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Substrate Node Template

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A fresh FRAME-based Substrate node, ready for hacking :rocket:

Getting Started

Follow the steps below to get started with the Node Template, or get it up and running right from your browser in just a few clicks using Playground :hammer_and_wrench:

Using Nix

Install nix and optionally direnv and lorri for a fully plug and play experience for setting up the development environment. To get all the correct dependencies activate direnv direnv allow and lorri lorri shell.

Rust Setup

First, complete the basic Rust setup instructions.

Run

Use Rust's native cargo command to build and launch the template node:

cargo run --release -- --dev --tmp

Build

The cargo run command will perform an initial build. Use the following command to build the node without launching it:

cargo build --release

Embedded Docs

Once the project has been built, the following command can be used to explore all parameters and subcommands:

./target/release/node-template -h

Run

The provided cargo run command will launch a temporary node and its state will be discarded after you terminate the process. After the project has been built, there are other ways to launch the node.

Single-Node Development Chain

This command will start the single-node development chain with persistent state:

./target/release/node-template --dev

Purge the development chain's state:

./target/release/node-template purge-chain --dev

Start the development chain with detailed logging:

RUST_LOG=debug RUST_BACKTRACE=1 ./target/release/node-template -lruntime=debug --dev

Connect with Polkadot-JS Apps Front-end

Once the node template is running locally, you can connect it with Polkadot-JS Apps front-end to interact with your chain. Click here connecting the Apps to your local node template.

Multi-Node Local Testnet

If you want to see the multi-node consensus algorithm in action, refer to our Start a Private Network tutorial.

Template Structure

A Substrate project such as this consists of a number of components that are spread across a few directories.

Node

A blockchain node is an application that allows users to participate in a blockchain network. Substrate-based blockchain nodes expose a number of capabilities:

There are several files in the node directory - take special note of the following:

After the node has been built, refer to the embedded documentation to learn more about the capabilities and configuration parameters that it exposes:

./target/release/node-template --help

Runtime

In Substrate, the terms "runtime" and "state transition function" are analogous - they refer to the core logic of the blockchain that is responsible for validating blocks and executing the state changes they define. The Substrate project in this repository uses the FRAME framework to construct a blockchain runtime. FRAME allows runtime developers to declare domain-specific logic in modules called "pallets". At the heart of FRAME is a helpful macro language that makes it easy to create pallets and flexibly compose them to create blockchains that can address a variety of needs.

Review the FRAME runtime implementation included in this template and note the following:

Pallets

The runtime in this project is constructed using many FRAME pallets that ship with the core Substrate repository and a template pallet that is defined in the pallets directory.

A FRAME pallet is compromised of a number of blockchain primitives:

Run in Docker

First, install Docker and Docker Compose.

Then run the following command to start a single node development chain.

./scripts/docker_run.sh

This command will firstly compile your code, and then start a local development network. You can also replace the default command (cargo build --release && ./target/release/node-template --dev --ws-external) by appending your own. A few useful ones are as follow.

# Run Substrate node without re-compiling
./scripts/docker_run.sh ./target/release/node-template --dev --ws-external

# Purge the local dev chain
./scripts/docker_run.sh ./target/release/node-template purge-chain --dev

# Check whether the code is compilable
./scripts/docker_run.sh cargo check