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How to install and start a testnet?

Table of Contents

Introduction

This manual describes how you can configure a testnet.

Here are some terms to start with:

  • Testnet,
  • Test chain.

These terms mean the same, except that you can form your testnet out of more than one chain.

Testnet installation

Attention

This testnet uses preinstalled private keys for nodes. These keys are open and used for testing purposes only. Therefore, the testnet will be compromised when using it in a real-world system.

Prerequisites

To start the testnet, ensure you have installed Docker. Run the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install docker.io jq curl
Hint

If you use Unix, you must be included into the user group docker to use docker.

To check the groups, you are included into, run:

$ groups

To include your account into the group docker, run:

usermod -aG docker user

where:

  • -G, --groups GROUPS — new list of supplementary GROUPS
  • -a, --append — append the user to the supplemental GROUPS. Mentioned by the -G option without removing the user from other groups.

This group is available only after you have installed Docker. If you haven't installed it yet, here is a How-To. Go to the link and choose your OS.

Starting the testnet

To start a testnet, run:

docker pull thepowerio/tpnode 
docker run -d -p 1080:1080 --rm --name tptest thepowerio/tpnode

To test your chain, run the following sequence of commands:

curl http://localhost:44000/api/node/status | jq
curl http://localhost:44000/api/block/last | jq

Stopping the testnet

Please, stop your local testnet after completing all necessary testing or development. To stop the testnet, run:

docker stop tptest

How to delete a Docker image?

To delete Docker image from your machine, run:

docker rmi thepowerio/tpnode