bitshares1-core
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bitshares
Redundant message "syncing with p2p network, X blocks left to fetch" even after sync is complete
The following message : "--- syncing with p2p network, 124378 blocks left to fetch -" appears in the bitshares_client console even after the synchronization is completed. It appears randomly and the amount of blocks displayed seems random. The message is confusing and incorrect. It should not be displayed after the synchronization is completed.
This is not an error, it means you're synching with some other client. You can be synched to the main chain, and not be synched with new clients you connect up to (they can be on forks).
You want to tell me that there is a client that has 124378 blocks more than I have ? Even if he is on a fork I doubt there are 124378 missed blocks on the main chain so there should be no way someone is 124378 blocks ahead. And I've seen greater numbers. Even with your explanation the message is still confusing for me. If the other client lacks that amount of blocks - can we have different message informing us that we are uploading the blocks? Or even better - hide it unless we are downloading blocks.
I've always found this message confusing as well, due to the size of the numbers. Sometimes I'll see this message where the number of blocks left to fetch is greater than the size of the chain.
@dnotestein , can you provide any insight as to where the huge numbers come from? Am I missing something?
It doesn't mean he's got 124378 blocks after your current location on the blockchain, it means he has 124378 blocks that you don't have. He's stuck on a fork that occurred somewhere in the distant past. The blockchain logic doesn't allow rewinding past 400 blocks in the past, so he'll stay on his fork. We could hide this, and probably will eventually, but right now it's useful as a diagnostic. It's not displayed in the GUI, only in the command-line client so it shouldn't affect the "average" user.
We could change the wording from "synching with p2p network" to "synching with a blockchain_name client" to clarify it's not necessarily the "main chain" (if there can be said to be such a thing), where blockchain_name would be the name of the chain (e.g. "Bitshares X").
Sounds like this is not actually considered a bug. Perhaps an enhancement, but not a high priority.
Reopening because recently there are still multiple posts of people being utterly confused by this; e.g.: https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=12224.msg161530#msg161530
