net: don’t perform network activity when networkactive=0 #34467

1. 
   saksham-1304 commented at 11:44 pm on January 30, 2026: none

   Problem

   When starting bitcoind with -networkactive=0, the node still performs various network activities despite the user explicitly requesting that the P2P network be inactive. This results in unnecessary log messages and network overhead:

   • [addrman] Selected IP:PORT from tried - Address manager selections
   • [net:error] Could not get best interface for default route - Gateway detection attempts
   • [tor] Error connecting to Tor control socket - Tor control connection attempts
   • [tor] Not connected to Tor control port - Tor reconnection attempts
   • [net] portmap: Could not determine IPv4/IPv6 default gateway - UPnP/NAT-PMP attempts

   This defeats the purpose of the -networkactive flag, which is documented as “Enable all P2P network activity (default: 1)”.

   Steps to Reproduce

   1. Start bitcoind with bitcoind.exe -networkactive=0
   2. Observe logs - despite the flag being set to disable network activity, addrman selections and network-related errors are logged

   Expected Behavior

   No network activity should occur when -networkactive=0 is set at startup. The node should remain idle until network is activated via RPC command setnetworkactive true.

   Solution

   This PR ensures that when networkactive=0, no network initialization or activity occurs by:

   1. ThreadOpenConnections (src/net.cpp)

   Added a check at the beginning of the main while loop to pause all outbound connection logic when fNetworkActive is false. This prevents:

   • Address selection from addrman
   • Connection attempts to peers
   • Feeler connections
   • Block relay connection attempts

   This check follows the existing pattern used for DNS seed querying (lines 2345-2349) and uses the same synchronization mechanism (fNetworkActive atomic flag and sleep_for with interruption support).

   2. StartMapPort (src/init.cpp)

   Made NAT-PMP port mapping startup conditional on -networkactive being true. This prevents:

   • Port mapping initialization
   • Gateway detection attempts
   • Related network errors and log spam

   3. StartTorControl (src/init.cpp)

   Made Tor control thread startup conditional on -networkactive being true. This prevents:

   • Tor control socket connection attempts
   • Tor-related error logs
   • Unnecessary event loop setup

   Testing

   The fix has been verified to:

   • Compile without errors or warnings
   • Follow existing code patterns and conventions used in the same functions
   • Use the same argument parsing method as existing code (args.GetBoolArg("-networkactive", true))
   • Respect the interruption mechanism used throughout the codebase

   Manual Testing

   0# Start with networkactive=0 - should see no network activity logs
   1bitcoind -networkactive=0
   2
   3# Start with networkactive=1 (default) - normal behavior
   4bitcoind
   

   Affected Code Paths src/net.cpp: CConnman::ThreadOpenConnections() - Main connection management loop src/init.cpp Bitcoin Core initialization - MapPort and TorControl startup

   Notes This change is backward compatible - default behavior (networkactive=1) is unchanged Dynamic network activation via setnetworkactive true RPC will resume ThreadOpenConnections activity MapPort and TorControl remain stopped if started with networkactive=0 (can be addressed in follow-up if needed for dynamic activation)

   Fixes #34190

2. net: don't perform network activity when networkactive=0

   When starting bitcoind with -networkactive=0, various network activities
   should not occur, including:
   - Address selection from addrman
   - NAT-PMP port mapping attempts
   - Tor control socket connection attempts
   
   Fix this by:
   1. Adding a check in ThreadOpenConnections to pause the main outbound
      connection loop when fNetworkActive is false, preventing unnecessary
      addrman selections and connection attempts
   2. Making StartMapPort conditional on -networkactive flag
   3. Making StartTorControl conditional on -networkactive flag
   
   Fixes #34190

   717d6ce3bb
3. saksham-1304 requested review from Copilot on Jan 30, 2026
4. DrahtBot added the label P2P on Jan 30, 2026
5. 
   DrahtBot commented at 11:44 pm on January 30, 2026: contributor

   The following sections might be updated with supplementary metadata relevant to reviewers and maintainers.

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   Conflicts

   Reviewers, this pull request conflicts with the following ones:

   • #34486 (net: Reduce local network activity when networkactive=0 by willcl-ark)

   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.

6. 
   Copilot commented at 0:26 am on January 31, 2026: none

   Copilot encountered an error and was unable to review this pull request. You can try again by re-requesting a review.
7. 
   luke-jr commented at 4:19 pm on February 2, 2026: member

   Those aren’t strictly P2P network activity, but I guess it makes sense.
8. 
   saksham-1304 commented at 11:18 pm on February 6, 2026: none

   @luke-jr Sir can you please guide me what should i do further wrt this PR?

Contributors
saksham-1304 DrahtBot Copilot luke-jr

Labels
P2P