* Add flowchart illustration to blocks-first section to match new
headers-first flowchart
* Add new headers-first initial block download (IBD) section
* Revise Block Broadcasting section
* Add paragraph about orphan block handling in headers-first to the
Orphan Blocks section
This commit provides a detailed overview of the current block download
method, which I've retroactively named blocks-first for parallelism with
headers-first.
New And Significantly Revised:
* New Initial Block Download (IBD) section (h3) with Blocks-First
subsection (h4)
* New Orphan Block subsection (under Blocks Broadcasting) describing
orphan blocks and how they're handled under blocks-first. Also
includes a simple illustration of the difference between orphan blocks
and stale blocks. Thanks to luke-jr for his s/orphan block/stale
block/ commit a couple months ago---that made this commit much easier.
Edits:
* Cleaned up a couple cases missed by previous s/orphan/stale/ commit
because they used past tense (orphaned).
* In P2P reference section, mentioned that a `block` message can be sent
unsolicited by miners.
* Mention that `getheaders` and `headers` were added in protocol
version 31800.
* Moved a few internal links around and added a few new internal links.
Administrivia:
* Started adding "TODOv0.10" in HTML comments to places that need to be
updated when 0.10 is released so that I can easily git grep for that
tag later.
New material:
* Add documentation for `filterload` message to devref. This is the last
P2P protocol message which needed documentation.
* Add an example for creating a bloom filter to the devex, as well as an
example of checking data against that filter.
Edits:
* Change "object" to "element" in previous `filteradd` text. I decided
"transaction element" made more sense than the more generic "object".
Text should be fully consistent across both `filterload` and
`filteradd` descriptions.
* Mentioned that I think the example hexdump in the `alert` section is
public domain. (Only the hex is taken from the wiki; the annotation is
my own work.)
* Describes all remaining messages except filterload. Specificially, the
following messages are described: Addr, Alert, FilterAdd, FilterClear,
GetAddr, Ping, Pong, Reject, VerAck, and Version
* New makefile test: report broken markdown tables
* Put relevant protocol version changes at the top of all message
subsections.
Adds to the devel reference page detailed documentation on the following
messages: block, getblocks, getdata, getheaders, headers, inv, mempool,
merkleblock, notfound, and tx.
Adds to the devel examples page an example of requesting and parsing a
merkleblock message.
Adds to the devel docs overview pages links to the above two new
P2P sections.
Tweaks the autocrossref plugin ignore pattern to not crossref in the
middle of a GIF image name; this allows the inclusion of animated GIFs.
* Replace current description of the block header with a better
description.
* Describe the various version numbers.
* Describe how the merkle root is constructed.
* Describe how nBits is parsed and how to correctly create it to
avoid negative values.
* Describe the serialized block format used to calculate max block size.
Based on a suggestion made by @petertodd to the -devel mailing list and
the discussion in that thread by him and other participants.
* We've been using the term "consensus", but this commit introduces a
formal definition for it and "consensus rules" as part of the block
chain introduction.
* Describe that consensus rules may change and may happen when they
do: hard or soft forks.
* Describe how full nodes can detect hard or soft forks, then describe
how SPV clients can detect hard and soft forks using the more limited
information available to them.
* Replace previous TX Overview image with a simplified illustration.
The previous overview image was commented out in pull #566 / commit
6afc683. New image incorporates suggestions by @saivann (thanks!)
* Add new illustration showing the specifics of outputs and inputs (and
how they're related). This replaces most of the detail lost by using a
simplified overview image
* Add two short paragraphs briefly describing the ouput and input
features, leading into the existing detailed P2PKH description
This modifies commits provided by @petertodd to use the terms "pubkey
script" and "signature script" instead of other terms.
* Rename "scriptPubKey" and "output script" to "pubkey script"
(suggested by @luke-jr). We leave a token "scriptPubKey" at the point
where we define pubkey script so that searchers can find it.
* Rename "scriptSig" to "signature script" (suggested by @luke-jr). We
also leave a token "scriptSig" at this definition point.
* Rename "redeemScript" to "redeem script"
* Defined ECDSA on secp256k1 curve as the crypto used in the Transaction
section and added references to secp256k1 private/public keys and
signatures.
* Removed "The Parts Of A Transaction" illustration by commenting it out
in the HTML. Shoehorning the pubkey/signature script terms into this
image was becoming difficult, and I'm not very fond of that
illustration anyway. I'll see if I can think of a nicer replacement
illustration for some point in the future.
* Add a short paraphrased version @petertodd's description of scripts as
generalized crypto.
* Updated all the illustrations which referred to either pubkey scripts
or signature scripts to use these terms.
Describe the essential functions of a wallet program and how multiple
programs can work together to fulfill those functions, as in the case of
a signing-only wallet.
_includes/guide_wallets.md:
* Fix formula given for normal child key derivation to state that public
keys must also be provided to the HMAC hash function. This required
updating both text and images.
* Add one-paragraph warning about ancestor key compromise when the
ancestor extended public key is compromised along with a descended
private key. Update img/dev/en-hd-private-parent-to-private-child.*
to help illustrate this warning.
en/developer-reference.md:
* Remove %include% of previously-removed file which caused new versions
of Jekyll to die.
Thanks also (in alphabetical order) to @cbeams, @mikehearn, and
@tgeller, among others.
The last pre-squash commit was: c2b8d562aa107c7b68c60946cea14cdccc5159ad
Thanks also (in alphabetical order) to @cbeams, @mikehearn, and
@tgeller, among others.
The last pre-squash commit was: c2b8d562aa107c7b68c60946cea14cdccc5159ad
