Added documentation for --ignore-weak-subjectivity-period-enabled

[lucassaldanha]

Documentation for Consensys/teku#7698

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for Git ↗︎

Name	Status	Preview	Comments	Updated (UTC)
doc-teku	✅ Ready (Inspect)	Visit Preview	💬 Add feedback	Nov 21, 2023 9:41pm

[alexandratran]

@lucassaldanha
Made some edits that require review:

• Moved the new content to the weak subjectivity concepts page
• Link to weak subjectivity at the top of the checkpoint sync page
• Reorder reference so checkpoint-sync-url is in alphabetical order

Questions:

1. What's the difference between checkpoint-sync-url and initial-state?
2. Do we recommend checkpoint sync for most users?
3. Do you need to specify ignore-weak-subjectivity-period-enabled=true if you don't use a checkpoint state?

[lucassaldanha]

What's the difference between checkpoint-sync-url and initial-state?

They work in a similar way (behind the scenes, we set the initial-state value based on the checkpoint-sync-url.

The main reason for using it is to be aligned with the options that other clients are using. Checkpoint sync is a common term that users often refer to when syncing their nodes.

One big difference is that initial-state also accepts a file, not just a URL.

Do we recommend checkpoint sync for most users?

Totally. This is one of the reasons why we changed the default syncing behaviour to forbid users to sync from old states (including genesis).

Do you need to specify ignore-weak-subjectivity-period-enabled=true if you don't use a checkpoint state?

Most likely yes, unless you are on some private network just starting. This is how it plays:

1. Start a node w/o checkpoint sync URL on network X
2. Teku will check the genesis state for network X
3. If the state is too far behind, Teku will stop and give an error. Unless ignore-weak-subjectivity-period-enabled=true.

If you are starting your node close to the genesis time of the network, then it is possible that we are still within the weak subjectivity period, so step 3 won't fail.

However, for mainnet and all official current testnets, this won't happen because their genesis is already outside of the weak subjectivity period.

[alexandratran]

@lucassaldanha Thanks for the thorough response. I've addressed your feedback, my only outstanding question is whether we need to update the examples on the following pages to use checkpoint-sync-url?

• https://docs.teku.consensys.net/get-started/start-teku
• https://docs.teku.consensys.net/get-started/connect/mainnet
• https://docs.teku.consensys.net/get-started/connect/testnet
• (Besu docs) https://besu.hyperledger.org/public-networks/tutorials/besu-teku-mainnet
• (Besu docs) https://besu.hyperledger.org/public-networks/tutorials/besu-teku-testnet

[lucassaldanha]

@lucassaldanha Thanks for the thorough response. I've addressed your feedback, my only outstanding question is whether we need to update the examples on the following pages to use checkpoint-sync-url?

• https://docs.teku.consensys.net/get-started/start-teku
• https://docs.teku.consensys.net/get-started/connect/mainnet
• https://docs.teku.consensys.net/get-started/connect/testnet
• (Besu docs) https://besu.hyperledger.org/public-networks/tutorials/besu-teku-mainnet
• (Besu docs) https://besu.hyperledger.org/public-networks/tutorials/besu-teku-testnet

Hi Alexandra, yes I think it would be great to update the example on these pages to use --checkpoint-sync-url. The only thing is what checkpoint sync URL we use in the examples. Basically, we do not want to make the decision for people on what "source of truth" they should trust. Even though in practice, using an endpoint like Ethstaker's is the sensible thing to do.

So the options are:

1. We chose a trustworthy checkpoint sync provider and use it in the examples (e.g. Ethstaker's).
2. We use a generic endpoint as a placeholder (e.g. http://your-chosen-checkpoint-sync-url.com).

Option 1 is more friendly to users, but it is more opinionated on what endpoint to use. @benjaminion do you have some thoughts on this?

[alexandratran]

@lucassaldanha I used the Ethstaker endpoint for the "Start Teku" page because those are clearly labelled as example commands. For the connect to Mainnet and testnet pages, I added placeholder text and linked to the reference. Also raised this issue to update the Besu pages: hyperledger/besu-docs#1451