How to run the BCHN vs ABC benchmarks quick and dirty guide

quick_dirty_bench_bchn_abc.md

Quick and Dirty Guide to Running the ABC vs BCHN Mining Benchmarks

This is in reference to the results published here: https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/gdlapl/bchn_now_40_faster_at_mining_than_abc/

The benchmarks were thrown together quickly for me to characterize our progress. As such, these instructions are for advanced users. I am posting these instructions in the interests of transparency and so you can "see for yourself". These instructions assume Linux or OSX and do not work on Windows, as far as I know.

Requires: python3, cmake, ninja, boost, and libbdbdev. I forget what these are called on Linux packages -- consult our docs about how to build and requirements.

1. Clone my BCHN repo:

   $ git clone -b lgbt_bench https://gitlab.com/cculianu/bitcoin-cash-node
   $ cd bitcoin-cash-node && mkdir build

2. Run cmake. You may need to adjust these options:

   $ cd build
   $ cmake -DBUILD_BITCOIN_QT=OFF -DBUILD_BITCOIN_ZMQ=OFF -DENABLE_UPNP=OFF -DENABLE_QRCODE=OFF ..

3. If the above works ok, build with ninja. If it doesn't, figure out why (likely boost or berkeley db libs are not found).

   $ ninja

How to run the test against BCHN:

The below will run the basic getblocktemplate test versus your BCHN node that you just built, using a regtest network. Run this while still in the build/ directory you created above and built the node in.

$ test/functional/test_runner.py bchn-bench-gbtl

It will run for a while and mention some .xml log file it created. You need to read this log file to see the results of the test. It's usually in a directory of the form: test/tmp/bitcoin_test_runner_YYYYMMDD_HHmmSS. View this file and see the bench timing.

How to run the test against ABC:

1. Obtain bitcoin-abc binaries from somewhere, say https://download.bitcoinabc.org/
2. Unpack the archive somewhere and remember the path to their bitcoind
3. Run the above test, but this time specifying their BITCOIND as an env var:

$ BITCOIND=/path/to/abc/bitcoind test/functional/test_runner.py bchn-bench-gbtl

4. Do the same as the previous section -- find where the log file got put (its path will be printed on the console), and examine the numbers in the file.

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Questions? Comments? /u/NilacTheGrim