pointd

pointd is the all-in-one command-line interface. It supports wallet management, queries and transaction operations

Pre-requisite Readings

• Installation

Build and Configuration

Using pointd

After you have obtained the latest pointd binary, run:

pointd [command]

Check the version you are running using

pointd version

There is also a -h, --help command available

pointd -h

tip

You can also enable auto-completion with the pointd completion command. For example, at the start of a bash session, run . <(pointd completion), and all pointd subcommands will be auto-completed.

Config and data directory

By default, your config and data are stored in the folder located at the ~/.pointd directory.

.                                   # ~/.pointd
  ├── data/                           # Contains the databases used by the node.
  └── config/
      ├── app.toml                   # Application-related configuration file.
      ├── config.toml                # Tendermint-related configuration file.
      ├── genesis.json               # The genesis file.
      ├── node_key.json              # Private key to use for node authentication in the p2p protocol.
      └── priv_validator_key.json    # Private key to use as a validator in the consensus protocol.

To specify the pointd config and data storage directory; you can update it using the global flag --home <directory>

Configuring the Node

The Cosmos SDK automatically generates two configuration files inside ~/.pointd/config:

• config.toml: used to configure the Tendermint, learn more on Tendermint's documentation,
• app.toml: generated by the Cosmos SDK, and used to configure your app, such as state pruning strategies, telemetry, gRPC and REST servers configuration, state sync, JSON-RPC, etc.

Both files are heavily commented, please refer to them directly to tweak your node.

One example config to tweak is the minimum-gas-prices field inside app.toml, which defines the minimum amount the validator node is willing to accept for processing a transaction. It is an anti spam mechanism and it will reject incoming transactions with less than the minimum gas prices.

If it's empty, make sure to edit the field with some value, for example 10token, or else the node will halt on startup.

 # The minimum gas prices a validator is willing to accept for processing a
 # transaction. A transaction's fees must meet the minimum of any denomination
 # specified in this config (e.g. 0.25token1;0.0001token2).
 minimum-gas-prices = "0apoint"

Pruning of State

There are four strategies for pruning state. These strategies apply only to state and do not apply to block storage. To set pruning, adjust the pruning parameter in the ~/.pointd/config/app.toml file. The following pruning state settings are available:

• everything: Prune all saved states other than the current state.
• nothing: Save all states and delete nothing.
• default: Save the last 100 states and the state of every 10,000th block.
• custom: Specify pruning settings with the pruning-keep-recent, pruning-keep-every, and pruning-interval parameters.

By default, every node is in default mode which is the recommended setting for most environments. If you would like to change your nodes pruning strategy then you must do so when the node is initialized. Passing a flag when starting pointd will always override settings in the app.toml file, if you would like to change your node to the everything mode then you can pass the ---pruning everything flag when you call pointd start.

danger

IMPORTANT: When you are pruning state you will not be able to query the heights that are not in your store.

Client configuration

We can view the default client config setting by using pointd config command:

pointd config
{
 "chain-id": "",
 "keyring-backend": "os",
 "output": "text",
 "node": "tcp://localhost:26657",
 "broadcast-mode": "sync"
}

We can make changes to the default settings upon our choices, so it allows users to set the configuration beforehand all at once, so it would be ready with the same config afterward.

For example, the chain identifier can be changed to point_10687-1 from a blank name by using:

pointd config "chain-id" point_10687-1
pointd config
{
 "chain-id": "point_10687-1",
 "keyring-backend": "os",
 "output": "text",
 "node": "tcp://localhost:26657",
 "broadcast-mode": "sync"
}

Other values can be changed in the same way.

Alternatively, we can directly make the changes to the config values in one place at client.toml. It is under the path of .pointd/config/client.toml in the folder where we installed pointd:

############################################################################
### Client Configuration ###

############################################################################

# The network chain ID

chain-id = "point_10687-1"

# The keyring's backend, where the keys are stored (os|file|kwallet|pass|test|memory)

keyring-backend = "os"

# CLI output format (text|json)

output = "number"

# <host>:<port> to Tendermint RPC interface for this chain

node = "tcp://localhost:26657"

# Transaction broadcasting mode (sync|async|block)

broadcast-mode = "sync"

After the necessary changes are made in the client.toml, then save. For example, if we directly change the chain-id from point_10731-1 to point_10687-1, and output to number, it would change instantly as shown below.

pointd config
{
 "chain-id": "point_10687-1",
 "keyring-backend": "os",
 "output": "number",
 "node": "tcp://localhost:26657",
 "broadcast-mode": "sync"
}

Options

A list of commonly used flags of pointd is listed below:

Option	Description	Type	Default Value
--chain-id	Full Chain ID	string	""
--home	Directory for config and data	string	~/.pointd
--keyring-backend	Select keyring's backend	{"os"|"file"|"kwallet"|"pass"|"test"|"memory"}	"os"
--output	Output format	string	"text"

Command list

A list of commonly used pointd commands. You can obtain the full list by using the pointd -h command.

Command	Description	Subcommands (example)
keys	Keys management	list, show, add, add --recover, delete
tx	Transactions subcommands	bank send, ibc-transfer transfer, distribution withdraw-all-rewards
query	Query subcommands	bank balance, staking validators, gov proposals
tendermint	Tendermint subcommands	show-address, show-node-id, version
config	Client configuration
init	Initialize full node
start	Run full node
version	Point Chain version