Bitcoind as system background service

[laanwj]

When using bitcoind as a wallet-less full node, it would be useful to be able to run it as a system service, so that it starts automatically at startup and can be controlled though the OS's normal service start and stop functionality.

For the Debian/Ubuntu side of things see hippich and fungus' posts here: https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=965.0 . It'd make most sense to integrate this into the PPA. There are two different systems in use here: old-style sysv init scripts, and upstart.

For Windows/OSX I'm not sure what is necessary. At least we'd need new installer packages, separate from the normal "Bitcoin Core Wallet" which provide a node and nothing more.

The installer would also need to create user credentials to run under.

Edit: for the service install, this would also imply moving the configuration to a system-wide instead of user location, for example /etc/bitcoin.conf as well as default the data directory to a system-scope location (probably /var/lib/bitcoin).

[sipa]

Yes, we need this.

It would also mean the blockchain database can become shared and system-wide, and be stored in /var/lib/bitcoin or something, instead of in home directories (which seems frowned upon, for such amounts of data).

[laanwj]

Yes, sounds like a good plan. As we don't have to worry about the wallet here, everything can be public and shared.

[laanwj]

@Drak You do realize that calling something 'trivial' is the same as volunteering to implement it?

[itoffshore]

I've just introduced this to Alpine Linux. The bitcoin daemon runs under /var/lib/bitcoin as bitcoin:bitcoin using /etc/bitcoin.conf for configuration. The post install script generates a random user / pass / port for a new installation. The init script also enforces sensible permissions.

Via LXC 1.00+ it is possible to run an unprivileged Alpine container on any Linux (size 5mb)

Same is possible for namecoin

[gmaxwell]

Hopefully you did not do what the debian package did at one point and use a non-cryptographic PRNG to pick those keys, making it trivial to guess the rpc credentials?

[itoffshore]

do you consider /dev/urandom strong enough ?

[gmaxwell]

Sure, but its how you use it that counts. Link me to the code and I'll review it.

[itoffshore]

It's the 2nd from last addition at http://lists.alpinelinux.org/alpine-devel/3710.html

User is 32 char & Pass is 64 char

[gmaxwell]

@itoffshore Cool. Characters which need to be escaped in URLs break some applications, I'd recommend leaving out the symbols. The ones Bitcoin itself generates are just a base58 encoded 256-bit value. (I believe I've seen % and & both cause problems, ! is sometimes annoying if specifying the strings on the command line). Looks fine generally, the lack of error handling (e.g. /dev/urandom couldn't be opened, or something doesn't support the -c extension to head) might be concerning but bitcoin won't let you run with a too short rpcpassword. Sorry for the diversion. :)

[itoffshore]

/dev/urandom doesn't block (/dev/random does block if there is not enough entropy) - as Alpine uses Busybox the command should work everywhere.

[laanwj]

The system service would concern a wallet-less build, so generating a safe rpcuser/pass is not of critical importance (and given that RPC listens on localhost only...).

[dugongsoftware]

@Drak have you got it working? I've tried registering as a windows service via sc. exe create but no luck.

[itoffshore]

Alpine Linux has packages now for Bitcoin / Namecoin with both running as a service as Bitcoin / Namecoin user:groups. There are templates in LXC for Alpine (a running Alpine container is 5 meg in size) so it is simple to run Bitcoin on any Linux (or as a virtualbox service in Windows).

[msgilligan]

There is also a PR with Upstart and OpenRC support #4611

[msgilligan]

This (and PR #4611) is some nice work. Is there any (official) effort to make an Ubuntu (or other distro) package that includes it?

(Edit: I've seen the existing PPA repository and the current bitcoin package does not include any init scripts)

[itoffshore]

On any Linux distribution install LXC (Ubuntu / Debian / Redhat / Archlinux / OpenSUSE have packages) & create an Alpine Linux container (this is 5 meg in size).

Log in to the container (user = root & password is empty) & run:

apk add bitcoin
rc-update add bitcoin default
rc-service bitcoin start

& bitcoin will run as user bitcoin. There is also a package for namecoin in Alpine.

For extra security & complete isolation run an unprivileged container.

Ubuntu docs for LXC

[doll1]

Nice work. Would love to see a package for Litecoin too.

[laanwj]

This is sufficiently done now (doc/init.md), thanks everyone, closing the issue

[rebroad]

What about running it as a service on Microsoft Windows? This doesn't seem to have been addressed.

[laanwj]

We don't have any active windows developers, so none of us will do that. But feel free to write a guide on that.