Instructions for building your own Steem Testnet

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I've recently setup my testnet for Steem and I noticed that there isn't much documentation on how to do that, so I decided to write a quick guide.

Requirements

Ubuntu: 16.04
8GB+ RAM
10GB+ Diskspace

I've got a seperate boot-partition with Linux, but docker would work as well (however I will not cover docker in this guide.)

Instructions

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Step 1: Install Packages

sudo apt-get install -y autoconf automake cmake g++ git libssl-dev libtool make pkg-config python3 python3-jinja2 libboost-chrono-dev libboost-context-dev libboost-coroutine-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-iostreams-dev libboost-locale-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-serialization-dev libboost-signals-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-test-dev libboost-thread-dev libsnappy-dev libbz2-dev doxygen libncurses5-dev libreadline-dev perl

Step 2: Clone Steem

git clone https://github.com/steemit/steem # or https://github.com/SteemCommunity/steem
cd steem
git checkout master # or another branch
git submodule update --init --recursive

Step 3: Build Steem

mkdir build && cd build/
cmake -DENABLE_COVERAGE_TESTING=ON -DBUILD_STEEM_TESTNET=ON -DLOW_MEMORY_NODE=OFF -DCLEAR_VOTES=ON -DSKIP_BY_TX_ID=ON -DCHAINBASE_CHECK_LOCKING=OFF ..
make -j$(nproc) steemd cli_wallet
make -j$(nproc) chain_test # optional for tests

Step 4: Edit Config

# Start and stop steemd once to create the default config
./programs/steemd/steemd -d testnet/

# You'll see something like this
# ------------------------------------------------------
#
#            STARTING TEST NETWORK
#
# ------------------------------------------------------
# initminer public key: TST6LLegbAgLAy28EHrffBVuANFWcFgmqRMW13wBmTExqFE9SCkg4
# initminer private key: 5JNHfZYKGaomSFvd4NUdQ9qMcEAC43kujbfjueTHpVapX1Kzq2n

# COPY the private key
nano testnet/config.ini

After you've copied the private key and opened up the config.ini, change the following lines

# name of witness controlled by this node (e.g. initwitness )
witness = "initminer"

# WIF PRIVATE KEY to be used by one or more witnesses or miners
private-key = 5JNHfZYKGaomSFvd4NUdQ9qMcEAC43kujbfjueTHpVapX1Kzq2n

# Enable block production, even if the chain is stale.
enable-stale-production = true

# Percent of witnesses (0-99) that must be participating in order to produce blocks
required-participation = 0

# Local http endpoint for webserver requests.
webserver-http-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090

# Local websocket endpoint for webserver requests.
webserver-ws-endpoint =127.0.0.1:8091

Step 5: Start Steemd

Once you've configured the config.ini, start steemd.

./programs/steemd/steemd -d testnet/

It will take roughly half a minute and then you should see initminer producing blocks.

Which means: you have now a testnet running. Congratulations!

(Optional) Step 6: Start CLI_Wallet

./programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet --server-rpc-endpoint="ws://127.0.0.1:8091"

# set_password & unlock
import_key 5JNHfZYKGaomSFvd4NUdQ9qMcEAC43kujbfjueTHpVapX1Kzq2n
create_account "initminer" "testaccount" "" true

(Optional) Step 7: Run Tests

If you haven't build them before:

make -j$(nproc) chain_test

Afterwards, you can run all of them or a specific one with the -t flag.

./tests/chain_test # -t "basic_tests"

More info about testing and different types of tests: https://github.com/steemit/steem/blob/master/doc/devs/testing.md

Also make sure to check out the developer resources: https://developers.steem.io/testnet/index

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And that's it.

I hope this helps with setting up your own testnet and if there are any questions or something else, let me know in the comments below!

I'll get back to coding.

@therealwolf

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^{Do you believe that my work is valuable for Steem? Then please vote for me as witness.}