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9a9d797ef6kernel: Add support for block headers (yuvicc)b851ff6caekernel: Add Handle/View pattern for BlockValidationState (yuvicc) Pull request description: Adds a new `btck_BlockHeader` type and associated functions to create, access, and validate block headers. Block headers will have their own type (`btck_BlockHeader`) that can be created from raw data, copied, and queried for all the standard header fields (hash, prev hash, timestamp, bits, version, nonce). We can also extract headers from full blocks or block tree entries. The first commit here refactors `BlockValidationState` to use Handle/View pattern so external code can own them, which is required for the header processing in the API. #### New Block Header API - **`btck_BlockHeader` type**: Opaque handle for block headers - **Header methods**: - `btck_block_header_create()`: Create header from 80-byte serialized data - `btck_block_header_copy()`: Copy block headers - `btck_block_header_destroy()`: Destroy header object - `btck_block_header_get_hash()`: Calculate block hash - `btck_block_header_get_prev_hash()`: Get previous block hash - `btck_block_header_get_timestamp()`: Get block timestamp - `btck_block_header_get_bits()`: Get difficulty target (compact format) - `btck_block_header_get_version()`: Get block version - `btck_block_header_get_nonce()`: Get proof-of-work nonce - `btck_block_get_header()`: Extract header from a full block - `btck_block_tree_entry_get_block_header()`: Get header associated with a block tree entry - **Header Processing Methods:** - **`btck_chainstate_manager_process_block_header()`**: Validates and processes a block header without requiring the full block. This performs proof-of-work verification, timestamp validation, and updates the internal chain state. - **`btck_chainstate_manager_get_best_entry()`**: Returns the block tree entry with the most cumulative proof-of-work. Why `btck_chainstate_manager_get_best_entry()` is included alongside header validation? Just as we have logic to get the tip for block validation (so you can request more blocks extending your best from your peers), we need the equivalent for header validation. To make header validation worthwhile, knowing what the best current header is seems useful—it tells you what headers to request next from peers. ### Testing Added tests in `test_kernel.cpp` that cover creating headers from raw data, extracting all header fields, and processing headers through the chainstate manager. CC sedited ACKs for top commit: stringintech: re-ACK9a9d797esedited: Re-ACK9a9d797ef6janb84: ACK9a9d797ef6Tree-SHA512: 1dde9ef860543c906d1bb5e604f0d2956e7382fcbb55090686261b2277270a1fd3826f02ecf1749b2774da66e88f686c7845172b4c68b62259e7a7aee0825fa2
Bitcoin Core integration/staging tree
For an immediately usable, binary version of the Bitcoin Core software, see https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/.
What is Bitcoin Core?
Bitcoin Core connects to the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network to download and fully validate blocks and transactions. It also includes a wallet and graphical user interface, which can be optionally built.
Further information about Bitcoin Core is available in the doc folder.
License
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Development Process
The master branch is regularly built (see doc/build-*.md for instructions) and tested, but it is not guaranteed to be
completely stable. Tags are created
regularly from release branches to indicate new official, stable release versions of Bitcoin Core.
The https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gui repository is used exclusively for the development of the GUI. Its master branch is identical in all monotree repositories. Release branches and tags do not exist, so please do not fork that repository unless it is for development reasons.
The contribution workflow is described in CONTRIBUTING.md and useful hints for developers can be found in doc/developer-notes.md.
Testing
Testing and code review is the bottleneck for development; we get more pull requests than we can review and test on short notice. Please be patient and help out by testing other people's pull requests, and remember this is a security-critical project where any mistake might cost people lots of money.
Automated Testing
Developers are strongly encouraged to write unit tests for new code, and to
submit new unit tests for old code. Unit tests can be compiled and run
(assuming they weren't disabled during the generation of the build system) with: ctest. Further details on running
and extending unit tests can be found in /src/test/README.md.
There are also regression and integration tests, written
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These tests can be run (if the test dependencies are installed) with: build/test/functional/test_runner.py
(assuming build is your build directory).
The CI (Continuous Integration) systems make sure that every pull request is tested on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The CI must pass on all commits before merge to avoid unrelated CI failures on new pull requests.
Manual Quality Assurance (QA) Testing
Changes should be tested by somebody other than the developer who wrote the code. This is especially important for large or high-risk changes. It is useful to add a test plan to the pull request description if testing the changes is not straightforward.
Translations
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Important: We do not accept translation changes as GitHub pull requests because the next pull from Transifex would automatically overwrite them again.