"ancient block sync is still in progress" even though it completed.

[gmajoulet]

• Parity Ethereum version: 2.3.0
• Operating system: Linux
• Installation: one-line installer
• Fully synchronized: yes
• Network: ethereum
• Restarted: yes

1. Install parity with the one line installer
2. Run parity --jsonrpc-server-threads=5 --min-peers 50 --max-peers 200 --geth --no-ancient-blocks and wait for the node to be up to date (it started importing the latest block every ~10sec)
3. Got errors Error: Block information is incomplete while ancient block sync is still in progress, before it's finished we can't determine the existence of requested item. for anything I'd try to do (retrieving a tx, publishing one, anything).
4. Run parity db kill
5. Run parity --jsonrpc-server-threads=5 --min-peers 50 --max-peers 200 --geth and wait for the node to sync
6. Got the same errors mentioning ancient block sync again even though the node doesn't run with this parameter.

[jam10o-new]

Hey, could you share more examples of what requests you are making, and how you are making them?

Edit: I misread the source,

[jam10o-new]

If you disable --no-ancient-blocks, your node will be syncing ancient blocks in the background which you can verify that status of with https://wiki.parity.io/JSONRPC-parity-module#parity_chainstatus

[gmajoulet]

My node did sync the ancient blocks and is now working as expected, but this was not documented nor written anywhere in the CLI. :(
Would it help if I could repro the exact issue I had with using --no-ancient-blocks? I was executing a smart contract function, so I would need to investigate and test what was actually triggering the error, if that helps. If not, feel free to close this ticket.
Thanks!

[jam10o-new]

Well, it depends on what queries you were making - ordinary eth_calls shouldn't be emitting this error even if you are running with --no-ancient-blocks (and this would be a valid issue) but getting transactions or block information from blocks you don't have is expected to throw this error.

[gmajoulet]

Thanks for the context.
For what it's worth, I still think the error message is confusing: it suggests the node is still syncing, even though it will actually never work since --no-ancient-blocks was used. The title of this issue is still relevant, but I understand that this issue must be very very low priority. :) Feel free to edit the title or close the issue as needed.
Thanks!

[bonanblock]

try to call the rpc with the following command {"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getUncleByBlockNumberAndIndex","params":["0x649356", "0x0"],"id":1}.
getting the error message {"id": 1, "error": {"code": -32000, "message": "Ancient block sync is still in progress"}, "jsonrpc": "2.0"}
all other rpc calls are working fine.

[jam10o-new]

Have you tried https://wiki.parity.io/JSONRPC-parity-module#parity_chainStatus ?

[bonanblock]

tried curl --data '{"method":"parity_chainStatus","params":[],"id":1,"jsonrpc":"2.0"}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST localhost:2211
Gives
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":{"blockGap":null},"id":1}

[bonanblock]

updates: this rpc call eth_getUncleByBlockNumberAndIndex is broken. It will return Ancient block sync is still in progress when there is no such uncle exist
'{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getUncleByBlockHashAndIndex","params":["0x75e1271bdfa6bcbcc9e9a1ad8b340297215dc6dc9323e55c2c3e7816f7f93a19", "0x0"],"id":1}' gives the correct response. {"id": 1, "result": null, "jsonrpc": "2.0"}
While '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getUncleByBlockNumberAndIndex","params":["0x726485", "0x0"],"id":1}' will return {"id": 1, "error": {"code": -32000, "message": "Ancient block sync is still in progress"}, "jsonrpc": "2.0"}
Even tho they are the same block

[jam10o-new]

@bonanblock could you please share what version you are running and which cli/config parameters you are using?

[bonanblock]

version Parity-Ethereum/v2.4.4-beta-8f6911a-20190401/x86_64-linux-gnu/rustc1.33.0

[parity]
base_path = "/srv/blockchain/eth"

[rpc]
interface = "127.0.0.1"
port = 2211
apis = ["web3", "eth", "net", "rpc", "parity"]
hosts = ["127.0.0.1/8"]

[websockets]
disable = false
port = 2223
interface = "127.0.0.1"
origins = ["none"]
apis = ["web3", "eth", "pubsub"]
hosts = ["127.0.0.1/8"]

[footprint]
db_compaction = "ssd"
pruning = "archive"
cache_size = 8192

[snapshots]
disable_periodic = false

[network]
snapshot_peers = 0
~

[jam10o-new]

So not only is ancient block sync not running, you are running an archive node. I can find the relevant error message and change it but I'm not certain what the correct error message would be for this situation.

[bonanblock]

I would suggest give the same response as {"id": 1, "result": null, "jsonrpc": "2.0"}. If it returns {"id": 1, "error": {"code": -32000, "message": "Ancient block sync is still in progress"}, it is misleading which makes the developers doubt if their node is fully synced but in reality it just means there no uncle blocks attached to this block

[seunlanlege]

Just investigated the code, found the reason for the misleading error messages,