#Using The Core-Tester-CLI

Core-Tester-CLI is a plugin that was developed to help create, send and debug official supported transaction types and blocks from the CLI. The plugin can be found in the official ARK Core repository. To send one or more transactions, you simply run the commands and adjust the parameters. By default the Tester-CLI is predefined to work with local Testnet environment (identities, delegates, passwords and a default connection to a localhost Core node running Testnet network).

In the next sections we will learn more about the basic commands of the Tester-CLI.

#Prerequisites

Make sure your development environment is setup and built with yarn setupand that your local Testnet is running with yarn full:testnet.For instructions how to do this follow this link:

#Tester-CLI Commands

Let’s jump to the core-tester-cli inside the ARK Core repository. The plugin can be found in the core/packages/core-tester-cli folder. Tester-CLI has four basic commands available:

• help - display detailed help information about a specific command
• debug - debug blocks and transactions and identities
• send - create and send transactions
• make - create wallets/identities and blocks

Let’s look at each command and their options.

#1. Help Command

We will learn the help command first, as it is a very important tool that enables us to learn the next commands. We will execute the help command with the core-tester-cli in the following way:

./bin/run --help

This will display the initial help screen and list all the possible available commands.

This will display more detailed information about the specific command and what parameters are available.

#Examples

Take a few moments and play around with the help command. Try the following ones:

./bin/run send --help               #this will display basic send help
./bin/run send:transfer --help      #this will display detailed help for send:transfer
./bin/run make --help
./bin/run make:wallets --help

Now, that you are familiar with the help command and its usage, let’s take a look at other available commands and how we can use them.

#2. Send Command

The send commands enables us to create and send transactions of various types to a core node of our choosing. By default this is a local Testnet node, but we can specify other nodes by setting the --host and --portAPI parameter. For more information about the send command run the following:

./bin/run --help send

There are a few subcommands available, related to various types of supported transactions (see the list below). After running, we can see the following console output.

Send transactions of various types

USAGE
  $ ark-tester send:COMMAND

  COMMANDS
  send:delegate-registration          create multiple delegates
  send:htlc-claim                     create multiple htlc claim transactions
  send:htlc-lock                      create multiple htlc lock transactions
  send:htlc-refund                    create multiple htlc refund transactions
  send:ipfs                           create multiple ipfs transactions
  send:multi-payment                  create wallets with multi signature
  send:multi-signature-registration   create wallets with multi signature
  send:second-signature-registration  create wallets with second signature
  send:transfer                       send multiple transactions
  send:vote                           create multiple votes for a delegate

All of the send commands have a subset of options. To explore more around them, please check --help for each of the subcommands.

#Examples

./bin/run send:transfer
./bin/run send:transfer --passphrase="measure blue volcano month orphan only cupboard found laugh peasant drama monitor" --number=2
./bin/run send:transfer --recipient="AH8nsXJzfakM7xvTVCFpFGYUha7qNHnZLy" --passphrase="measure blue volcano month orphan only cupboard found laugh peasant drama monitor" --number=2
./bin/run send:transfer --skipProbing --recipient="AH8nsXJzfakM7xvTVCFpFGYUha7qNHnZLy" --passphrase="measure blue volcano month orphan only cupboard found laugh peasant drama monitor" --number=2

#3. Make Command

Make commands enables us to create new wallets/identities or blocks. For more information about the make command and the possible parameters run the following:

./bin/run --help make

After running, we can see the following console output:

Make new identities or blocks

USAGE
  $ ark-tester make:COMMAND

COMMANDS
  make:block    create new blocks
  make:wallets  create new wallets

All of the make commands have a subset of options. To explore more around them, please check --help for each of the subcommands.

#Examples

# Block generation examples
# --------------------------
./bin/run make:block
./bin/run make:block --previousBlock="{"height": 50, "id": "123", "idHex": "7b"}"
./bin/run make:block --transactions=5

# Wallet generation examples
# --------------------------
./bin/run make:wallets
./bin/run make:wallets --quantity=1
./bin/run make:wallets --quantity=1 --copy
./bin/run make:wallets --quantity=1 --write

#4. Debug Command

This command is used to debug raw blocks and transactions. It also gives us options to serialize/deserialize raw data from defined HEX payloads, extract identities the input and perform basic crypto verification (signature validation). For more information about the debug command run the following:

./bin/run --help debug

After running, we can see the following console output:

Debug blocks and transactions

USAGE
  $ ark-tester debug:COMMAND

COMMANDS
  debug:deserialize              Deserialize the given HEX
  debug:identity                 Get identities from the given input
  debug:serialize                Serialize the given JSON
  debug:verify                   Verify the given HEX
  debug:verify-second-signature  Verify a second signature of a transaction

We can also run --help command for any of the subcommands, for example ./bin/run --help debug:serialize to display more detailed information about command parameters.

#Examples

./bin/run debug:deserialize  --type="transaction" --copy --data="ff02170100000000000a0000000000000003287bfebba4c7881a0509717e71b34b63f31e40021c321f89ae04f84be6d6ac3780969800000000000000ab9041000000000000000017ee6703c6780c881f672256c08e5444930f2a8c149c637acdb299a575ec8ea762230904ff352dae7c486777790664a2d99ee43fbbaf2c40948dbcc829ad723e920ac91d91a928d1eb5500ca9aa6cfb8b376e743b8"
./bin/run debug:identity --type="publicKey" --copy --data="03287bfebba4c7881a0509717e71b34b63f31e40021c321f89ae04f84be6d6ac37"
./bin/run debug:identity --type="passphrase" --copy --data="enter vessel fashion moon relax inmate net spare game silk hello anger"