WIP: Add JSON-RPC interface documentation

promag commented at 10:38 am on October 10, 2018: member

This is poorly written and structured but I want to know if it makes sense.

The idea is not to copy -help outputs.

Closes #14448.

Follow ups:

explain named parameters
detail how to select the wallet, how -rpcwallet works, etc*
explain how deprecation works
#14458 (comment)
#14458 (review)
add related configurations while taking into account #14458 (comment)

kristapsk commented at 12:12 pm on October 10, 2018: contributor

Concept ACK

fanquake added the label Docs on Oct 10, 2018

ch4ot1c commented at 6:53 pm on October 10, 2018: contributor

Concept ACK 👍

sipa renamed this:
~~Add JSON-RCP interaface documentation~~
Add JSON-RPC interaface documentation
on Oct 11, 2018

sipa renamed this:
~~Add JSON-RPC interaface documentation~~
Add JSON-RPC interface documentation
on Oct 11, 2018

sipa commented at 8:12 pm on October 12, 2018: member

Concept ACK

in doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md:6 in 880be1c332 outdated

0@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
1+JSON-RPC Interface
2+==================
3+
4+The JSON-RPC API is by default enabled in bitcoind and disabled on bitcoin-qt.
5+This can be changed with `-noserver` and `-server` options. In bitcoin-qt it is
6+possible to issue execute RPC methods in the Debug Console Dialog.

jnewbery commented at 8:52 pm on October 12, 2018:

Remove ‘issue '

jnewbery commented at 8:54 pm on October 12, 2018: member

Concept ACK. Looks good so far!

in doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md:1 in 880be1c332 outdated

0@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
1+JSON-RPC Interface

practicalswift commented at 1:43 pm on October 13, 2018:

Please rename this file json-rpc-interface.md to make it consistent with the other files.

ch4ot1c commented at 10:12 pm on October 14, 2018:

I think matching REST-interface.md is the intention - should it be lowercase too?

in doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md:12 in 880be1c332 outdated

 7+
 8+*Add some basic examples like:*
 9+
10+*To see the available methods use `bitcoin-cli -regtest help`*
11+
12+#### Server Configuration

practicalswift commented at 1:45 pm on October 13, 2018:

Increment header levels one level at a time. You might want to use mdl to check the Markdown formatting :-)

promag renamed this:
~~Add JSON-RPC interface documentation~~
WIP: Add JSON-RPC interface documentation
on Oct 20, 2018

DrahtBot commented at 3:39 pm on October 28, 2018: member

#14592 (doc: Add external interface consistency guarantees by MarcoFalke)

If you consider this pull request important, please also help to review the conflicting pull requests. Ideally, start with the one that should be merged first.

DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Nov 1, 2018

laanwj commented at 2:50 pm on January 15, 2019: member

@harding might want to have a look here as this adds technical documentation

promag force-pushed on Jan 15, 2019

DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Jan 15, 2019

promag commented at 3:21 pm on January 15, 2019: member

Rebased, still WIP though. One way to move this forward is to improve in smaller PR’s.

Sjors commented at 3:27 pm on January 15, 2019: member

Concept ACK on general documentation of how to use the RPC, as well as maybe providing more context for specific issues.

However, I’m worried that maintaining this list of bitcoind options is going to get out of sync. I would prefer a release-time script that turns man pages into mark down: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/man/bitcoind.1

in doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md:5 in 29eb75d18f outdated

1@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
2 
3 The headless daemon `bitcoind` has the JSON-RPC API enabled by default, the GUI
4 `bitcoin-qt` has it disabled by default. This can be changed with the `-server`
5-option. In the GUI it is possible to execute RPC methods in the Debug Console
6-Dialog.
7+or `-noserver` options. In the GUI it is possible to execute RPC methods in the

MarcoFalke commented at 3:34 pm on January 15, 2019:

noserver is not a separate option

harding commented at 9:23 pm on January 21, 2019: contributor

Suggestion: the document could mention that Bitcoin Core allows money values to be passed as either a float or a string. That’s an unexpected feature, but one that can be quite nice for users of JSON implementations that aren’t good at high-precision.

laanwj referenced this in commit 5eb32d2384 on Jan 24, 2019

in doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md:42 in 29eb75d18f outdated

35@@ -36,3 +36,113 @@ However, the wallet may not be up-to-date with the current state of the mempool
36 or the state of the mempool by an RPC that returned before this RPC. For
37 example, a wallet transaction that was BIP-125-replaced in the mempool prior to
38 this RPC may not yet be reflected as such in this RPC response.
39+
40+## Basic usage
41+
42+Launch the daemin in the background:

fanquake commented at 1:51 am on February 17, 2019:

s/daemin/daemon

Sjors commented at 8:12 am on February 19, 2019:

Nit / later: explain that as an alternative you can run the daemon in one tab and use bitcoin-cli in another. That way you can keep an eye on logs. Or just mention tail -f <datadir>/<testnet3 or regtest>/debug.log

See also #15438.

in doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md:140 in 29eb75d18f outdated

135+-rpcwallet=<walletname>
136+     Send RPC for non-default wallet on RPC server (needs to exactly match
137+     corresponding -wallet option passed to bitcoind)
138+```
139+
140+*Also talk about named parameters?*

Sjors commented at 8:20 am on February 19, 2019:

This should go away if we merge it for for the 0.18 release.

Sjors commented at 8:21 am on February 19, 2019: member

ACK. I suggest we remove the “todo” comments, merge this and improve it after the 0.18 release.

doc: Improve JSON-RCP interaface documentation fa90c0c377

promag force-pushed on Apr 14, 2019

promag commented at 9:54 am on April 14, 2019: member

Rebased and removed configurations section, kind of agree with @Sjors #14458 (comment). What left isn’t worth I think, so closing.

promag closed this on Apr 14, 2019

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WIP: Add JSON-RPC interface documentation #14458