Files
bitcoin/doc
Hennadii Stepanov 3bb30658e6 Merge bitcoin/bitcoin#32380: Modernize use of UTF-8 in Windows code
53e4951a5b Switch to ANSI Windows API in `fsbridge::fopen()` function (Hennadii Stepanov)
dbe770d921 Switch to ANSI Windows API in `Win32ErrorString()` function (Hennadii Stepanov)
06d0be4e22 Remove no longer necessary `WinCmdLineArgs` class (Hennadii Stepanov)
f366408492 cmake: Set process code page to UTF-8 on Windows (Hennadii Stepanov)
dccbb17806 Set minimum supported Windows version to 1903 (May 2019 Update) (Hennadii Stepanov)

Pull request description:

  The main goal is to remove [deprecated](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/32361) code (removed in C++26).

  This PR employs Microsoft's modern [approach](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/globalizing/use-utf8-code-page) to handling UTF-8:
  > Until recently, Windows has emphasized "Unicode" -W variants over -A APIs. However, recent releases have used the ANSI code page and -A APIs as a means to introduce UTF-8 support to apps. If the ANSI code page is configured for UTF-8, then -A APIs typically operate in UTF-8. This model has the benefit of supporting existing code built with -A APIs without any code changes.

  TODO:
  - [x] Handle application manifests properly when building with MSVC.
  - [x] Bump the minimum supported Windows version to 1903 (May 2019 Update).
  - [x] Remove all remaining use cases of the deprecated `std:wstring_convert`.
      - The instance in `subprocess.h` will be addressed in a follow-up PR, as additional tests are likely needed.
      - The usage in `common/system.cpp` is handled in https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/32566.

  Resolves partially https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/32361.

ACKs for top commit:
  laanwj:
    re-ACK 53e4951a5b
  hodlinator:
    re-ACK 53e4951a5b
  davidgumberg:
    untested crACK 53e4951a5b

Tree-SHA512: 0dbe9badca8b979ac2b4814fea6e4a7e53c423a1c96cb76ce894253137d3640a87631a5b22b9645e8f0c2a36a107122eb19ed8e92978c17384ffa8b9ab9993b5
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Bitcoin Core

Setup

Bitcoin Core is the original Bitcoin client and it builds the backbone of the network. It downloads and, by default, stores the entire history of Bitcoin transactions, which requires several hundred gigabytes or more of disk space. Depending on the speed of your computer and network connection, the synchronization process can take anywhere from a few hours to several days or more.

To download Bitcoin Core, visit bitcoincore.org.

Running

The following are some helpful notes on how to run Bitcoin Core on your native platform.

Unix

Unpack the files into a directory and run:

  • bin/bitcoin-qt (GUI) or
  • bin/bitcoind (headless)
  • bin/bitcoin (wrapper command)

The bitcoin command supports subcommands like bitcoin gui, bitcoin node, and bitcoin rpc exposing different functionality. Subcommands can be listed with bitcoin help.

Windows

Unpack the files into a directory, and then run bitcoin-qt.exe.

macOS

Drag Bitcoin Core to your applications folder, and then run Bitcoin Core.

Need Help?

Building

The following are developer notes on how to build Bitcoin Core on your native platform. They are not complete guides, but include notes on the necessary libraries, compile flags, etc.

Development

The Bitcoin repo's root README contains relevant information on the development process and automated testing.

Resources

Miscellaneous

License

Distributed under the MIT software license.