2

I have a node synched in normal mode up until number=5143444

Node started with 

geth --datadir "./"
--rpc 
--rpcaddr 0.0.0.0 
--ws 
--wsaddr 0.0.0.0 
--wsorigins="*" 
--maxpeers 100 
--maxpendpeers 10 
console

I'm trying to test the geth traces (compared to parity traces) but it seems I cannot get old transactions.

I've tried running trace on a recent transaction and it works

> debug.traceTransaction("0x59ae735c0291ec79460968d01dbd5b4adf007571bfaa308b8ab1005bb5e3f500")
{
  failed: false,
  gas: 21000,
  returnValue: "",
  structLogs: []
}

But if I try running trace on an older transaction (from block 1580796), I get this

> debug.traceTransaction("0x8e5b38db03e0941677ba65275d78fe18df999c11a7be1921831082121ae73390")
Error: required historical state unavailable
    at web3.js:3143:20
    at web3.js:6347:15
    at web3.js:5081:36
    at <anonymous>:1:1

I know with parity I need to specifically set tracing and archive on:

--tracing=on
--pruning=archive

And this creates a HUGE database. Is there something similar for geth? The command line options don't seem to have anything about this

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

In order to have available all of the information you need to sync your node with --syncmode full

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4
  • Hi there, I tried the following command but still got the same error: geth --cache=1024 --rpc --rpcapi "eth,net,web3,debug" console --syncmode full. Any idea on that?
    – lllllllllllll
    Commented Nov 28, 2018 at 16:52
  • Was the node fully synchronized when you tried it?
    – Daniel Luca CleanUnicorn
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 10:05
  • Yes, I use eth.syncing to check the current block, then check a block that is order than the current one.
    – lllllllllllll
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 10:16
  • this answer is incorrect. You need archival node to trace old transactions. Full node only tracks 128 states in memory and some trace log info to be able to reconstruct few weeks of old states. But a transaction year old won't traceable because states are pruned.
    – Nulik
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 22:59
2

You must set gcmode=archive when start geth.

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1
  • this is the correct answer. Though as of today you need 8 Terabytes of SSD storage to have archival node. One could get help from bcache and use 1GB SSD disk with 8TB backing device
    – Nulik
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 23:09

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