rpc: Input-from-stdin mode for bitcoin-cli #7550

pull laanwj wants to merge 2 commits into bitcoin:master from laanwj:2016_02_cli_stdin2 changing 2 files +25 −9

laanwj commented at 2:15 PM on February 17, 2016: member
Implements #7442 by adding an option -stdin which reads additional arguments from standard in, one per line.

For example
```
$ echo -e "mysecretcode\n120" | src/bitcoin-cli -stdin walletpassphrase
$ echo -e "walletpassphrase\nmysecretcode\n120" | src/bitcoin-cli -stdin
$ src/bitcoin-cli -stdin walletpassphrase
mysecretcode
120
^D
```
This is the simplest implementation and avoids escaping issues by using newline as separator instead of space, I first had another implementation: https://github.com/laanwj/bitcoin/commit/1f73b8e27b57c8561840cddc9f69a97475d06e85 that reuses parseCommandLine from the GUI debug console, but I think this is more useful in practice as most use of cli is probably script-driven.
laanwj added the label RPC on Feb 17, 2016
paveljanik commented at 4:30 PM on February 17, 2016: contributor
Brilliant idea!

ACK https://github.com/laanwj/bitcoin/commit/c97198db769954c4ad2b57eaf7e5335578badc00
```
pavel$ echo -e "getblockhash\n0" | bitcoin-7550/src/bitcoin-cli -stdin
000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f
pavel$ 
```
laanwj added the label Feature on Feb 17, 2016
jonasschnelli commented at 2:35 PM on February 18, 2016: contributor

Nice! Concept ACK. Plans to test this soon.
in src/bitcoin-cli.cpp:None in c97198db76 outdated
```
 244 | -        UniValue params = RPCConvertValues(strMethod, strParams);
 245 | +        std::vector<std::string> args = std::vector<std::string>(&argv[1], &argv[argc]);
 246 | +        if (GetBoolArg("-stdin", false)) {
 247 | +            // Read one arg per line from stdin and append
 248 | +            std::string line;
 249 | +            while (std::getline(std::cin,line))
```
jonasschnelli commented at 3:16 PM on February 19, 2016:

what about adding a magic work as ^D alternative? Something like "end" or "quit"?

laanwj commented at 4:47 PM on February 19, 2016:

I've thought about that. The problem is that anything could be a valid argument. I've chosen the line-per-argument, until EOL to avoid that kind of escaping issues. It's easy for scripting but yes for a user interface it's not very friendly.

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/compare/master...laanwj:2016_02_cli_stdin is better in that regard, but what makes it an easier user interface is annoying/dangerous for scripting (as you'd have to quote ' "" etc to prevent one argument from spilling into the next)
jonasschnelli commented at 8:11 AM on February 22, 2016:

Maybe adding a little ">>>" prompt and or giving a one-line-help-instruction when using -stdin (something like "enter command, arguments and use Ctrl-D to quit/execute")?

Allow quitting over "quit()" and if "exit" or "quit" has been typed, show little help line? Though, a simple one-line-help-message would probably do the job.

Python example:

:~ jonasschnelli$ python Python 2.7.10 (default, Sep 23 2015, 04:34:14) [GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 7.0.0 (clang-700.0.72)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> quit Use quit() or Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit
laanwj commented at 8:51 AM on February 24, 2016:

That would be awesome for an "interactive mode" (see #3122), but -stdin is explicitly not meant to be that, it's just to have a way to input data (say, from scripts) that isn't exposed on the command line. Printing more text will make it harder to parse the output.

jonasschnelli commented at 8:53 AM on February 24, 2016:

Agree. Was nitpick territory anyway (does not affect my tested ACK I already gave).

laanwj commented at 9:14 AM on February 24, 2016:

Right, for now, I've added a EOF/Ctrl-D mention to the -help message at least.
jonasschnelli commented at 3:18 PM on February 19, 2016: contributor

Tested ACK c97198db769954c4ad2b57eaf7e5335578badc00

Post-merge actions: add to the docs/release notes, maybe add a little test script (though, not sure if we have a test entry point for bitcoin-cli at all).

rpc: Input-from-stdin mode for bitcoin-cli

Implements #7442 by adding an option `-stdin` which reads
additional arguments from stdin, one per line.

For example

```bash
echo -e "mysecretcode\n120" | src/bitcoin-cli -stdin walletpassphrase
echo -e "walletpassphrase\nmysecretcode\n120" | src/bitcoin-cli -stdin
```

92bcca37ab

laanwj force-pushed on Feb 24, 2016
jonasschnelli commented at 9:15 AM on February 24, 2016: contributor

Re-ACK 92bcca37ab0c52789b13ebee1f4659e30f05e2b6
doc: mention bitcoin-cli -stdin in release notes f22f14c65b
laanwj merged this on Feb 24, 2016
laanwj closed this on Feb 24, 2016
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#7442 Input-from-stdin mode for bitcoin-cli #11125 Add bitcoin-cli -stdin and -stdinrpcpass functional tests