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Avash

Avash is a temporary stateful shell execution environment used to deploy local and remote networks and run tests on them. Avalanche nodes locally deployed by Avash are exited when Avash exits.

Avash provides the ability to run Lua scripts which can execute a sequence of shell commands in Avash. This allows for automation of regular tasks. For instance, one could create a Lua script to deploy a network of Avalanche nodes where each node has some given configuration. This makes testing easier.

Installation

Requirements

  • Golang 1.15.5 or later
  • An Avalanche Client Implementing Avalanche Standard CLI Flags”

Quick Setup

  1. Install and build an Avalanche client
  2. cd $GOPATH
  3. go get github.com/ava-labs/avash
  4. cd src/github.com/ava-labs/avash
  5. go build

Configuration

While Avash can be started without a premade configuration file, it’s available as an option for tweaking some of the shell’s global settings. Avash will search for .avash.yaml in the $HOME directory by default, but the --config flag can be used to set a custom configuration filepath to look for.

Below is the format of an Avash configuration file:

avalancheLocation: <filepath>
datadir: <directory>
log:
  terminal: <log-level>
  logfile: <log-level>
  dir: <directory>

The field arguments are described as follows:

  • <filepath> - A full path to a file. Example: /home/username/file.txt
  • <directory> - A full path to a directory. Example: /home/username/folder
  • <log-level> - A valid log level to filter logged messages. Must be one of: {verbo, debug, info, warn, error, fatal, off}

Fields

avalancheLocation

File path to Avalanche binary.

Type:
  optional, <filepath>

Default:
  $GOPATH/src/github.com/ava-labs/avalanchego/build/avalanche

datadir

Directory for Avash data store.

Type:
  optional, <directory>

Default:
  $GOPATH/src/github.com/ava-labs/avash/stash

log.terminal

Allowed output level for all messages logged to the shell terminal.

Type:
  optional, <log-level>

Default:
  info

log.logfile

Allowed output level for all messages logged to the log file.

Type:
  optional, <log-level>

Default:
  info

log.dir

Directory for log file.

Type:
  optional, <directory>

Default:
  <datadir>/logs

Using Avash

Opening a shell

Start a new instance of Avash with ./avash.

Run help to see the commands available.

We can also run help [command] to see the list of options available for that command.

Ex:

help procmanager
help procmanager start

Commands

Avash comes with the following root commands:

  • avawallet - Tools for interacting with Avalanche Payments over the network.
  • callrpc - Issues an RPC call to a node.
  • exit - Exit the shell.
  • help - Help about any command.
  • network - Tools for interfacing with remote hosts.
  • procmanager - Access the process manager for the avash client.
  • runscript - Runs the provided script.
  • setoutput - Sets shell log output.
  • startnode - Starts a node process and gives it a name.
  • varstore - Tools for creating variable stores and printing variables within them.

These can be enumerated or auto-completed using the tab key and are explained in detail below.

avawallet

Warning: Like all things in Avash, this wallet is temporarily held in memory and all data is cleaned up on exit. This should be used for testing.

Tools for interacting with Avalanche Payments over the network. Using this 
    command we can create, send, and get the status of a transaction.

Usage:
  avash avawallet [command] [flags]

Available Commands:
  addkey      Adds a private key to a wallet.
  balance     Checks the balance of an address from a node.
  compare     Compares the UTXO set between two wallets.
  create      Creates a wallet.
  maketx      Creates a signed transaction.
  newkey      Creates a random private key.
  refresh     Refreshes UTXO set from node.
  remove      Removes a transaction from a wallet's UTXO set.
  send        Sends a transaction to a node.
  spend       Spends a transaction from a wallet's UTXO set.
  status      Checks the status of a transaction on a node.
  writeutxo   Writes the UTXO set to a file.

callrpc

Issues an RPC call to a node endpoint for the specified method and params.
    Response is saved to the local varstore.

Usage:
  callrpc [node name] [endpoint] [method] [JSON params] [var scope] [var name]

exit

Exit the shell, attempting to gracefully stop all processes first.

Usage:
  avash exit

help

Help provides help for any command in the application.
Simply type avash help [path to command] for full details.

Usage:
  avash help [command] [flags]

network

Tools for interfacing with remote hosts. Using this command we can
  deploy and remove node networks via SSH and a configuration file.

Usage:
  avash network [command] [flags]

Available Commands:
  deploy      Deploys a remote network of nodes.
  remove      Removes a remote network of nodes.

CONFIGURATION

To deploy and remove networks, a .yaml network configuration file is required. An example is provided in the Avash codebase at network/example.network.yaml and should have the following format:

# List of hosts
hosts:
  - user: <SSH-username>
    ip: <host-IP>
    # List of nodes
    nodes:
     - name: <node-name>
       # Set of node CLI flags
       flags:
        <CLI-flag>: <value>
        # ...

This format can be scaled to simultaneously deploy many nodes on many hosts, using - in YAML syntax to add new elements to the host list and each host’s node list. A full list of CLI flags can be found here, where --node-flag corresponds to nodeflag in our configuration file.

procmanager

Access the process manager for the avash client. Using this 
    command we can list, stop, and start processes registered with the 
    process manager.

Usage:
  avash procmanager [command] [flags]

Available Commands:
  kill        Kills the process named if currently running.
  killall     Kills all processes if currently running.
  list        Lists the processes currently running.
  metadata    Prints the metadata associated with the node name.
  remove      Removes the process named.
  start       Starts the process named if not currently running.
  startall    Starts all processes if currently stopped.
  stop        Stops the process named if currently running.
  stopall     Stops all processes if currently running.

runscript

Runs the script provided in the argument, relative to the present working directory.

Usage:
  avash runscript [script file] [flags]

setoutput

Sets the log level of a specific log output type.

Usage:
  avash setoutput [log output] [log level]

startnode

Starts an Avalanche client node using procmanager and gives it a name. Example:

startnode MyNode1 --public-ip=127.0.0.1 --staking-port=9651 --http-port=9650 ... 

Usage:
  avash startnode [node name] args... [flags]

Flags:
      --assertions-enabled                   Turn on assertion execution. (default true)
      --avax-tx-fee uint                     Transaction fee, in nAVAX.
      --bootstrap-ids string                 Comma separated list of bootstrap peer ids to connect to. Example: JR4dVmy6ffUGAKCBDkyCbeZbyHQBeDsET,8CrVPQZ4VSqgL8zTdvL14G8HqAfrBr4z
      --bootstrap-ips string                 Comma separated list of bootstrap nodes to connect to. Example: 127.0.0.1:9630,127.0.0.1:9620
      --client-location string               Path to Avalanche node client, defaulting to the config file's value.
      --data-dir string                      Name of directory for the data stash.
      --db-dir string                        Database directory for Avalanche state. (default "db1")
      --db-enabled                           Turn on persistent storage. (default true)
  -h, --help                                 help for startnode
      --http-port uint                       Port of the HTTP server. (default 9650)
      --http-tls-cert-file string            TLS certificate file for the HTTPS server.
      --http-tls-enabled                     Upgrade the HTTP server to HTTPS.
      --http-tls-key-file string             TLS private key file for the HTTPS server.
      --log-dir string                       Name of directory for the node's logging. (default "logs")
      --log-level string                     Specify the log level. Should be one of {all, debug, info, warn, error, fatal, off} (default "all")
      --meta string                          Override default metadata for the node process.
      --network-id string                    Network ID this node will connect to. (default "12345")
      --public-ip string                     Public IP of this node. (default "127.0.0.1")
      --signature-verification-enabled       Turn on signature verification. (default true)
      --snow-avalanche-batch-size int        Number of operations to batch in each new vertex. (default 30)
      --snow-avalanche-num-parents int       Number of vertexes for reference from each new vertex. (default 5)
      --snow-quorum-size int                 Alpha value to use for required number positive results. (default 2)
      --snow-rogue-commit-threshold int      Beta value to use for rogue transactions. (default 10)
      --snow-sample-size int                 Number of nodes to query for each network poll. (default 2)
      --snow-virtuous-commit-threshold int   Beta value to use for virtuous transactions. (default 5)
      --staking-port uint                    Port of the consensus server. (default 9651)
      --staking-tls-cert-file string         TLS certificate file for staking connections. Relative to the avash binary if doesn't start with '/'. Ex: certs/keys1/staker.crt
      --p2p-tls-enabled                      Require TLS authentication for all P2P connections.
      --staking-enabled                  Utilize staking (also requires p2p tls to be enabled).
      --staking-tls-key-file string          TLS private key file for staking connections. Relative to the avash binary if doesn't start with '/'. Ex: certs/keys1/staker.key
      --xput-server-port uint                Port of the deprecated throughput test server. (default 9652)

varstore

Tools for creating variable stores and printing variables within them. Using this 
    command we can create variable stores, list all variables they store, and print data 
    placed into these stores. Variable assignment and update is often managed by avash commands.

Usage:
  avash varstore [command] [flags]

Available Commands:
  create      Creates a variable store.
  list        Lists all stores. If store provided, lists all variables in the store.
  print       Prints a variable that is within the store.
  set         Sets a simple variable that within the store.
  storedump   Writes the store to a file.
  vardump     Writes the variable to a file.

Writing Scripts

Avash imports the gopher-lua to run Lua scripts. Scripts have hooks available to them which allows the user to write code which invokes the current Avash environment.

The functions available to Lua are:

  • avash_call - Takes a string and runs it as an Avash command, returning output
  • avash_sleepmicro - Takes an unsigned integer representing microseconds and sleeps for that long
  • avash_setvar - Takes a variable scope (string), a variable name (string), and a variable (string) and places it in the variable store. The scope must already have been created.

When writing Lua, the standard Lua functionality is available to automate the execution of series of Avash commands. This allows a developer to automate:

  • Local network deployments
  • Sending transactions
  • Order transaction test cases
  • Save the value of UTXO sets and test results to disk
  • Compare the values of two nodes UTXO sets
  • Track expected results and compare them with real nodes

Example Lua scripts are in the ./scripts folder.