Hello,
I have a few questions:
- Do I need to wait for bitcoind to download the complete block files or can I run them in parallel?
- Once the initial data load finishes do I need to stop it and run it with python -m Abe.abe --config abe-my.conf?
- Will running python -m Abe.abe --config abe-my.conf insert new incoming blocks?
Thanks
You can run bitcoind and Abe in parallel.
The instructions call for --no-serve on the initial load, and this makes it exit as soon as it loads the last block, so you don't have to stop it. The instructions say to run in web-server mode after the initial load, but you can run both at the same time, as long as you add "--datadir=[]" to the end of the web server command:
python -m Abe.abe --config abe-my.conf "--datadir=[]"
The "--datadir=[]" prevents the two processes from competing to insert blocks, which tends to cause trouble.
Unfortunately, Abe does not automatically insert new blocks every so often. By default, (
without "--datadir=[]") it inserts new blocks when you browse the site, but if you haven't for a long time, it can take Abe quite a while to catch up. If this is a problem, I suggest you schedule a job to trigger this at regular intervals. For example, I use this in crontab to check every minute:
* * * * * /usr/bin/wget -q -O /dev/null http://localhost:2750/
If you want to run a server as opposed to just personal use, I suggest configuring the public server not to load anything (by adding "--datadir=[]") and have a separate process listening on the local interface with a job such as the above to trigger loading new blocks. Using a local listener keeps the loader single-threaded. (This information should be in a readme, thanks for asking.)
