Forest in Docker🌲❤️🐋

Prerequisites

  • Docker engine installed and running. Forest containers are confirmed to run on the following engines:
    • Docker Engine (Community) on Linux,
    • Docker for macOS
    • Podman on WSL

Native images are available for the following platforms:

  • linux/arm64
  • linux/amd64

The images will work out-of-the box on both Intel processors and macOS with M1/M2.

Tags

For the list of all available tags please refer to the Forest packages.

Currently, the following tags are produced:

  • latest - latest stable release,
  • edge - latest development build of the main branch,
  • date-digest e.g., 2023-02-17-5f27a62 - all builds that landed on the main branch,
  • release tags, available from v.0.7.0 onwards.

Security recommendations

  • We strongly recommend running the docker daemon in rootless mode (installation instructions), or running the daemon-less docker alternative podman (installation instructions) with non-root user and put alias docker = podman (or manually replace the docker commands with podman in below instructions)

Performance recommendations

  • We recommend lowering the swappiness kernel parameter on linux to 1-10 for long running forest node by doing sudo sysctl -w vm.swappiness=[n].

References: 1 2

Usage

List available flags and/or commands

# daemon
❯ docker run --init -it --rm ghcr.io/chainsafe/forest:latest --help
# cli
❯ docker run --init -it --rm --entrypoint forest-cli ghcr.io/chainsafe/forest:latest --help

Also see the CLI documentation for more details about commands and their usage.

Create a Forest node running calibration network. Then list all connected peers.

❯ docker run --init -it --rm --name forest ghcr.io/chainsafe/forest:latest --chain calibnet --auto-download-snapshot

then in another terminal (sample output)

❯ docker exec -it forest forest-cli net peers
12D3KooWAh4qiT3ZRZgctVJ8AWwRva9AncjMRVBSkFwNjTx3EpEr, [/ip4/10.0.2.215/tcp/1347, /ip4/52.12.185.166/tcp/1347]
12D3KooWMY4VdMsdbFwkHv9HxX2jZsUdCcWFX5F5VGzBPZkdxyVr, [/ip4/162.219.87.149/tcp/30141, /ip4/162.219.87.149/tcp/30141/p2p/12D3KooWMY4VdMsdbFwkHv9HxX2jZsUdCcWFX5F5VGzBPZkdxyVr]
12D3KooWFWUqE9jgXvcKHWieYs9nhyp6NF4ftwLGAHm4sCv73jjK, [/dns4/bootstrap-3.calibration.fildev.network/tcp/1347]

Use a shared volume to utilise across different Forest images

Create the volume

docker volume create forest-data

Now, whenever you create a new Forest container, attach the volume to where the data is stored /root/.local/share/forest.

❯ docker run --init -it --rm \
             --ulimit nofile=8192 \
             --volume forest-data:/root/.local/share/forest \
             --name forest ghcr.io/chainsafe/forest:latest --chain calibnet
                                                           --auto-download-snapshot

Export the calibnet snapshot to the host machine

Assuming you have forest container already running, run:

❯ docker exec -it forest forest-cli --chain calibnet snapshot export
Export completed. Snapshot located at forest_snapshot_calibnet_2023-02-17_height_308891.car

Copy the snapshot to the host

❯ docker cp forest:/home/forest/forest_snapshot_calibnet_2023-02-17_height_308891.car .

Create and fund a wallet, then send some FIL on calibration network

Assuming you have forest container already running, you need to find the JWT token in the logs.

❯ docker logs forest | grep "Admin token"

export it to an environmental variable for convenience (sample, use the token you obtained in the previous step)

export JWT_TOKEN=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJBbGxvdyI6WyJyZWFkIiwid3JpdGUiLCJzaWduIiwiYWRtaW4iXSwiZXhwIjoxNjgxODIxMTc4fQ.3toXEeiGcHT01pUjQeqMyW2kZmQpqpE4Gi4vOHjX4rE

Create the wallet

❯ docker exec -it forest forest-wallet --token $JWT_TOKEN new
t1uvqpa2jgic7fhhko3w4wf3kxj36qslvqrk2ln5i

You can fund your wallet using this faucet. If this faucet is unavailable or does not work, there is an alternative faucet. You can verify your wallet was funded after a few minutes in Filscan by pasting the Message ID obtained from the faucet. Example from this wallet.

Verify that your account has 100 FIL . The result is in attoFIL.

❯ docker exec -it forest forest-wallet --token $JWT_TOKEN balance t1uvqpa2jgic7fhhko3w4wf3kxj36qslvqrk2ln5i
100000000000000000000

Create another wallet

❯ docker exec -it forest forest-wallet --token $JWT_TOKEN new
t1wa7lgs7b3p5a26abkgpxwjpw67tx4fbsryg6tca

Send 10 FIL from the original wallet to the new one (default unit for the amount in send command is FIL).

❯ docker exec -it forest forest-cli --chain calibnet --token $JWT_TOKEN send --from t1uvqpa2jgic7fhhko3w4wf3kxj36qslvqrk2ln5i t1wa7lgs7b3p5a26abkgpxwjpw67tx4fbsryg6tca 10

Verify the balance of the new address. Sample transaction for this wallet.

❯ docker exec -it forest forest-wallet --token $JWT_TOKEN balance t1wa7lgs7b3p5a26abkgpxwjpw67tx4fbsryg6tca
10000000000000000000