PR draft: faster sync

[jamesray1]

• Which Parity version?: version Parity/v1.9.4-beta-6f21a32-20180228/x86_64-linux-gnu/rustc1.24.0
• Which operating system?: Linux
• How installed?: via deb: parity_1.9.4_ubuntu_amd64.deb
• Are you fully synchronized?: no
• Which network are you connected to?: ethereum
• Did you try to restart the node?: yes, as well as following the syncing tips here.

If the first syncing line of the output has Syncing #<block_number>, restart the sync.

while {
    // the first line of output that contains "{} Syncing",timestamp is followed by "  #"}
     {
        // restart sync
     }

This will then keep trying until the first line of output that contains "{} Syncing",timestamp is followed by " snapshot", which will break the loop and continue normal execution.

[debris]

hi @jamesray1 ! Could you clarify what is this issue about? I don't understand if this is a bug report or feature request 😉

[jamesray1]

It's a feature request. At the moment, as per https://github.com/paritytech/wiki/pull/32/files, to sync faster, one can keep restarting Parity until it says "Syncing snapshot" instead of "Syncing #". This draft proposal is aiming to automate that process.

[rphmeier]

@jamesray1 the sync code currently attempts to warp sync whenever possible. I agree the heuristics can be improved but I don't think adding logic based on parsing the output of the program (which itself is just a representation of the internal state) is the right way to go about it.

[jamesray1]

Yeah, I realised that there might be a better way to do it, which is why it was an issue / draft PR.

[5chdn]

Partially addressed in #8228

For the other warp-sync issues see a listing at https://wiki.parity.io/Known-Issues-Priorities

[jamesray1]

I'm still syncing on my desktop and laptop. I'm up to #4139126 on the desktop and# 2464590 on the laptop.

[5chdn]

Nice!

[jamesray1]

Well, kinda, but not really, it's taking a very long time!

[5chdn]

Yeah, the story of my life :(

It's worth getting decent SSDs with huge capacity at some point if you plan to play around with Ethereum a lot.

[jamesray1]

Haha. Yeah, my desktop is Intel Core i3 with a smallish SSD.

I've got upgrading my desktop on the to-do list, and I am working on sharding full-time, so that is playing around with Ethereum a lot.

https://wiki.parity.io/Known-Issues-Priorities is a good list! I suggest adding sharding to it.

[jamesray1]

Do you have any suggestions for a good desktop computer tower?

[debris]

I'm not an expert in hardware, bo for me, anything below i7 + 16gb ram is unusable for dev work

[5chdn]

Yeah, the latest Core i7 is a must, 2 TB SSD, and since you want a tower, just squeeze in as much RAM as possible, I would go for at least 64 GB.