From fa77aaa5ad21563dd18ce3e407d391d37ac8c201 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: MarcoFalke Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2018 09:13:05 -0400 Subject: doc: Add external interface consistency guarantees --- doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md | 38 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 38 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md (limited to 'doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md') diff --git a/doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md b/doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..59df54156 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +# JSON-RPC Interface + +The headless daemon `bitcoind` has the JSON-RPC API enabled by default, the GUI +`bitcoin-qt` has it disabled by default. This can be changed with the `-server` +option. In the GUI it is possible to execute RPC methods in the Debug Console +Dialog. + +## RPC consistency guarantees + +State that can be queried via RPCs is guaranteed to be at least up-to-date with +the chain state immediately prior to the call's execution. However, the state +returned by RPCs that reflect the mempool may not be up-to-date with the +current mempool state. + +### Transaction Pool + +The mempool state returned via an RPC is consistent with itself and with the +chain state at the time of the call. Thus, the mempool state only encompasses +transactions that are considered mine-able by the node at the time of the RPC. + +The mempool state returned via an RPC reflects all effects of mempool and chain +state related RPCs that returned prior to this call. + +### Wallet + +The wallet state returned via an RPC is consistent with itself and with the +chain state at the time of the call. + +Wallet RPCs will return the latest chain state consistent with prior non-wallet +RPCs. The effects of all blocks (and transactions in blocks) at the time of the +call is reflected in the state of all wallet transactions. For example, if a +block contains transactions that conflicted with mempool transactions, the +wallet would reflect the removal of these mempool transactions in the state. + +However, the wallet may not be up-to-date with the current state of the mempool +or the state of the mempool by an RPC that returned before this RPC. For +example, a wallet transaction that was BIP-125-replaced in the mempool prior to +this RPC may not yet be reflected as such in this RPC response. -- cgit v1.2.3