Oversized allocations can cause out-of-memory errors or [heavy swapping](https://github.com/getumbrel/umbrel-os/issues/64#issuecomment-663637321), [grinding the system to a halt](https://x.com/murchandamus/status/1964432335849607224).
`LogOversizedDbCache()` now emits a startup warning if the configured `-dbcache` exceeds a cap derived from system RAM, using the same parsing/clamping as cache sizing via CalculateDbCacheBytes(). This isn't meant as a recommended setting, rather a likely upper limit.
Note that we're not modifying the set value, just issuing a warning.
Also note that the 75% calculation is rounded for the last two numbers since we have to divide first before multiplying, otherwise we wouldn't stay inside size_t on 32-bit systems - and this was simpler than casting back and forth.
We could have chosen the remaining free memory for the warning (e.g. warn if free memory is less than 1 GiB), but this is just a heuristic, we assumed that on systems with a lot of memory, other processes are also running, while memory constrained ones run only Core.
If total RAM < 2 GiB, cap is `DEFAULT_DB_CACHE` (`450 MiB`), otherwise it's 75% of total RAM.
The threshold is chosen to be close to values commonly used in [raspiblitz](https://github.com/raspiblitz/raspiblitz/blob/dev/home.admin/_provision.setup.sh#L98-L115) for common setups:
| Total RAM | `dbcache` (MiB) | raspiblitz % | proposed cap (MiB) |
|----------:|----------------:|-------------:|-------------------:|
| 1 GiB | 512 | 50.0% | 450* |
| 2 GiB | 1536 | 75.0% | 1536 |
| 4 GiB | 2560 | 62.5% | 3072 |
| 8 GiB | 4096 | 50.0% | 6144 |
| 16 GiB | 4096 | 25.0% | 12288 |
| 32 GiB | 4096 | 12.5% | 24576 |
[Umbrel issues](https://github.com/getumbrel/umbrel-os/issues/64#issuecomment-663816367) also mention 75% being the upper limit.
Starting `bitcoind` on an 8 GiB rpi4b with a dbcache of 7 GiB:
> ./build/bin/bitcoind -dbcache=7000
warns now as follows:
```
2025-09-07T17:24:29Z [warning] A 7000 MiB dbcache may be too large for a system memory of only 7800 MiB.
2025-09-07T17:24:29Z Cache configuration:
2025-09-07T17:24:29Z * Using 2.0 MiB for block index database
2025-09-07T17:24:29Z * Using 8.0 MiB for chain state database
2025-09-07T17:24:29Z * Using 6990.0 MiB for in-memory UTXO set (plus up to 286.1 MiB of unused mempool space)
```
Besides the [godbolt](https://godbolt.org/z/EPsaE3xTj) reproducers for the new total memory method, we also tested the warnings manually on:
- [x] Apple M4 Max, macOS 15.6.1
- [x] Intel Core i9-9900K, Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
- [x] Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, Armbian Linux 6.12.22-current-bcm2711
- [x] Intel Xeon x64, Windows 11 Home Version 24H2, OS Build 26100.4351
Co-authored-by: stickies-v <stickies-v@protonmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Hodlinator <172445034+hodlinator@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: w0xlt <woltx@protonmail.com>
32-bit architecture is limited to 4GiB, so it doesn't make sense to set a too
high value. Since this setting is performance critical, pick an arbitrary value
higher than for -maxmempool but still reasonable.
This avoids having to rely on implicit casts when passing them to the
various functions allocating the caches.
This also ensures that if the requested amount of db_cache does not fit
in a size_t, it is clamped to the maximum value of a size_t.
Also take this opportunity to make the total amounts of cache in the
chainstate manager a size_t too.
They are not related to the txdb, so a better place for them is the
new kernel and node cache file. Re-use the default amount of kernel
cache for the default node cache.
Carrying non-kernel related fields in the cache sizes for the indexes is
confusing for kernel library users. The cache sizes also are set
currently with magic numbers in bitcoin-chainstate. The comments for the
cache size calculations are also not completely clear.
Solve these things by moving the kernel-specific cache size fields to
their own struct.
This slightly changes the way the cache is allocated if the txindex
and/or blockfilterindex is used. Since they are now given precedence
over the block tree db cache, this results in a bit less cache being
allocated to the block tree db, coinsdb and coins caches. The effect is
negligible though, i.e. cache sizes with default dbcache reported
through the logs are:
master:
Cache configuration:
* Using 2.0 MiB for block index database
* Using 56.0 MiB for transaction index database
* Using 49.0 MiB for basic block filter index database
* Using 8.0 MiB for chain state database
* Using 335.0 MiB for in-memory UTXO set (plus up to 286.1 MiB of unused mempool space)
this branch:
Cache configuration:
* Using 2.0 MiB for block index database
* Using 56.2 MiB for transaction index database
* Using 49.2 MiB for basic block filter index database
* Using 8.0 MiB for chain state database
* Using 334.5 MiB for in-memory UTXO set (plus up to 286.1 MiB of unused mempool space)
(total_cache / 4) + (1 << 23) is at least 8 MiB and nMaxCoinsDBCache is
also 8 MiB, so the minimum between the two will always be
nMaxCoinsDBCache. This is just a simplification and not changing the
result of the calculation.
Co-authored-by: Ryan Ofsky <ryan@ofsky.org>
This is an extraction of ArgsManager related functions from util/system
into their own common file.
Config file related functions are moved to common/config.cpp.
The background of this commit is an ongoing effort to decouple the
libbitcoinkernel library from the ArgsManager. The ArgsManager belongs
into the common library, since the kernel library should not depend on
it. See doc/design/libraries.md for more information on this rationale.
I strongly recommend reviewing with the following git-diff flags:
--color-moved=dimmed_zebra --color-moved-ws=allow-indentation-change
[META] In a future commit, this function will be re-used in TestingSetup
so that the behaviour matches across test and non-test init
codepaths.
