monero-docs/docs/interacting/monerod/reference.md

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monerod - Reference | Monero Documentation

monerod - reference

Syntax

./monerod [options] [command]

Options define how daemon should be working. Their names follow the --option-name pattern.

Commands give access to specific services provided by the daemon. Commands are executed against a running daemon. Their names follow the command_name pattern.

Options

Following option groups are only to make this reference easier to follow. The daemon itself does not group options in any way.

Pick network

Option	Description
(missing)	By default monerod assumes mainnet.
--stagenet	Run on stagenet. Remember to run your wallet with --stagenet as well.
--testnet	Run on testnet. Remember to run your wallet with --testnet as well.

Logging

Option	Description
--log-file	Full path to the log file. Example (mind file permissions): ./monerod --log-file=/var/log/monero/mainnet/monerod.log
--log-level	0-4 with 0 being minimal logging and 4 being full tracing. Defaults to 0. These are general presets and do not directly map to severity levels. For example, even with minimal 0, you may see some most important INFO entries. Temporarily changing to 1 allows for much better understanding of how the full node operates. Example: ./monerod --log-level=1
--max-log-file-size	Soft limit in bytes for the log file (=104850000 by default, which is just under 100MB). Once log file grows past that limit, monerod creates next log file with a -YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS UTC timestamp postfix. In production deployments, you would probably prefer to use established solutions like logrotate instead.

Server

monerod defaults are adjusted for running it occasionally on the same computer as your Monero wallet.

The following options will be helpful if you intend to have an always running node — most likely on a remote server or your own separate PC.

Option	Description
--config-file	Full path to the configuration file. By default monerod looks for bitmonero.conf in Monero data directory. TODO: describe configuration file syntax.
--data-dir	Full path to data directory. This is where the blockchain, log files, and p2p network memory are stored. For defaults and details see data directory.
--pidfile	Full path to the PID file. Works only with --detach. Example: ./monerod --detach --pidfile=/run/monero/monerod.pid
--detach	Go to background (decouple from the terminal). This is useful for long-running / server scenarios. Typically, you will also want to manage monerod daemon with systemd or similar. By default monerod runs in a foreground.
--non-interactive	Do not require tty in a foreground mode. Helpful when running in a container. By default monerod runs in a foreground and opens stdin for reading. This breaks containerization because no tty getss assigned and monerod process crashes. You can make it run in a background with --detach but this is inconvenient in a containerized environment because the canonical usage is that the container waits on the main process to exist (forking makes things more complicated).
--no-igd	Disable UPnP port mapping. Add this option to improve security if you are not behind a NAT (you can bind directly to public IP or you run through Tor).

P2P network

(WORK IN PROGRESS)

The following options define how your node participates in Monero peer-to-peer network. This is for node-to-node communication. It does not affect wallet-to-node interface.

The node and peer words are used interchangeably.

Option	Description
--p2p-bind-ip	Network interface to bind to for p2p network protocol. Default value 0.0.0.0 binds to all network interfaces. This is typically what you want. You must change this if you want to constrain binding, for example to configure connection through Tor via torsocks: DNS_PUBLIC=tcp://1.1.1.1 TORSOCKS_ALLOW_INBOUND=1 torsocks ./monerod --p2p-bind-ip 127.0.0.1 --no-igd --hide-my-port
--p2p-bind-port	TCP port to listen for p2p network connections. Defaults to 18080 for mainnet, 28080 for testnet, and 38080 for stagenet. You normally wouldn't change that. This is helpful to run several nodes on your machine to simulate private Monero p2p network (likely using private Testnet). Example: ./monerod --p2p-bind-port=48080
--p2p-external-port	TCP port to listen for p2p network connections on your router. Relevant if you are behind a NAT and still want to accept incoming connections. You must then set this to relevant port on your router. This is to let monerod know what to advertise on the network. Default is 0.
--hide-my-port	monerod will still open and listen on the p2p port. However, it will not announce itself as a peerlist candidate. Technically, it will return port 0 in a response to p2p handshake (node_data.my_port = 0 in get_local_node_data function). In effect nodes you connect to won't spread your IP to other nodes. To sum up, it is not really hiding, it is more like "do not advertise".
--seed-node	Connect to a node to retrieve other nodes' addresses, and disconnect. If not specified, monerod will use hardcoded seed nodes on the first run, and peers cached on disk on subsequent runs.
--add-peer	Manually add node to local peerlist.
--add-priority-node	Specify list of nodes to connect to and then attempt to keep the connection open. To add multiple nodes use the option several times. Example: ./monerod --add-priority-node=178.128.192.138:18081 --add-priority-node=144.76.202.167:18081
--add-exclusive-node	Specify list of nodes to connect to only. If this option is given the options --add-priority-node and --seed-node are ignored. To add multiple nodes use the option several times. Example: ./monerod --add-exclusive-node=178.128.192.138:18081 --add-exclusive-node=144.76.202.167:18081
--offline	Do not listen for peers, nor connect to any. Useful for working with a stable local blockchain.
--allow-local-ip	Allow local ip add to peer list, mostly in debug purposes. TODO: verify
--out-peers arg (=-1)	Set max number of outgoing connections to other peers. TODO: verify
--in-peers arg (=-1)	Set max number of incoming connections (peers actively connecting). TODO: verify

Help and Version

Option	Description
--help	Enlists available options.
--version	Shows monerod version to stdout. Example: Monero 'Lithium Luna' (v0.12.3.0-release)
--os-version	Shows build timestamp and target operating system. Example output: OS: Linux #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 24 12:48:58 UTC 2018 4.18.5-arch1-1-ARCH.

Legacy

These options should no longer be necessary. They are still present in monerod for backwards compatibility.

Option	Description
--fluffy-blocks	Relay compact blocks. Default. Compact block is just a header and a list of transaction IDs.
--no-fluffy-blocks	Relay classic full blocks. Classic block contains all transactions.
--db-type	Specify database type. The default and only available: lmdb.

Reference

• Reddit answer
• SE 1
• SE 2