Deprecate wallet generate RPC method #14299

1. 
   jnewbery commented at 1:42 pm on September 23, 2018: member

   The generate RPC method:

   • was introduced in 2010
   • is now only used for testing
   • reaches across multiple components (wallet, mining)

   I propose we remove the wallet generate RPC method and update all tests to use the generatetoaddress RPC method. We can do this non-invasively in the test framework by adding a generate method to TestNode so that the individual tests do not need to be updated. We could also add a generate alias to the generatetoaddress RPC method.

   Doing this removes a wallet->server dependency and simplifies the wallet->server interface (#10973).

   I’m opening this issue before implementing in case anyone has objections.

2. fanquake added the label Tests on Sep 23, 2018
3. fanquake added the label RPC/REST/ZMQ on Sep 23, 2018
4. 
   sipa commented at 4:12 pm on September 23, 2018: member

   Sounds great to me.
5. 
   promag commented at 5:30 pm on September 23, 2018: member

   ACK. Deprecate in 0.18, remove in 0.19?
6. 
   MarcoFalke commented at 8:54 pm on September 24, 2018: member

   We can do this non-invasively in the test framework by adding a generate method to TestNode so that the individual tests do not need to be updated.

   I have no objections when done this way.

7. 
   jnewbery commented at 9:56 pm on September 24, 2018: member

   Thanks for the input! @laanwj - any thoughts on this? I suppose some people use generate for manual testing, but that can easily be replaced by something like bitcoin-cli generatetoaddress 1 $(bitcoin-cli getnewaddress)
8. fanquake added this to the milestone 0.18.0 on Oct 13, 2018
9. 
   laanwj commented at 10:16 am on October 16, 2018: member

   if the existence of the method is a problem architecturally I’m not opposed to removing it, it’s “only” a testing method so it should affect less users than the other deprecations
10. 
    promag commented at 10:24 am on October 16, 2018: member

    We could also add a generate alias to the generatetoaddress RPC method. @jnewbery you mean an alias on the server? that would make it depend on the wallet?

11. 
    laanwj commented at 10:45 am on October 16, 2018: member

    nah, if you’re going to change the API anyway, might as well really deprecate it, adding an alias to a different command probably just adds confusion

    the workaround is good enough:

    0bitcoin-cli generatetoaddress 1 $(bitcoin-cli getnewaddress)
    

12. 
    laanwj commented at 11:15 am on October 16, 2018: member

    was introduced in 2010

    FYI (not a comment on this issue), generate was introduced in 2015 in #5957, not in 2010. Before that time there were setgenerate and friends

13. MarcoFalke closed this on Oct 23, 2018

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Contributors
jnewbery sipa promag MarcoFalke laanwj

Labels
Tests RPC/REST/ZMQ

Milestone
0.18.0