siac

Siac Usage

siac is the command line interface to Sia, for use by power users and those on headless servers. It comes as a part of the command line package, and can be run as ./siac from the same folder, or just by calling siac if you move the binary into your path.

Most of the following commands have online help. For example, executing siac wallet send help will list the arguments for that command, while siac host help will list the commands that can be called pertaining to hosting. siac help will list all of the top level command groups that can be used.

You can change the address of where siad is pointing using the -a flag. For example, siac -a :9000 status will display the status of the siad instance launched on the local machine with siad -a :9000.

Common tasks

• siac consensus view block height
• siac stop sends the stop signal to siad to safely terminate. This has the same effect as C^c on the terminal.
• siac update checks the server for updates.
• siac version displays the version string of siac.

Wallet:

• siac wallet init [-p] initialize a wallet
• siac wallet unlock unlock a wallet
• siac wallet balance retrieve wallet balance
• siac wallet address get a wallet address
• siac wallet send [amount] [dest] sends siacoin to an address

Renter:

• siac renter ls list all renter files and subdirectories
• siac renter upload [filepath] [nickname] upload a file
• siac renter download [nickname] [filepath] download a file
• siac renter workers show worker status
• siac renter workers dj show worker download info
• siac renter workers ea show worker account status
• siac renter workers hsj show worker has sector jobs status
• siac renter workers pt show worker price table status
• siac renter workers rj show worker read jobs status
• siac renter workers uj show worker upload info

Full Descriptions

Consensus tasks

• siac consensus prints the current block ID, current block height, and current target.

Daemon tasks

• siac profile performs actions related to the profiles for the daemon.

• siac profile start starts a profile for the daemon.

• siac profile stop stops a profile for the daemon.

• siac stack writes the current stack trace to an output file.

• siac stop sends the stop signal to siad to safely terminate. This has the same effect as C^c on the terminal.

• siac update checks the server for updates.

• siac version displays the version string of siac.

FeeManager tasks

• siac feemanager prints info about the feemanager such as pending fees and the next fee payout height.

• siac feemanager cancel <feeUID> cancels a pending fee. If a transaction has already been created the fee cannot be cancelled.

Gateway tasks

• siac gateway prints info about the gateway, including its address and how many peers it's connected to.

• siac gateway connect [address:port] manually connects to a peer and adds it to the gateway's node list.

• siac gateway disconnect [address:port] manually disconnects from a peer, but leaves it in the gateway's node list.

• siac gateway list prints a list of all currently connected peers.

Host tasks

• siac host -v outputs some of your hosting settings.

Example:

user@hostname:~$ siac host -v
Host settings:
Storage:      2.0000 TB (1.524 GB used)
Price:        0.000 SC per GB per month
Collateral:   0
Max Filesize: 10000000000
Max Duration: 8640
Contracts:    32

• siac host announce makes an host announcement. You may optionally supply a specific address to be announced; this allows you to announce a domain name. Announcing a second time after changing settings is not necessary, as the announcement only contains enough information to reach your host.

• siac host config [setting] [value] is used to configure hosting.

In version 1.4.3.0, sia hosting is configured as follows:

You can call this many times to configure you host before announcing. Alternatively, you can manually adjust these parameters inside the host/config.json file.

HostDB tasks

• siac hostdb -v prints a list of all the known active hosts on the network.

Miner tasks

• siac miner start starts running the CPU miner on one thread. This is virtually useless outside of debugging.

• siac miner status returns information about the miner. It is only valid for when siad is running.

• siac miner stop halts the CPU miner.

Renter tasks

• siac renter allowance views the current allowance, which controls how much money is spent on file contracts.

• siac renter delete [nickname] removes a file from your list of stored files. This does not remove it from the network, but only from your saved list.

• siac renter download [nickname] [destination] downloads a file from the sia network onto your computer. nickname is the name used to refer to your file in the sia network, and destination is the path to where the file will be. If a file already exists there, it will be overwritten.

• siac renter ls displays a list of uploaded files and subdirectories currently on the sia network by nickname, and their filesizes.

• siac renter queue shows the download queue. This is only relevant if you have multiple downloads happening simultaneously.

• siac renter rename [nickname] [newname] changes the nickname of a file.

• siac renter setallowance sets the amount of money that can be spent over a given period. If no flags are set you will be walked through the interactive allowance setting. To update only certain fields, pass in those values with the corresponding field flag, for example '--amount 500SC'.

• siac renter upload [filename] [nickname] uploads a file to the sia network. filename is the path to the file you want to upload, and nickname is what you will use to refer to that file in the network. For example, it is common to have the nickname be the same as the filename.

• siac renter workers shows a detailed overview of all workers. It shows information about their accounts, contract and download and upload status.

• siac renter workers dj shows a detailed overview of the workers' download statuses, such as whether its on cooldown or not and potentially the most recent error.

• siac renter workers ea shows a detailed overview of the workers' ephemeral account statuses, such as balance information, whether its on cooldown or not and potentially the most recent error.

• siac renter workers hsj shows information about the has sector jobs queue. How many jobs are in the queue and their average completion time. In case there was an error it will also display the most recent error and when it occurred.

• siac renter workers pt shows a detailed overview of the workers's price table statuses, such as when it was updated, when it expires, whether its on cooldown or not and potentially the most recent error.

• siac renter workers rj shows information about the read jobs queue. How many jobs are in the queue and their average completion time. In case there was an error it will also display the most recent error and when it occurred.

• siac renter workers uj shows a detailed overview of the workers' upload statuses, such as whether its on cooldown or not and potentially the most recent error.

Skykey tasks

• siac skykey add [skykey base64-encoded skykey] will add a base64-encoded skykey to the key manager.

• siac skykey create [name] will create a skykey with the given name. The --type flag can be used to specify the skykey type. Its default is private-id.

• siac skykey delete will delete the base64-encoded skykey using either its name with --name or id with --id

• siac skykey get will get the base64-encoded skykey using either its name with --name or id with --id

• siac skykey get-id [name] will get the base64-encoded skykey id by its name

• siac skykey ls will list all skykeys. Use with --show-priv-keys to show full encoding with private key also.

Skynet tasks

• siac skynet backup back up a skyfile.

• siac skynet blocklist lists the merkleroots of all blocked skylinks.

• siac skynet blocklist add [skylink] will add any skylinks separated by spaces to the blocklist.

• siac skynet blocklist remove [skylinks] will remove any skylinks separated by spaces from the blocklist.

• siac skynet convert [source siaPath] [destination siaPath] converts a siafile to a skyfile and then generates its skylink. A new skylink will be created in the user's skyfile directory. The skyfile and the original siafile are both necessary to pin the file and keep the skylink active. The skyfile will consume an additional 40 MiB of storage.

• siac skynet download [skylink] [destination] downloads a file from Skynet using a skylink.

• siac skynet isblocked will check if a skylink(s) is on the blocklist.

• siac skynet ls lists all skyfiles and subdirectories that the user has pinned along with the corresponding skylinks. By default, only files in var/skynet/ will be displayed. Files that are not tracking skylinks are not counted.

• siac skynet pin [skylink] [destination siapath] pins the file associated with this skylink by re-uploading an exact copy. This ensures that the file will still be available on skynet as long as you continue maintaining the file in your renter.

• siac skynet portals list the persisted Skynet portals.

• siac skynet portals add [url] adds a Skynet portals which is either public or private to the list of persisted Skynet portals. The Skynet portal URL is of the form url:port. Add the --public if you want it to be public. It defaults to private.

• siac skynet portals remove [url] removes the Skynet portal from the persisted list. The Skynet portal URL is of the form url:port.

• siac skynet restore restore a skyfile.

• siac skynet unpin [siapath] unpins one or more skyfiles or directories, deleting them from your list of stored files or directories.

• siac skynet upload [source filepath] [destination siapath] uploads a file or directory to Skynet. A skylink will be produced for each file. The link can be shared and used to retrieve the file. The file(s) that get uploaded will be pinned to this Sia node, meaning that this node will pay for storage and repairs until the file(s) are manually deleted. If the silent flag is provided, siac will not output progress bars during upload.

Utils tasks

TODO - Fill in

Wallet tasks

• siac wallet address returns a never seen before address for sending siacoins to.

• siac wallet addseed prompts the user for his encryption password, as well as a new secret seed. The wallet will then incorporate this seed into itself. This can be used for wallet recovery and merging.

• siac wallet balance prints information about your wallet.

Example:

user@hostname:~$ siac wallet balance
Wallet status:
Encrypted, Unlocked
Confirmed Balance:   61516458.00 SC
Unconfirmed Balance: 64516461.00 SC
Exact:               61516457999999999999999999999999 H

• siac wallet init [-p] encrypts and initializes the wallet. If the -p flag is provided, an encryption password is requested from the user. Otherwise the initial seed is used as the encryption password. The wallet must be initialized and unlocked before any actions can be performed on the wallet.

Examples:

user@hostname:~$ siac -a :9920 wallet init
Seed is:
 cider sailor incur sober feast unhappy mundane sadness hinder aglow imitate amaze duties arrow gigantic uttered inflamed girth myriad jittery hexagon nail lush reef sushi pastry southern inkling acquire

Wallet encrypted with password: cider sailor incur sober feast unhappy mundane sadness hinder aglow imitate amaze duties arrow gigantic uttered inflamed girth myriad jittery hexagon nail lush reef sushi pastry southern inkling acquire

user@hostname:~$ siac -a :9920 wallet init -p
Wallet password:
Seed is:
 potato haunted fuming lordship library vane fever powder zippers fabrics dexterity hoisting emails pebbles each vampire rockets irony summon sailor lemon vipers foxes oneself glide cylinder vehicle mews acoustic

Wallet encrypted with given password

• siac wallet lock locks a wallet. After calling, the wallet must be unlocked using the encryption password in order to use it further

• siac wallet seeds returns the list of secret seeds in use by the wallet. These can be used to regenerate the wallet

• siac wallet send [amount] [dest] Sends amount siacoins to dest. amount is in the form XXXXUU where an X is a number and U is a unit, for example MS, S, mS, ps, etc. If no unit is given hastings is assumed. dest must be a valid siacoin address.

• siac wallet unlock prompts the user for the encryption password to the wallet, supplied by the init command. The wallet must be initialized and unlocked before any actions can take place.

Siac Command Output Testing

New type of testing siac command line commands is now available from go tests.

Siac is using Cobra golang library to generate command line commands (and subcommands) interface. In cmd/siac/main.go file root siac Cobra command with all subcommands is created using initCmds(), siac/siad node instance specific flags of siac commands are initialized using initClient(...).

Test Group Structure

Pseudo code example of a test group:

func TestGroup() {
    // Create test inputs
    create test node
    init Cobra command with subcommands and flags
    create regex pattern constants

    // Create subtests
    define subtests

    // Execute subtests
    run subtests
}

Test Inputs

The most of the siac tests require running instance of siad to execute the tests against. A new instance of siad can be created using newTestNode. Note that some of the siac tests don't require running an instance of siad. This is the case when we're testing unknown siac subcommand or an unknown command/subcommand flag for example, because these error cases are handled by Cobra library itself.

Before testing siac Cobra command(s), siac Cobra command with its subcommands and flags must be built and initialized. This is done by getRootCmdForSiacCmdsTests() helper function.

Subtests

Subtests are defined using siacCmdSubTest struct:

type siacCmdSubTest struct {
	name               string
	test               siacCmdTestFn
	cmd                *cobra.Command
	cmdStrs            []string
	expectedOutPattern string
}

name

name is the name of a subtest to appear in report.

test

test is a subtest helper function that executes subtest.

cmd

cmd is an initialized root Cobra command with all subcommands and flags.

cmdStrs

cmdStrs is a list of string values you would normally enter to the command line, but without leading siac and each space between command, subcommand(s), flag(s) or parameter(s) starting a new string in a list.

Examples:

expectedOutPattern

expectedOutPattern is expected regex pattern string to test actual output against. It can be a multiline string to test complete output from beginning (starting with ^) till end (ending with $) or just a smaller pattern testing multiple lines, a single line or just a part of a line in the complete output.

Note that each siac command handler has to be prepared for these tests, for more information see below.

Errors

In case of failure in the executed subtest, error log output from testGenericSiacCmd() in cmd/siac/helpers_test.go will include the following 5 items:

• Regex pattern didn't match between row x, and row y
• Regex pattern part that didn't match
• ----- Expected output pattern: -----
• ----- Actual Cobra output: -----
• ----- Actual Sia output: -----

Error log example with 5 above items (part ... of the message is cut):

=== RUN   TestRootSiacCmd
=== RUN   TestRootSiacCmd/TestRootCmdWithShortAddressFlagIPv6
--- FAIL: TestRootSiacCmd (2.18s)
    maincmd_test.go:28: siad API address: [::]:35103
    --- FAIL: TestRootSiacCmd/TestRootCmdWithShortAddressFlagIPv6 (0.02s)
        helpers_test.go:141: Regex pattern didn't match between row 5, and row 5
        helpers_test.go:142: Regex pattern part that didn't match:
            Wallet XXX:
        helpers_test.go:150: ----- Expected output pattern: -----
        helpers_test.go:151: ^Consensus:
              Synced: (No|Yes)
              Height: [\d]+
            
            Wallet XXX:
            (  Status: Locked|  Status:          unlocked
              Siacoin Balance: [\d]+(\.[\d]*|) (SC|KS|MS))
            ...
            $
        helpers_test.go:153: ----- Actual Cobra output: -----
        helpers_test.go:154: 
        helpers_test.go:156: ----- Actual Sia output: -----
        helpers_test.go:157: Consensus:
              Synced: Yes
              Height: 14
            
            Wallet:
              Status:          unlocked
              Siacoin Balance: 3.3 MS
            ...
        helpers_test.go:159: 
FAIL
coverage: 5.3% of statements
FAIL	gitlab.com/NebulousLabs/Sia/cmd/siac	2.242s
FAIL

Expected output regex pattern can have multiple lines and because spotting errors in complex regex pattern matching can be difficult testGenericSiacCmd tests in a for loop at first only the first line of the regex pattern, then first 2 lines of the regex pattern, adding one more line each iteration. If there is a regex pattern match error, it prints the line number of the regex that didn't match. E.g. there is a 20 line of expected regex pattern, it passed to test first 11 lines of regex but fails to match when first 12 lines are matched against, it prints that it failed to match line 12 of regex pattern and prints the content of 12th line.

Then it prints the complete expected regex pattern and actual Cobra output and actual siac output. There are two actual outputs, because unknown subcommands, unknown flags and command/subcommand help requests are handled by Cobra library, while the rest is the output written to stdout by siac command handlers.

Examples

First examples of siac Cobra command tests are tests located in cmd/siac/maincmd_test.go file in TestRootSiacCmd test group, helpers for these tests are located in cmd/siac/helpers_test.go file.

Simplified example code:

func TestRootSiacCmd(t *testing.T) {
    ...
    n, err := newTestNode(groupDir)
    ...

    root := getRootCmdForSiacCmdsTests(t, groupDir)
    ...
    regexPatternConstantX := "..."
    ...
    subTests := []siacCmdSubTest{
        {
            name:               "TestRootCmdWithShortAddressFlagIPv6",
            test:               testGenericSiacCmd,
            cmd:                root,
            cmdStrs:            []string{"-a", IPv6addr},
            expectedOutPattern: regexPatternConstantX,
        },
        ...
    }

    err = runSiacCmdSubTests(t, subTests)
    ...
}