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authorWladimir J. van der Laan <laanwj@gmail.com>2015-05-27 13:26:27 +0200
committerWladimir J. van der Laan <laanwj@gmail.com>2015-05-27 13:26:39 +0200
commit2b2d5b92b9278a233b3263e06a6d5212b03b9c98 (patch)
treebb8df4633df5740d6f9e75b584ffa53f8cb55175
parentc608b6daf97778edd84341aa25b0128e49bd529b (diff)
parent44e1aad50089bc4c4fb72e476ff2e100c1241521 (diff)
Merge pull request #6189
44e1aad Autoprune release notes included (mrbandrews)
-rw-r--r--doc/release-notes.md67
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diff --git a/doc/release-notes.md b/doc/release-notes.md
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--- a/doc/release-notes.md
+++ b/doc/release-notes.md
@@ -1,6 +1,73 @@
(note: this is a temporary file, to be added-to by anybody, and moved to
release-notes at release time)
+Notable changes
+===============
+
+Block file pruning
+----------------------
+
+This release supports running a fully validating node without maintaining a copy
+of the raw block and undo data on disk. To recap, there are four types of data
+related to the blockchain in the bitcoin system: the raw blocks as received over
+the network (blk???.dat), the undo data (rev???.dat), the block index and the
+UTXO set (both LevelDB databases). The databases are built from the raw data.
+
+Block pruning allows Bitcoin Core to delete the raw block and undo data once
+it's been validated and used to build the databases. At that point, the raw data
+is used only to relay blocks to other nodes, to handle reorganizations, to look
+up old transactions (if -txindex is enabled or via the RPC/REST interfaces), or
+for rescanning the wallet. The block index continues to hold the metadata about
+all blocks in the blockchain.
+
+The user specifies how much space to allot for block & undo files. The minimum
+allowed is 550MB. Note that this is in addition to whatever is required for the
+block index and UTXO databases. The minimum was chosen so that Bitcoin Core will
+be able to maintain at least 288 blocks on disk (two days worth of blocks at 10
+minutes per block). In rare instances it is possible that the amount of space
+used will exceed the pruning target in order to keep the required last 288
+blocks on disk.
+
+Block pruning works during initial sync in the same way as during steady state,
+by deleting block files "as you go" whenever disk space is allocated. Thus, if
+the user specifies 550MB, once that level is reached the program will begin
+deleting the oldest block and undo files, while continuing to download the
+blockchain.
+
+For now, block pruning disables block relay. In the future, nodes with block
+pruning will at a minimum relay "new" blocks, meaning blocks that extend their
+active chain.
+
+Block pruning is currently incompatible with running a wallet due to the fact
+that block data is used for rescanning the wallet and importing keys or
+addresses (which require a rescan.) However, running the wallet with block
+pruning will be supported in the near future, subject to those limitations.
+
+Block pruning is also incompatible with -txindex and will automatically disable
+it.
+
+Once you have pruned blocks, going back to unpruned state requires
+re-downloading the entire blockchain. To do this, re-start the node with
+-reindex. Note also that any problem that would cause a user to reindex (e.g.,
+disk corruption) will cause a pruned node to redownload the entire blockchain.
+Finally, note that when a pruned node reindexes, it will delete any blk???.dat
+and rev???.dat files in the data directory prior to restarting the download.
+
+To enable block pruning on the command line:
+
+- `-prune=N`: where N is the number of MB to allot for raw block & undo data.
+
+Modified RPC calls:
+
+- `getblockchaininfo` now includes whether we are in pruned mode or not.
+- `getblock` will check if the block's data has been pruned and if so, return an
+error.
+- `getrawtransaction` will no longer be able to locate a transaction that has a
+UTXO but where its block file has been pruned.
+
+Pruning is disabled by default.
+
+
0.11.0 Change log
=================