Following on from last week’s “soft launch” local testnet announcement, today’s dev update will solely consist of the bug fixing progress. We still have a couple of outstanding issues which we would like to investigate further before considering the network stable enough to host a public testnet for everyone. With the majority of the team already enjoying some well deserved rest, we believe it will be the New Year before we next update you on our progress.
Bug Fixes
Here’s a list of fixes we’ve implemented over the past 7 days:
- sn_api: known issue in authorising CLI, as reported in last week’s dev update, was solved - PR 659
- sn_cli: fix
$ safe updatecommand as it was not looking up in the correct URL - PR 660 - sn_cli: change the default number of nodes launched by
$ safe node run-baby-flemingcommand to 11 (eleven nodes) - also PR 660 - sn_cli: install script had an issue for Mac users - PR 661
- sn_node: return Balance(0) when no db found - PR 1188
These fixes have resulted in new versions of the CLI, sn_authd and sn_node since last week’s update. One issue discovered was with the CLI update command itself, therefore you’ll need to re-install the CLI rather than update it. You can do this by following the instructions in the download section of the User Guide, i.e.:
$ curl -so- https://sn-api.s3.amazonaws.com/install.sh | bash
With the latest CLI (v0.17.0) installed, you can re-install authd (v0.0.13) and sn_node (0.25.18), or simply update them with the following two commands:
$ safe auth update
$ safe node update
Once these three are updated, your local testnet can be launched again, as described below.
Creating Your Own Local Testnet
Once you have installed the latest CLI, authd and node, you can launch a local network following the steps below:
$ safe node run-baby-fleming
This will launch 11 nodes on your machine: 6 adults and 5 elders.
We can also add further nodes to the network, this is achieved using safe node join as follows.
Note that you may need to set the RUST_LOG environment variable before starting your node to prevent the logs from being too verbose.
## for Linux and Mac OS
$ export RUST_LOG=sn_node=trace
## Windows (command prompt)
$ set RUST_LOG=trace
## Windows (powershell)
$ $env:RUST_LOG="sn_node=trace"
And then start the node with:
$ safe node join
Storing nodes' generated data at ~/.safe/node/local-node
Starting a node to join a Safe network...
Launching with node executable from: ~/.safe/node/sn_node
Node started with hardcoded contact(s): ["127.0.0.1:12000"]
Launching node...
Node logs are being stored at: ~/.safe/node/local-node/sn_node.log
Your node will now launch and attempt to connect to your local network. You can keep an eye on its progress via its logs, which can be found at ~/.safe/node/local-node/sn_node.log.
Before working your way through the CLI commands to perform various actions on the network, remember to authenticate and create your Safe.
Known Issues
-
Inter-section messages have been observed being dropped. This seems to occur when the network goes through high loads while testing and the messaging breaks after a certain point. We think this could be related to the OOM issue mentioned below, therefore we’d need to take a closer look at the underlying mechanics just to be sure we aren’t missing anything critical.
-
Over time a node’s memory use continues increasing and would eventually lead to out of memory. Initial investigations show that this is primarily down to logging, which is not deallocating as it should, but requires further investigation.
Where can I report any issues found?
Please continue to let us know if you come across any issues in your testing. You can do so by reporting these issues in the comments on this topic’s thread. We will monitor and investigate these as soon as we can.
And Finally…
With the end of the year fast approaching and the majority of the team already taking a well deserved break, we would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your help, support, encouragement, faith in the project and constructive criticism over the last year. It has been a particularly eventful year for everyone I’m sure, but you have genuinely inspired and assisted us the whole way through.
Our next official update is expected to be on Thursday, 7th January 2021.
Everyone here at MaidSafe wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May 2021 be filled with success, happiness, and prosperity for you all.
Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr
Useful Links
Feel free to reply below with links to translations of this dev update and moderators will add them here:
As an open source project, we’re always looking for feedback, comments and community contributions - so don’t be shy, join in and let’s create the Safe Network together!
Thank you all at MaidSafe and have a great Christmas break 
