to client with	number	8545
help	show help	bool	false

Other resources

• A POA network setup using genesis.json at 0xProject.
• ethnode a zero config tool to run a local Ethereum dev node (geth & parity!)
• Geth client options wiki