Building on #10102, this adds an -ipcconnect option to bitcoin-wallet and an -ipcbind option to bitcoin-node (both enabled by default in multiprocess builds) so bitcoin node will listen on a <datadir>/sockets/node.sock unix socket, and bitcoin-wallet will connect to it.
The idea is that bitcoin-wallet can be extended in the future to have some online functionality. For example, there could be a bitcoin-wallet sync command that will update balances and sync latest transactions to an unloaded wallet, or a bitcoin-wallet serve subcommand that loads a wallet and serves RPC requests, or a bitcoin-wallet shell subcommand that allows running RPC methods interactively like the GUI console, or just general support for bitcoin-wallet <rpc method> <rpc params> invocations suggested #13926 (comment).
This PR is small and doesn't do much. The only visible change is that bitcoin-wallet now checks whether a node socket exists on startup and prints "Connected to IPC address" if it can connect it it.
The default bitcoin-wallet connect option is -ipcconnect=auto, which connects if possible as described above, and proceeds offline if not possible. Other supported options are -noipcconnect to disable ipc, -ipcconnect to require a connection and fail if it can't be established, and -ipcconnect=unix:<socket> to require a connection and use a custom socket path.
These changes require multiprocess support and this PR has no effect unless bitcoin is configured with --enable-multiprocess as described in doc/multiprocess.md
#25722 (refactor: Use util::Result class for wallet loading by ryanofsky)
#25665 (refactor: Add util::Result failure types and ability to merge result values by ryanofsky)
#24230 (indexes: Stop using node internal types and locking cs_main, improve sync logic by ryanofsky)
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.
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<sup>2026-04-01 11:27:32</sup>
DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Jul 11, 2020
ryanofsky force-pushed on Jul 14, 2020
ryanofsky
commented at 1:55 PM on July 14, 2020:
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DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Jul 14, 2020
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jonasschnelli
commented at 8:02 AM on December 18, 2020:
contributor
Impressive change. Again!
Conceptual I'm not yet convinced.
My understanding is/was that bitcoin-wallet is an offline wallet exploring and manipulation tool without the requirement of a node or online connectivity.
Things that require a node, should IMO go into wallet RPC calls.
But my conceptual understanding might be old and rusty (happy to get convinced).
Things like bitcoin-wallet shell would be nice though. I guess we would just need to make sure the IPC/node option is completely optional and thus the offline functionality (for things that can work offline) is still guaranteed.
Or is this also an attempt to decouple the wallet from the node (in the long run)?
DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Dec 18, 2020
ryanofsky
commented at 11:34 AM on December 18, 2020:
contributor
My understanding is/was that bitcoin-wallet is an offline wallet exploring and manipulation tool without the requirement of a node or online connectivity.
To address any concern here, there's no thought of changing this. This PR gives bitcoin-wallet tool ability to do online things as well as offline things. It doesn't require a node or take away the ability to do offline things. Even if you require separate bitcoin-wallet-online-stuff and bitcoin-wallet-offline-only binaries, it only needs build changes not code changes (a new automake entry and src/init/bitcoin-wallet-offline-only.cpp stub)
Make sure to run all tests locally, according to the documentation.
The failure may happen due to a number of reasons, for example:
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incompatible with the current code in the target branch). If so, make sure to rebase on the latest
commit of the target branch.
A sanitizer issue, which can only be found by compiling with the sanitizer and running the
affected test.
An intermittent issue.
Leave a comment here, if you need help tracking down a confusing failure.
</details>
DrahtBot added the label CI failed on Jul 26, 2024
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ryanofsky
commented at 8:26 PM on March 19, 2025:
contributor
Updated 240bc4798a3c4e991e153d6660509c78323fe937 -> ce32dc3958c9e3610bd7113551a8a43396d0019d (pr/ipc-connect.42 -> pr/ipc-connect.43, compare) to fix CI failure in tool_wallet.py https://cirrus-ci.com/task/4513424845045760 where bitcoin-wallet throws an exception because the temporary directory name is too long and it causes a "Unix address path "..." exceeded maximum socket path length" error
Rebased ce32dc3958c9e3610bd7113551a8a43396d0019d -> 511f5a9be75b2e07dd45f497206b6fa844ef58a8 (pr/ipc-connect.43 -> pr/ipc-connect.44, compare) on top of updated base pr/ipc.216
Try to run the tests locally, according to the documentation. However, a CI failure may still
happen due to a number of reasons, for example:
Possibly due to a silent merge conflict (the changes in this pull request being
incompatible with the current code in the target branch). If so, make sure to rebase on the latest
commit of the target branch.
A sanitizer issue, which can only be found by compiling with the sanitizer and running the
affected test.
An intermittent issue.
Leave a comment here, if you need help tracking down a confusing failure.
</details>
DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Dec 4, 2025
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ryanofsky force-pushed on Jan 7, 2026
DrahtBot removed the label CI failed on Jan 7, 2026
DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Feb 4, 2026
Squashed 'src/ipc/libmultiprocess/' changes from 70f632bda8f..6d796edac65
6d796edac65 tidy fix: modernize-use-nullptr
c206f8328c7 mpgen: support primitive std::optional struct fields
46df71115ed mpgen refactor: add AccessorType function
a4b85dabd84 mpgen refactor: Move field handling code to FieldList class
git-subtree-dir: src/ipc/libmultiprocess
git-subtree-split: 6d796edac652292a020bd976cffaa866c9d140f4
c4c677ce91
Merge commit 'c4c677ce917b418249e915b9f67663e75a5a6847' into pr/ipc-chain5467330635
Add capnp serialization code for bitcoin types
- Add capnp ToBlob, ToArray, Wrap, Serialize, and Unserialize helper functions
- Add support for std::chrono::seconds capnp serialization
- Add support for util::Result capnp serialization
2312d50a72
Add capnp wrapper for Handler interface5b6d662d48
Add capnp wrapper for Chain interface1c9dcf2f39
multiprocess: Expose Chain interface
Expose Chain interface to external processes spawning or connecting to
bitcoin-node.
6833d5f2b4
Merge branch 'pr/ipc-chain' into pr/ipcfb04f4f44d
test: Increase feature_block.py and feature_taproot.py timeouts
Needed because BlockConnected notifications are a lot slower with the wallet
running in separate process.
88d808a21c
test: Fix multiprocess test for unclean shutdown on killf1e44dd622
util: Add util::Result workaround to be compatible with libmultiprocess
Make default constructor more generic so it doesn't only work with void types.
db547dd306
multiprocess: Add capnp serialization code for bitcoin typesd31f8b83ff
interfaces, refactor: Change WalletLoader::restoreWallet parameter order
Libmultiprocess requires output parameters to be ordered after input parameter,
so move warnings parameter last. Problematic order was introduced in
4ec2d18a0734f44c0a74f05b59ad1269d323dfdb from
https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gui/pull/877
a56861a481
multiprocess: Add capnp wrapper for Wallet interface1a512710ca
multiprocess: Add capnp wrapper for Node interface269afc10c0
multiprocess: Make bitcoin-gui spawn a bitcoin-node process
Spawn node subprocess instead of running node code internally
6155c8218e
multiprocess: Make bitcoin-node spawn a bitcoin-wallet process
Spawn wallet subprocess instead of running wallet code internally
783b01f5da
multiprocess: Add debug.log .wallet/.gui suffixes
Add .wallet/.gui suffixes to log files created by bitcoin-gui and
bitcoin-wallet processes so they don't clash with bitcoin-node log file.
f15fe6936c
doc: Multiprocess misc doc and comment updatesbcef963a0c
Add `-ipcconnect` option to `bitcoin-wallet` to allow connecting to a bitcoin
node process over IPC. The `bitcoin-wallet` tool doesn't really do anything with its
connection to the node yet, but it could potentially run or serve RPCs that
require being online.
Example usage:
src/bitcoin-node -regtest -debug -ipcbind=unix
src/bitcoin-wallet -regtest -ipcconnect=unix info
9e32a69187
ryanofsky force-pushed on Apr 1, 2026
DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Apr 1, 2026
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