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-rw-r--r--doc/release-notes.md85
1 files changed, 64 insertions, 21 deletions
diff --git a/doc/release-notes.md b/doc/release-notes.md
index da77243472..3df7b3a8e0 100644
--- a/doc/release-notes.md
+++ b/doc/release-notes.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Please report bugs using the issue tracker at github:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues
Upgrading and downgrading
-==========================
+=========================
How to Upgrade
--------------
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ Downgrading warning
---------------------
Because release 0.10.0 makes use of headers-first synchronization and parallel
-block download, the block files and databases are not backwards-compatible
-with older versions of Bitcoin Core:
+block download (see further), the block files and databases are not
+backwards-compatible with older versions of Bitcoin Core:
* Blocks will be stored on disk out of order (in the order they are
received, really), which makes it incompatible with some tools or
@@ -45,8 +45,37 @@ bootstrap.dat) anew afterwards.
This does not affect wallet forward or backward compatibility.
+
+Notable changes
+===============
+
+Faster synchronization
+----------------------
+
+Bitcoin Core now uses 'headers-first synchronization'. This means that we first
+ask peers for block headers (a total of 27 megabytes, as of December 2014) and
+validate those. In a second stage, when the headers have been discovered, we
+download the blocks. However, as we already know about the whole chain in
+advance, the blocks can be downloaded in parallel from all available peers.
+
+In practice, this means a much faster and more robust synchronization. On
+recent hardware with a decent network link, it can be as little as 3 hours
+for an initial full synchronization. You may notice a slower progress in the
+very first few minutes, when headers are still being fetched and verified, but
+it should gain speed afterwards.
+
+A few RPCs were added/updated as a result of this:
+- `getblockchaininfo` now returns the number of validated headers in addition to
+the number of validated blocks.
+- `getpeerinfo` lists both the number of blocks and headers we know we have in
+common with each peer. While synchronizing, the heights of the blocks that we
+have requested from peers (but haven't received yet) are also listed as
+'inflight'.
+- A new RPC `getchaintips` lists all known branches of the block chain,
+including those we only have headers for.
+
Transaction fee changes
-=======================
+-----------------------
This release automatically estimates how high a transaction fee (or how
high a priority) transactions require to be confirmed quickly. The default
@@ -61,27 +90,22 @@ Statistics used to estimate fees and priorities are saved in the
data directory in the `fee_estimates.dat` file just before
program shutdown, and are read in at startup.
-New Command Line Options
----------------------------
-
+New command line options for fee estimation:
- `-txconfirmtarget=n` : create transactions that have enough fees (or priority)
so they are likely to confirm within n blocks (default: 1). This setting
is over-ridden by the -paytxfee option.
-New RPC methods
-----------------
-
+New RPC commands for fee estimation:
- `estimatefee nblocks` : Returns approximate fee-per-1,000-bytes needed for
a transaction to be confirmed within nblocks. Returns -1 if not enough
transactions have been observed to compute a good estimate.
-
- `estimatepriority nblocks` : Returns approximate priority needed for
a zero-fee transaction to confirm within nblocks. Returns -1 if not
enough free transactions have been observed to compute a good
estimate.
RPC access control changes
-==========================================
+--------------------------
Subnet matching for the purpose of access control is now done
by matching the binary network address, instead of with string wildcard matching.
@@ -107,8 +131,27 @@ Using wildcards will result in the rule being rejected with the following error
Error: Invalid -rpcallowip subnet specification: *. Valid are a single IP (e.g. 1.2.3.4), a network/netmask (e.g. 1.2.3.4/255.255.255.0) or a network/CIDR (e.g. 1.2.3.4/24).
+
+REST interface
+--------------
+
+A new HTTP API is exposed when running with the `-rest` flag, which allows
+unauthenticated access to public node data.
+
+It is served on the same port as RPC, but does not need a password, and uses
+plain HTTP instead of JSON-RPC.
+
+Assuming a local RPC server running on port 8332, it is possible to request:
+- Blocks: http://localhost:8332/rest/block/*HASH*.*EXT*
+- Blocks without transactions: http://localhost:8332/block/notxdetails/*HASH*.*EXT*
+- Transactions (requires `-txindex`): http://localhost:8332/tx/*HASH*.*EXT*
+
+In every case, *EXT* can be `bin` (for raw binary data), `hex` (for hex-encoded binary) or `json`.
+
+For more details, see the `doc/REST-interface.md` document in the repository.
+
RPC Server "Warm-Up" Mode
-=========================
+-------------------------
The RPC server is started earlier now, before most of the expensive
intialisations like loading the block index. It is available now almost
@@ -120,7 +163,7 @@ started and will be available soon (for instance, so that they do not
have to start it themselves).
Improved signing security
-=========================
+-------------------------
For 0.10 the security of signing against unusual attacks has been
improved by making the signatures constant time and deterministic.
@@ -149,7 +192,7 @@ than the implementation in OpenSSL.
[1] https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/161.pdf
Watch-only addresses in the wallet
-==================================
+----------------------------------
The wallet can now track transactions to addresses (or scripts) for which you
do not have the private keys.
@@ -174,7 +217,7 @@ with future block chain pruning functionality. It does mean the address needs
to added to the wallet before the payment, though.
Consensus library
-=================
+-----------------
Starting from 0.10.0, the Bitcoin Core distribution includes a consensus library.
@@ -196,7 +239,7 @@ The functionality is planned to be extended to e.g. UTXO management in upcoming
for existing methods should remain stable.
Standard script rules relaxed for P2SH addresses
-================================================
+------------------------------------------------
The IsStandard() rules have been almost completely removed for P2SH
redemption scripts, allowing applications to make use of any valid
@@ -207,7 +250,7 @@ standard Bitcoin Core nodes wouldn't relay them to miners, nor would
most miners include them in blocks they mined.
bitcoin-tx
-=============
+----------
It has been observed that many of the RPC functions offered by bitcoind are
"pure functions", and operate independently of the bitcoind wallet. This
@@ -230,8 +273,8 @@ server round-trip to execute.
Other utilities "bitcoin-key" and "bitcoin-script" have been proposed, making
key and script operations easily accessible via command line.
-0.10.0 Release notes
-=======================
+0.10.0 Change log
+=================
Detailed release notes follow. This overview includes changes that affect external
behavior, not code moves, refactors or string updates.
@@ -534,7 +577,7 @@ Miscellaneous:
- `6e6a36c` contrib: show pull # in prompt for github-merge script
Credits
---------
+=======
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release: