Start a Regtest Node

1What you need

• The Divi node software (C++ Divi, version 3.0.0). It is a free download from Divi's GitHub releases for Linux, macOS, Windows and Raspberry Pi. The archive holds three programs: divid (the node), divi-cli (the command tool you talk to it with) and divi-tx. See install the Divi node for the step by step.
• A terminal. Every step below is a typed command. The examples are for Linux and macOS; on Windows the commands are the same with divid.exe and divi-cli.exe.
• About 25 MB of disk. A regtest chain of 100 blocks takes about 21 MB.

You do not need coins, a wallet file, an account or an internet connection once the software is downloaded. The node makes its own coins.

2Make a folder and a settings file

Give the regtest node its own data folder, so it never touches a mainnet or testnet wallet you may have. Inside it, a file called divi.conf tells the node which network to run and how to accept commands.

# a folder of your own for this node
mkdir -p ~/divi-regtest

# the settings file
cat > ~/divi-regtest/divi.conf <<'EOF'
regtest=1
server=1
rpcuser=regtest
rpcpassword=choose-a-long-random-password
staking=0
EOF

What each line does:

3Start the node

Start divid as a background process, pointing it at your folder. Every later command uses the same -datadir, so the command tool finds the settings file and knows it is talking to a regtest node.

divid -datadir=~/divi-regtest -daemon
DIVI server starting

# give it a few seconds, then:
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getblockchaininfo

For the first few seconds the node answers with Loading wallet... or Connecting best block... and an error code of -28. That is not a fault: it is still starting. Try again a moment later and you get the chain:

{
    "chain" : "regtest",
    "blocks" : 0,
    "headers" : 0,
    "bestblockhash" : "0000000b3f9980dcf71f5f52d69e30d3b02f807e0a77b91b6091701e4ae51a6f",
    ...
}

"chain" : "regtest" is the line to check. blocks is 0 because the chain so far is only the built-in first block (the genesis block), and the bestblockhash above is that block's hash. It is the same on every regtest node in the world, because it is written into the software. Every block after it will be yours alone.

Look inside your folder and you will see what the node made:

ls ~/divi-regtest ~/divi-regtest/regtest
~/divi-regtest:
divi.conf  regtest

~/divi-regtest/regtest:
blocks  chainstate  database  db.log  debug.log  divid.pid  sporks  wallet.dat

Everything about this chain lives in the regtest/ subfolder: the blocks, the wallet (wallet.dat) and the log (debug.log). Your divi.conf stays one level up.

4Make your first block

On regtest, setgenerate with a number makes that many blocks at once and pays their rewards to your node's wallet. Make one:

divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest setgenerate 1
[
    "528abf28d341837fad7645f3b5c00bd0546c4f681f494e126c50254a99cce10a"
]

divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getwalletinfo
{
    "balance" : 0.00000000,
    "immature_balance" : 1250.00000000,
    "spendable_balance" : 0.00000000,
    "txcount" : 1,
    ...
}

The answer is the hash of the block you just made. The wallet now shows 1,250 DIVI, but as immature: a block reward cannot be spent until 20 more blocks sit on top of it. That rule is the same on mainnet, where 20 blocks take 20 minutes. Here it takes one command.

5Make 100 more

Make 20 blocks and the first reward matures; make another 80 and you have a chain of 101 blocks with 100,000 DIVI to spend:

divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest setgenerate 20 > /dev/null
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getwalletinfo
{
    "balance" : 1250.00000000,
    "immature_balance" : 25000.00000000,
    "spendable_balance" : 1250.00000000,
    "txcount" : 21,
    ...
}

divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest setgenerate 80 > /dev/null
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getwalletinfo
{
    "balance" : 100000.00000000,
    "spendable_balance" : 100000.00000000,
    "txcount" : 101,
    ...
}

divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getblockcount
101

The > /dev/null only hides the long list of block hashes. The arithmetic: at height 21 one reward (block 1) has 20 blocks on top of it, so 1,250 is spendable and the other 20 rewards are still maturing. At height 101, blocks 1 to 81 have matured, which is 81 rewards. Block 101 is the first staked block: it locked one matured 1,250 coin back up inside its own reward, so 80 × 1,250 = 100,000 DIVI is spendable.

6Send yourself a payment

A payment on regtest goes through the same three stages as on mainnet: it is made, it waits in the mempool, and it is confirmed by a block. The difference is that you make the block.

# a fresh address in the same wallet
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getnewaddress
yDyxj2EtxpX9VLMUPye6vYyYARwdMbNu2E

divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest sendtoaddress yDyxj2EtxpX9VLMUPye6vYyYARwdMbNu2E 123.45
356d2e19b07f76b2299183e24cef0ef0efc93026359f2c12c61447670a870d33

# waiting for a block
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getrawmempool
[
    "356d2e19b07f76b2299183e24cef0ef0efc93026359f2c12c61447670a870d33"
]

# make the block that confirms it
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest setgenerate 1
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest gettransaction 356d2e19b07f76b2299183e24cef0ef0efc93026359f2c12c61447670a870d33
{
    "amount" : -0.00002260,
    "fee" : 0.00002260,
    "confirmations" : 1,
    "blockhash" : "163c205553891647aad42619e4069d1dd1356a4d62556f5227e9e4ca4bb8ccb7",
    ...
}

Regtest addresses start with x or y, like testnet ones. The payment went from your wallet to your wallet, so the only change in the balance is the fee, about 0.00002 DIVI. Until you ran setgenerate 1 the payment had zero confirmations and would have stayed that way forever: nobody else is making blocks.

7Stop, restart, start over

# stop the node cleanly
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest stop
DIVI server stopping

# start it again later: the chain and the wallet are still there
divid -datadir=~/divi-regtest -daemon
divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest getblockcount
102

To throw the chain away and begin from block 0, stop the node, delete the regtest/ subfolder and start again. Your divi.conf is outside that folder, so it survives:

divi-cli -datadir=~/divi-regtest stop
rm -rf ~/divi-regtest/regtest
divid -datadir=~/divi-regtest -daemon

8What next

• Two nodes on one computer: add an IronDivi node that follows this one, and watch blocks and payments travel between them.
• Give yourself coins and watch them mature: what the rewards look like after block 100, and how to fund several addresses.
• A reproducible chain: one script that builds this exact starting state from nothing, every time.
• Test your app on regtest: talk to the node from Python or Node.js.

If something goes wrong

Still stuck? Ask the Divi chatbot, or see all tutorials.