Getting Geth

The Frontier tool is called Geth (the old english third person singular conjugation of "to go". Quite appropriate given geth is written in Go. Geth is a multipurpose command line tool that runs a full Ethereum node implemented in Go. It offers three interfaces: the command line subcommands and options, a Json-rpc server and an interactive console.

In order to install Geth, open a command line or terminal tool (if you are unsure how to do this, consider waiting for a more user friendly release) and paste the command below:

bash <(curl https://install-geth.ethereum.org)  

This script will detect your OS and will attempt to install the ethereum CLI. For more options including package managers, check the OS-specific subsections.

First run

For the purposes of this guide, we will focus on the interactive console, a JavaScript environment. The history of the console is persisted between sessions, providing for a powerful and flexible way of using the client. You can navigate your command history by using the up and down arrow keys, like a standard command line. To get started Type the code below on your terminal

geth console

Once geth is fully started, you should see a > prompt, letting you know the console is ready. To exit, type exit at the prompt and hit [enter].

Using stderr

Output from the console can be logged or redirected:

geth console 2>>geth.log

Using standard tools, the log can be monitored in a separate window:

tail -f geth.log

Alternatively, you can also run one terminal with the interactive console and a second one with the logging output directly.

1. Open two terminals
2. In the second terminal type tty. The output will be something like /dev/pts/13
3. In your main terminal, type: geth console 2>> /dev/pts/13

This will allow you to monitor your node without cluttering the interactive console.