Avalanche CLI is a command line tool that gives developers access to everything Avalanche. This release specializes in helping developers develop and test subnets.
The tool has been tested on Linux and Mac. Windows is currently not supported.
To download a binary for the latest release, run:
curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ava-labs/avalanche-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | sh -s
The binary will be installed inside the ~/bin
directory.
To add the binary to your path, run
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH
To add it to your path permanently, add an export command to your shell initialization script (ex: .bashrc).
To download the binary into a specific directory, run:
curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ava-labs/avalanche-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- -b <relative directory>
To get started easily, we provide a Dev Container specification, that can be used using GitHub Codespace or locally using Docker and VS Code. Dev Containers are a concept that utilizes containerization to create consistent and isolated development environment. You can run them directly on Github by clicking Code, switching to the Codespaces tab and clicking Create codespace on main. Alternatively, you can run them locally with the extensions for VS Code or other code editors.
After installing, launch your own custom subnet:
avalanche subnet create <subnetName>
avalanche subnet deploy <subnetName>
Shut down your local deployment with:
avalanche network stop
Restart your local deployment (from where you left off) with:
avalanche network start
You can provide a global node config to edit the way your local avalanchego nodes perform under the hood. To provide such a config, you need to create an avalanche-cli config file. By default, a config file is read in from $HOME/.avalanche-cli/config.json If none exists, no error will occur. To provide a config from a custom location, run any command with the flag --config <pathToConfig>
.
To specify the global node config, provide it as a body for the node-config
key. Ex:
{
"network-peer-list-gossip-frequency":"250ms",
"network-max-reconnect-delay":"1s",
"public-ip":"127.0.0.1",
"health-check-frequency":"2s",
"api-admin-enabled":true,
"api-ipcs-enabled":true,
"index-enabled":true
}
You may wish to deploy your subnet on a cloud instance and access it remotely. If you'd like to do so, use this as your node config:
{
"node-config": {
"http-host": "0.0.0.0"
}
}
To build Avalanche-CLI, you'll first need to install golang. Follow the instructions here: https://go.dev/doc/install.
Once golang is installed, run:
./scripts/build.sh
The binary will be called ./bin/avalanche
.
To make Avalanche CLI work in a docker container, add this
{
"ipv6": true,
"fixed-cidr-v6": "fd00::/80"
}
to /etc/docker/daemon.json
on the host, then restart the docker service. This is because ipv6 is used to resolve local bootstrap IPs, and it is not enabled on a docker container by default.
To run our suite of end-to-end tests, you'll need to install Node-JS and yarn. You can follow instructions to do that here and here.
To run the tests, execute the following command from the repo's root directory:
./scripts/run.e2e.sh
Network snapshots are used by the CLI in order to keep track of blockchain state, and to improve performance of local deployments.
They are the main way to persist subnets, blockchains, and blockchain operations, among different executions of the tool.
Three different kinds of snapshots are used:
bootstrap snapshot
is provided as the starting network state. It is never modified by CLI usage.
Designed for fast deploys. Enables full reset of the blockchain state.default snapshot
is the main way to keep track of blockchain state. Used by default in the tools.
It is initialized from the bootstrap snapshot
, and after that is updated from CLI operations.custom snapshots
can be specified by the user, to save and restore particular states. Only changed if
explicitly asked to do so.Usage of local networks:
network start
and subnet deploy
will start it from the default snapshot
.
subnet deploy
will also do the deploy on the started network.network start
will do nothing, and subnet deploy
will use the running one to do the deploy.network stop
, network clean
, or until machine rebootHow the CLI commands affect the default snapshot
:
network start
or subnet deploy
will initialize default snapshot
from the bootstrap snapshot
subnet deploy
do not change the snapshot, only the running networknetwork stop
persist the running network into the default snapshot
network clean
copy again the bootstrap snapshot
into the default snapshot
, doing a reset of the stateSo typically a user will want to do the deploy she needs, change the blockchain state in a specific way, and
after that execute network stop
to preserve all the state. In a different session, network start
or subnet deploy
will recover that state.
How the CLI commands affect the custom snapshots
:
network stop
can be given an optional snapshot name. This will then be used instead of the default one to save the statenetwork start
can be given an optional snapshot name. This will then be used instead of the default one to save the statesubnet deploy
will take a running network if it is available, so there is a need to use network start
previously to do
deploys, if wanting to use custom snapshotsnetwork clean
does not change custom snapshotsSo typically a user who wants to use a custom snapshot will do the deploy she needs, change the blockchain state in a specific way, and
after that execute network stop
with --snapshot-name
flag to preserve all the state into the desired snapshot.
In a different session, network start
with --snapshot-name
flag will be called to load that specific snapshot, and after that
subnet deploy
can be used on top of it. Notice that you need to continue giving --snapshot-name
flag to those commands if you
continue saving/restoring to it, if not, default snapshot will be used
.
~/.avalanche-cli/snapshot
will contain all saved snapshots, which can for example be used to pass work aroundMore detailed information on how to use Avalanche CLI can be found at here.