Bitcoin-Qt - Command Options

Bitcoin Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Bitcoin-Qt - Command Options

This section describes command options of Bitcoin-Qt - Bitcoin Core GUI

In previous tutorials, we have learn how to start to run Bitcoint-Qt, also called Bitcoin Core Wallet. It is actually the GUI program to run the Bitcoin local peer and manage a local Bitcoin wallet.

Before we go to explore more functionalities of Bitcoin-Qt, let's see its command options:

C:\>\local\bitcoin-0.15.1\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe -testnet -?

Bitcoin Core version v0.15.1 (64-bit)
Usage:
  bitcoin-qt [command-line options]                     

Options:
-? Print this help message and exit 
-version Print version and exit 
-conf=<file> Specify configuration file (default: bitcoin.conf) 
-datadir=<dir> Specify data directory 
-dbcache=<n> Set database cache size in megabytes (4 to 16384, default: 450) 
-loadblock=<file> Imports blocks from external blk000??.dat file on startup 
-maxorphantx=<n> Keep at most <n> unconnectable transactions in memory 
   (default: 100) 
-maxmempool=<n> Keep the transaction memory pool below <n> megabytes 
   (default: 300) 
-mempoolexpiry=<n> Do not keep transactions in the mempool longer than <n> 
   hours (default: 336) 
-prune=<n> Reduce storage requirements by enabling pruning (deleting) of old 
   blocks. This allows the pruneblockchain RPC to be called to delete 
   specific blocks, and enables automatic pruning of old blocks if a target 
   size in MiB is provided. This mode is incompatible with -txindex and 
   -rescan. Warning: Reverting this setting requires re-downloading the 
   entire blockchain. 
   (default: 0 = disable pruning blocks, 1 = allow manual pruning via RPC, 
   >550 = automatically prune block files to stay under the specified target 
   size in MiB) 
-reindex Rebuild chain state and block index from the blk*.dat files on disk 
-txindex Maintain a full transaction index, used by the getrawtransaction 
   pc call (default: 0) 
...

Connection options:
-connect=<ip> Connect only to the specified node(s); -connect=0 disables 
   automatic connections 
-discover Discover own IP addresses (default: 1 when listening and no 
   -externalip or -proxy) 
-externalip=<ip> Specify your own public address 
-listen Accept connections from outside (default: 1 if no -proxy or 
   -connect) 
-maxconnections=<n> Maintain at most <n> connections to peers 
   (default: 125) 
-port=<port> Listen for connections on <port> (default: 8333 or 
   testnet: 18333) 
-seednode=<ip> Connect to a node to retrieve peer addresses, and disconnect 
-timeout=<n> Specify connection timeout in milliseconds (minimum: 1, 
   default: 5000) 
...

Wallet options:
-disablewallet Do not load the wallet and disable wallet RPC calls 
-keypool=<n> Set key pool size to <n> (default: 1000) 
-wallet=<file> Specify wallet file (within data directory) (default: 
   wallet.dat) 
...

Debugging/Testing options:
-debug=<category> Output debugging information (default: 0, supplying 
   <category> is optional). If <category> is not supplied or if 
   <category> = 1, output all debugging information. <category> can be: 
   net, tor, mempool, http, bench, zmq, db, rpc, estimatefee, addrman, 
   selectcoins, reindex, cmpctblock, rand, prune, proxy, mempoolrej, 
   libevent, coindb, qt, leveldb. 
-printtoconsole Send trace/debug info to console instead of debug.log file 
...

Chain selection options:
-testnet Use the test chain 

RPC server options:
-server Accept command line and JSON-RPC commands 
-rest Accept public REST requests (default: 0) 
-rpcuser=<user> Username for JSON-RPC connections 
-rpcpassword=<pw> Password for JSON-RPC connections 
-rpcauth=<userpw> Username and hashed password for JSON-RPC connections. The 
   field <userpw> comes in the format: <USERNAME>:<SALT>$<HASH>. A 
   canonical python script is included in share/rpcuser. The client then 
   connects normally using the rpcuser=<USERNAME>/rpcpassword=<PASSWORD> 
   pair of arguments. This option can be specified multiple times 
-rpcport=<port> Listen for JSON-RPC connections on <port> (default: 8332 
   or testnet: 18332) 
...