mx-chain-go

The go implementation for the MultiversX protocol

Installation and running

In order to join the network as an observer or as a validator, the required steps to build from source and setup explicitly are explained below.

Step 1: install & configure go:

The installation of go should proceed as shown in official golang installation guide https://golang.org/doc/install . In order to run the node, minimum golang version should be 1.17.6.

Step 2: clone the repository and build the binaries:

The main branch that will be used is the master branch. Alternatively, an older release tag can be used.

# set $GOPATH if not set and export to ~/.profile along with Go binary path
$ if [[ $GOPATH=="" ]]; then GOPATH="$HOME/go" fi
$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/multiversx
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/multiversx
$ git clone https://github.com/multiversx/mx-chain-go
$ cd mx-chain-go && git checkout master
$ cd cmd/node && go build

The node depends on the Wasm Virtual Machine, which is automatically managed by the node.

Step 3: creating the node’s identity:

In order to be registered in the MultiversX Network, a node must possess 2 types of (secret key, public key) pairs. One is used to identify the node’s credential used to generate transactions (having the sender field its account address) and the other is used in the process of the block signing. Please note that this is a preliminary mechanism, in the next releases the first (private, public key) pair will be dropped when the staking mechanism will be fully implemented. To build and run the keygenerator, the following commands will need to be run:

$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/multiversx/mx-chain-go/cmd/keygenerator
$ go build
$ ./keygenerator

Start the node

Step 4a: Join MultiversX testnet:

Follow the steps outlined here. This is because in order to join the testnet you need a specific node configuration.

Step 4b: copying credentials and starting a node in a separate network:

The previous generated .pem file needs to be copied in the same directory where the node binary resides in order to start the node.

$  cp validatorKey.pem ./../node/config/
$  cd ../node && ./node

The node binary has some flags defined (for a brief description, the user can use --help flag). Those flags can be used to directly alter the configuration values defined in .toml/.json files and can be used when launching more than one instance of the binary.

Running the tests

$ go test ./...

Compiling new fields in .proto files (should be updated when required PR will be merged in gogo protobuf master branch):

Download protoc compiler: https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases (if you are running under linux on a x64 you might want to download protoc-3.11.4-linux-x86_64.zip)
Expand archive, copy the /include/google folder in /usr/include using
sudo cp -r google /usr/include
Copy bin/protoc using
sudo cp protoc /usr/bin
Fetch the repo github.com/multiversx/protobuf
Compile gogo slick & copy binary using

cd protoc-gen-gogoslick
go build
sudo cp protoc-gen-gogoslick /usr/bin/

Done

Progress

Done

In progress

Contribution

Thank you for considering to help out with the source code! We welcome contributions from anyone on the internet, and are grateful for even the smallest of fixes to MultiversX!

If you'd like to contribute to MultiversX, please fork, fix, commit and send a pull request for the maintainers to review and merge into the main code base. If you wish to submit more complex changes though, please check up with the core developers first here on GitHub, to ensure those changes are in line with the general philosophy of the project and/or get some early feedback which can make both your efforts much lighter as well as our review and merge procedures quick and simple.

Please make sure your contributions adhere to our coding guidelines:

Code must adhere to the official Go formatting guidelines.
Code must be documented adhering to the official Go commentary guidelines.
Pull requests need to be based on and opened against the master branch.
Commit messages should be prefixed with the package(s) they modify.
- E.g. "outport/process: fixed a typo"

Please see the documentation for more details on the MultiversX protocol.