The Retesteth Config Directory

The retesteth config directory contains the retesteth configuration. If it is empty retesteth creates one with the default values. Every directory under it contains either the default configuration, or configuration for a specific client (to override the default for that client).

These directories can contain this information:

• config this file contains the client configuration, a JSON file with these parameters:

  • name, the name of the client

  • socketType, the type of socket used to communicate with the client. There are four supported types: tcp, ipc, ipc-debug, and transition-tool. The first three are self explanatory. The transition-tool “socket” is used by t8ntool, which runs a separate instance of evm t8n for each test.

    You can find more information about the communication between retesteth and clients in the t8ntool tutorial.

• socketAddress, the address of the socket, either a list of TCP ports (in the format <ip>:<port>), a file for IPC, or an executable to run (for transition-tool).

• customCompilers, definitions for custom compilers. You can find more information about using custom compilers in the tutorial.

• initializeTime, the time to wait for the client to initialize before sending it tests.

• forks, the main supported forks.

• additionalForks, additional forks, which are supported but only if they are specified explicitly.

  For example, if a client’s config file specifies:

  "forks" : [
    "EIP158",
    "Byzantium",
    "Constantinople",
    "ConstantinopleFix",
    "Istanbul",
    "Berlin"
  ],
  "additionalForks" : [
    "EIP158ToByzantiumAt5",
    "HomesteadToDaoAt5",
    "ByzantiumToConstantinopleFixAt5"
  ],
  

  And the test specifies >=Byzantium, it will test these forks:

  • Byzantium
  • Constantinople
  • ConstantinopleFix
  • Istanbul
  • Berlin

  But not additional forks such as ByzantiumToConstantinopleFixAt5.

• exceptions, the exception messages that the client emits for blocks that are invalid in various ways. The key is the string used to identify the exception in the expectException field of invalid block tests. The value is the message the client emits.

  Note

  The exception is only checked if:

  1. --filltests is specified.
  2. The test is in BlockchainTests/InvalidBlocks.

  Otherwise, either retesteth only checks that an exception occurred, not which exception it was (without --filltests), or treats any exception as an abort (if the test is not for invalid blocks).

• start.sh the meaning of this script varies depending on the method used to communicate with the client.

  • With tcp and ipc clients the script starts the client and possibly provides it with the port or pipe on which it should listen. In both cases it is possible to start multiple clients to run tests in parallel.

    Note

    If there is no start.sh script at all retesteth assumes that it needs to connect to an existing client rather than run its own.

  • With ipc-debug clients the script is ignored, because it is assumed that the client is already running in debug mode.

  • With transition-tool clients the script is executed for every test, and the program it runs (evm t8n in the case of geth) communicates with the client to execute the test.

• stop.sh stop the client.

• In the case of transition-tool clients, this directory also contains the script that runs the client for each test. This script’s name is specified in the socketAddress field.

  In the case of t8ntool, at writing the only client that uses the transition-tool socket type, this script is start.sh.

• mycompiler.sh, a sample custom compiler script.

  You can find more information about using custom compilers in the tutorial.

• genesis/<forkname>.json, this is the genesis config for the client, primarily the way to specify for the client what fork it is running. The forkname value is matched with the value for the network: field in the test file. This file is necessary because different clients refer to the forks by different names.

  This file may also contain an accounts field. This is legacy and can be ignored.

• genesis/correctMiningReward.json, a file that includes the mining reward for each fork.