I have enhanced the bc_key program to print interesting information about transactions found in the wallet file.
https://github.com/halfinney/bc_keyRun it as:
./bc_key EVERYTHING ~/.bitcoin/wallet.dat
(substitute your own wallet.dat location on mac and windows)
This dumps everything in the wallet, including keys and address book, but let's just look at transactions:
./bc_key EVERYTHING ~/.bitcoin/wallet.dat | grep ^tx
I'll go ahead and violate my own privacy because I want to make a point. Here's my output:
tx 011104eddf3afd4e1133996e3e2a9c7f16ed1f9dfa922493612bab9b8be19f0e 1.50000000 12gHtU8z4HNymJUBetcyY2MU8CYYfszq5X 2011/01/22 spent
tx 5fa35fa2e753c8997aaca3b1cb434f218884d95ae8803a0ee7ff8eee298ba00f 3.00000000 1BPE6sLdYn8zoRH2ovEWiqQH4NRbyAAHNK 2011/01/22 change spent
tx cff5962c80af06506d6583710fdbde01b95e0bf4a37df27af82ee5038b241016 9.00000000 1NiihskVid2GTWEJjKDaft67aFkeCJTTaE 2011/02/06 change
tx 31989da39c18a351fb393b05d7d66efd69cf1cc64958d67a5c49189e28402b1f 0.50000000 157a7eFdnTg89gPZ5wWPjX1TMVL3ffeDSh 2011/01/28 change
tx a5a88c6af09b9bcd21a7ee0e0c25ce912a0ccabd90a5a6d8a5644c7b6c519321 6.00000000 payment 2011/01/30 spent
tx b6f4b9239544d864d5fbbfce5bc6d6333227e2b6db8aa0d35beba3bcf12b212d 12.00000000 1513Z4iDpW1K3qyknHUhwxhXy6H5aYd6q6 2011/01/30 spent
tx 061ef85f7936b138675e5c6b01c67ddbb8710aa9c00dffdd1859e2e0b231ce47 3.00000000 payment 2011/02/01 spent
tx 835d37f77fc980efa21771e3fefbd79d9a20f2f69d3d0517d99f86aeecae464a 997.00000000 1F4YL3tYS1Y4dEvCUppwMjggi2imgJogVW 2011/01/20 change spent
tx 3ed3602d07e3f16f90f4966c502e5fcccb7e13faacc0053e9558e91a93a9a24f 3.00000000 1J6ToHCuN6jeniL7wD2zJwxhRUv2V6TLXW 2011/01/30 change spent
tx 78537330713ec5c92befd3e1a91c754198ee14877c02d8888c899280d0a49c58 994.00000000 1K8THF4Qkr5mMKjQRJe1xW33ZYoUrgtUHL 2011/01/20 change
tx 82621223fccb83122edda411f941c729929507a21bed320d1a9af6caa12dc159 1000.00000000 1KeWUnmZZUNDSeWKf9pqZmMdtkeJ5jENnX 2011/01/02 spent
tx 5fd3fed9bef47df2c95255b863bf989b027121bfcedd692d08888ba704130c7a 5.00000000 19MvB9acQ4wx4GtGxBwTamMkfHPVSBWY3Z 2011/01/22 change spent
tx 9555b4b8e84e6e5b045847fe86d6bb82df67e4360a897b485dbd8a76e0b46b83 10.00000000 1NC55QPMZqtpRNiRvkBatNvZLrXT5XqnRR 2011/02/03 change spent
tx 3a3b74721cc6af482bcc8b6722f80a87a9de103ee26a67975a2eee69328a3b92 6.00000000 1513Z4iDpW1K3qyknHUhwxhXy6H5aYd6q6 2011/01/20 spent
tx 4c9bb949f106cfe6bed53415e7dcb86f5c93603434c65ca6423d5de1eabafa92 1.25000000 12gHtU8z4HNymJUBetcyY2MU8CYYfszq5X 2011/01/22 spent
tx 03f87b3c1ed4231e64a781ce2f8c10c03e7a3f6439389c97af640e1e63eb29b0 0.25000000 1LKRbsyxiSi3zfHKyumEH8W7fSQapapnnw 2011/01/28 change
tx a97511426aac9be884236578060293a1b6783d4c7467288bf89436bfc38feec9 3.00000000 payment 2011/01/30 spent
tx 230fec2b39bc56ef359a5c078505b8aac0d8221c5109dd0fa8f98ddd667ab8d3 18.87000000 12BxP2C6aj2KT5fsnNdiyVMKfhm9tu1MK4 2011/02/01
tx 7b8cb378bc8f15e98a8f94c2c20a8e552b6dd785f3863c1baac314e8b8d56ada 6.00000000 1513Z4iDpW1K3qyknHUhwxhXy6H5aYd6q6 2011/01/30 spent
tx ca43a17aa52c670e96c77a752552d502016355e2c7018ed4c930215e8366a9da 6.00000000 1513Z4iDpW1K3qyknHUhwxhXy6H5aYd6q6 2011/01/20 spent
The big number is the transaction ID, suitable for plugging into
blockexplorer.com. Next is the bitcoin amount, your address that received the bitcoins, and the date of the transaction. Finally come the optional words change and spent. Change means this transaction produced change as a side effect of a payment you made to others, and the address shown is the change address, which is largely hidden in the client UI. Spent means that the bitcoin(s) associated with this transaction have been spent and are no longer available.
There are basically three types of wallet transactions. First are payments from someone else to a wallet key. Next are payments to others which happen to exactly use up one or more available transactions, with nothing left over. These are shown as "payment" in the address field and are always marked as spent. Last are payments where there were bitcoins left over, which get returned to a new address. These are the ones which are shown as change.
To see the transactions which are available for spending, filter out the spent ones with grep -v:
./bc_key EVERYTHING ~/.bitcoin/wallet.dat | grep ^tx | grep -v spent\$
tx cff5962c80af06506d6583710fdbde01b95e0bf4a37df27af82ee5038b241016 9.00000000 1NiihskVid2GTWEJjKDaft67aFkeCJTTaE 2011/02/06 change
tx 31989da39c18a351fb393b05d7d66efd69cf1cc64958d67a5c49189e28402b1f 0.50000000 157a7eFdnTg89gPZ5wWPjX1TMVL3ffeDSh 2011/01/28 change
tx 78537330713ec5c92befd3e1a91c754198ee14877c02d8888c899280d0a49c58 994.00000000 1K8THF4Qkr5mMKjQRJe1xW33ZYoUrgtUHL 2011/01/20 change
tx 03f87b3c1ed4231e64a781ce2f8c10c03e7a3f6439389c97af640e1e63eb29b0 0.25000000 1LKRbsyxiSi3zfHKyumEH8W7fSQapapnnw 2011/01/28 change
tx 230fec2b39bc56ef359a5c078505b8aac0d8221c5109dd0fa8f98ddd667ab8d3 18.87000000 12BxP2C6aj2KT5fsnNdiyVMKfhm9tu1MK4 2011/02/01
These are really my "bitcoins". They are what I have available to spend. The sum of the bitcoin amounts should equal my wallet balance. Any spend I make will come from one or more of these transactions. Generally, the Bitcoin client will try to combine one or more small transactions to make a payment, otherwise it will use the smallest single transaction capable of funding the payment.
Although my wallet doesn't show it too clearly, it's not unusual for a single Bitcoin address to be funded by multiple transactions. But for making payments, this is basically irrelevant. Individual transactions are picked to fund payments without regard to whether some of them happen to use the same address.
