Bitcoin Core Node Builder

Run a secure Bitcoin Core node with ease.

Copy-paste the following command into Terminal:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://github.com/bitcoin-tools/nodebuilder/raw/v1.4.0/nodebuilder)"

Table of Contents

• Usage
  • (Optional) Docker Container
  • (Optional) Command-Line Arguments
• Prerequisites
• What Does This Script Do?
  • Which Parts of My System Does This Script Touch?
  • How Do I Uninstall Everything?
• Acknowledgements
• Contributing
• License

Usage

As mentioned above, start the script from the command line. Open Terminal and run:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://github.com/bitcoin-tools/nodebuilder/raw/v1.4.0/nodebuilder)"

Or download the script to your local system, set permissions, and run it:

wget https://github.com/bitcoin-tools/nodebuilder/raw/v1.4.0/nodebuilder
chmod u+x nodebuilder
./nodebuilder

(Optional) Docker Container

A nodebuilder Docker container can either run on Ubuntu (default) or on an alternative Linux distribution: Alpine, Amazon, Arch, Debian, Fedora, Manjaro, openSUSE, and Red Hat.

To the Ubuntu base image, clone the repository and build the default container.

git clone https://github.com/bitcoin-tools/nodebuilder
cd nodebuilder/docker/
docker build .

To use an alternative base image, clone the repository and build a different container. For example, to run nodebuilder on Alpine Linux, run:

docker build -f Dockerfile_alpine .

(Optional) Command-Line Arguments

nodebuilder supports optional arguments to override the default semi-automated settings:

Short	Long Version	Description
-b	--bitcoin-version	Specify the Bitcoin version. Requires one argument, for example: -b 26.0
-c	--compile	Build Bitcoin from source. Requires no arguments.
-h	--help	Display the help message. Overrides all other arguments.
-p	--prune	Set a prune value in MiB. Requires one argument, for example: -p 50000
-t	--test	Run unit tests on functions.
-u	--unattended	Run in non-interactive mode. Requires no arguments.

You can set multiple options. Here are two ways to compile Bitcoin 26.0 unattended with a 50000 MiB prune:

./nodebuilder -b 26.0 -c -p 50000 -u
./nodebuilder --bitcoin-version 26.0 --compile --prune 50000 --unattended

Prerequisites

1. An active internet connection (of course)
2. A POSIX-compatible operating system
   • Linux - Alpine, Arch or any derivative like Manjaro, Debian or any derivative like Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE or any derivative like openSUSE Leap
   • macOS
   • Or, any system that can run Docker
   • On Windows, either run nodebuilder in WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) or in a Docker container
3. curl, which the script will attempt to automatically install or you can install with a package manager

This POSIX-compliant script installs a minimal number of runtime dependencies that aren't defined in POSIX.

What Does This Script Do?

The script performs the following actions:

1. Update the system (including reboot, if required) and install dependencies.
2. Either download, validate, and extract Bitcoin Core or build directly from the source code.
3. Set a prune for Bitcoin Core based on the disk free space.
4. Create shortcuts for Bitcoin Core on the desktop and the "Show Applications" list.
5. Start Bitcoin Core.
6. Prevent the system from sleeping, suspending, and hibernating.
7. Display relevant info while the initial block download proceeds, such as the percent synced, blocks left to sync, current chain tip date, and the free disk space remaining.
8. After the initial block download completes, tell the user that the script has finished and end the script.

Which Parts of My System Does This Script Touch?

This script modifies the following in your file system:

• Any files related to installing system updates and dependencies
• The downloaded Bitcoin Core and validation files:
  • <temporary_directory>/compile_bitcoin/
  • <temporary_directory>/bitcoin-<version>-<architecture>-linux-gnu.tar.gz
  • <temporary_directory>/SHA256SUMS
  • <temporary_directory>/SHA256SUMS.asc
  • <temporary_directory>/guix.sigs/
• The validated Bitcoin Core tarball and PGP keys:
  • ~/Downloads/bitcoin-<version>-<architecture>-linux-gnu.tar.gz
  • ~/Downloads/guix.sigs/
• The installed Bitcoin Core executable binaries, headers, libraries, and manual pages, respectively, are installed into:
  • /usr/local/bin/{bitcoind,bitcoin-cli,bitcoin-qt,bitcoin-tx,bitcoin-util,bitcoin-wallet,test_bitcoin}
  • /usr/local/include/bitcoinconsensus.h
  • /usr/local/lib/{libbitcoinconsensus.so,libbitcoinconsensus.so.0,libbitcoinconsensus.so.0.0.0} on Linux
  • /usr/local/lib/libbitcoinconsensus.0.dylib on macOS
  • /usr/local/man/man1/{bitcoind.1,bitcoin-qt.1,bitcoin-cli.1,bitcoin-tx.1,bitcoin-util.1,bitcoin-wallet.1}
• An entry in the Show Applications menu and also on the desktop:
  • ~/Desktop/bitcoin_core.desktop on Linux
  • ~/.local/share/applications/bitcoin_core.desktop on Linux
• The Bitcoin Core configuration file:
  • ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf on Linux
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf on macOS
• Any files modified by Bitcoin Core, such as the blockchain, unspent transaction, and peer data.

How Do I Uninstall Everything?

An automated solution is in the backlog. For now, here are a series of manual steps to follow:

• Uninstalling runtime dependencies can be be tricky. This script installs a minimal number of dependencies like curl, gzip, sudo, and tar as a defensive security posture. For advanced users, if you compiled Bitcoin from source by either using the -c/--compile optional argument or by running on Alpine Linux, please also review the build dependencies that were installed.

• To remove the downloaded Bitcoin Core installation and verification files, open the Files or Finder application, go to Downloads, and remove any files starting with bitcoin-. Also remove the directory named guix.sigs.

  • Or do it in Terminal with rm ~/Downloads/bitcoin-*.tar.gz && rm -r ~/Downloads/guix.sigs/.

• To remove the installed executable binaries, headers, libraries, and manual pages, open the Files or Finder application, go to /usr/local/bin, and remove bitcoind, bitcoin-cli, bitcoin-qt, bitcoin-util, bitcoin-wallet, and test_bitcoin. Then go to /usr/local/include and remove bitcoinconsensus.h. Then go to /usr/local/lib and remove libbitcoinconsensus.so, libbitcoinconsensus.so.0, libbitcoinconsensus.so.0.0.0 on Linux or libbitcoinconsensus.0.dylib on macOS. Then go to /usr/local/man/man1 and remove bitcoind.1, bitcoin-qt.1, bitcoin-cli.1, bitcoin-tx.1, bitcoin-util.1, and bitcoin-wallet.1.

  • Or do it in Terminal with rm /usr/local/bin/{bitcoind,bitcoin-cli,bitcoin-qt,bitcoin-tx,bitcoin-util,bitcoin-wallet,test_bitcoin} /usr/local/include/bitcoinconsensus.h /usr/local/lib/{libbitcoinconsensus.so,libbitcoinconsensus.so.0,libbitcoinconsensus.so.0.0.0} /usr/local/man/man1/{bitcoind.1,bitcoin-qt.1,bitcoin-cli.1,bitcoin-tx.1,bitcoin-util.1,bitcoin-wallet.1} on Linux or rm /usr/local/bin/{bitcoind,bitcoin-cli,bitcoin-qt,bitcoin-tx,bitcoin-util,bitcoin-wallet,test_bitcoin} /usr/local/include/bitcoinconsensus.h /usr/local/lib/libbitcoinconsensus.0.dylib /usr/local/man/man1/{bitcoind.1,bitcoin-qt.1,bitcoin-cli.1,bitcoin-tx.1,bitcoin-util.1,bitcoin-wallet.1} on macOS. If the command fails, your user doesn't have proper privileges. Try adding sudo to the front of the command.

• To remove the shortcut files on Linux, go to the Desktop and remove the bitcoin_core.desktop file. Then go to ~/.local/share/applications and remove bitcoin_core.desktop.

  • Or do it in Terminal with rm ~/Desktop/bitcoin_core.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/bitcoin_core.desktop on Linux.

• If you want to keep your synced blocks and chainstate data, open the Files or Finder application, go to the data directory at ~/.bitcoin on Linux or ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin on macOS, and either backup the blocks and chainstate directories to an external drive or move those directories somewhere else on your computer. (The next step will remove everything else from the Bitcoin Core data directory.)

  • Also open bitcoin.conf and make note of your prune value, in MiB (1024^2 bytes). Perhaps save that line (and only that line) to a text file wherever you copy/move the blocks and chainstate directories to. Any future Bitcoin Core nodes you run must have a prune setting less than or equal to this value, or you'll have to re-sync the chain.

• To remove the data directory, open the Files or Finder application, go to the ~ on Linux or ~/Library/Application Support on macOS, and delete the data directory named .bitcoin on Linux or Bitcoin on macOS. You need to enable the "Show Hidden Files" option in the Files or Finder settings.

  • Or do it in Terminal with rm -r ~/.bitcoin/ on Linux or rm -r ~/Library/Application\ Support/Bitcoin/ on macOS.

If you have any questions or ideas on how this section can be improved, please open an issue.

Acknowledgements

Inspiration for this project came from these Open Source projects:

• Bitcoin Core
• Yeti Wallet
• Bails and yeti.Bash by Ben Westgate
• install-full-node.sh by Addy Yeow
• Parmanode by ArmanTheParman
• And from countless online guides, such as this one

Contributing

Please open an issue for any bug reports or feature requests. You can see the list of open issues here.

If you plan to submit a pull request, please first look over our automated and manual test procedures.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT No Attribution / MIT-0 license.