Skip to main content

Setting Up Gear Node

Introduction​

This guide covers the steps required to install and run the Gear node.

There are two ways to get started with the Gear node. First, you can download a pre-built binary file and run it, or second, you can compile the binary file and configure it by yourself. Using a ready-made build is a quick and convenient way to get started as you can skip the installation of Rust and all its dependencies and you can also skip the node compiling process. On the other hand, if you decide that you want to go through the process of creating your development node, it may take about twenty minutes or more depending on your hardware.

info

System requirements:​

Gear node doesn't have any special hardware requirements excepting at least 64 Gbytes of free space on the SSD disk.

Install with pre-build binary​

Depending on your OS you need to download the last release build of Gear node from https://get.gear.rs:

Terminal:

curl https://get.gear.rs/gear-v1.2.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz | tar xJ

or

Linux x86-64: gear-v1.2.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz

Run the node:

❯ ./gear --version
gear 1.2.1-a218853
info

You can use nightly builds if you want the latest features.

Compile Gear node by yourself​

Compiling the build will take some time and requires the installation of some dependencies.

Note

Windows users may encounter some problems related to the installation of Rust components and dependencies. It is highly recommended to use Linux or macOS for compiling Gear node and smart-contracts.

Prerequisites​

Linux users should generally install GCC and Clang, according to their distribution’s documentation. Also, one should install binaryen toolset that contains required wasm-opt tool.

For example, on Ubuntu use:

sudo apt install -y clang build-essential binaryen cmake protobuf-compiler

On macOS, you can get a compiler toolset and binaryen by running:

xcode-select --install
brew install binaryen

Install Rust:​

If you already have Rust installed, you can skip this step.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

And then you should reboot your terminal.

Install Wasm Toolchains:​

rustup toolchain add nightly
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly

Clone Gear repo​

git clone https://github.com/gear-tech/gear.git
cd gear
# Checkout to the latest release tag
git checkout v1.2.1 -b release-1.2.1
info

If you need to use the latest or experimental Gear functions, you should compile the node from master branch. It is the default branch after clone, but you can switch back to the master branch using a command:

git checkout master

Compile​

cargo build -p gear-cli --release

or

make node-release
note

You can find the final build at the following location: gear/target/release/gear

Go to:

cd target/release

Run Gear Node​

info

It doesn't matter if you downloaded the prebuild binary or built it yourself. Being in the directory where the gear node is installed to run it without special arguments to get a node connected to the testnet:

./gear

To run Gear node in dev mode use the following command:

./gear --dev

Command Flags and Options​

gear [subcommand] [options]

  • --chain=testnet

    Connect the node to the test network (default option).

  • --chain=vara

    Connect the node to the Vara network.

  • --dev

    Run a local node in development mode for testing purposes. This node will not be connected to any external network and will store the state in temporary storage.

  • purge-chain

    Remove storage of the selected chain type. Needs to specify the chain connection type --chain=testnet, --chain=vara, or --dev.

  • help, --help

    Print the available subcommands/options or the help of the given subcommand.

Special environment variables​

To run Gear node with logs from contracts use:

RUST_LOG="gwasm=debug" gear [subcommand] [options]