Legacy Configuration

The pre-2.9.6 configuration style: space-separated command-line arguments and the flat config.json schema

Legacy Configuration

Releases before Arweave 2.9.6 configured the node with space-separated command-line arguments and a flat config.json schema. This page documents that legacy style.

The legacy style still works: a launch with no --long flags and no recognized AR_* environment variables is parsed in the legacy style. The two styles cannot be mixed in a single launch, and we recommend the current style for new configurations - see Migrating Your Configuration for the option name mappings and the convert_config tool that converts a legacy config.json automatically.

1. Command-line Arguments

Legacy arguments are space-separated tokens with no -- prefix: a boolean flag is a bare word (mine), an option is followed by its value (data_dir /opt/data), and repeatable options are given multiple times (one storage_module argument per storage module). Features are switched on and off with enable / disable (e.g. enable randomx_large_pages).

Legacy storage modules are described by a bucket size and index rather than a byte range: storage_module [index],[packing] covers one 3.6TB mining partition, and storage_module [index],[bucket_size],[packing] covers the range [index * bucket_size, (index + 1) * bucket_size) for a custom bucket size in bytes (e.g. storage_module 0,2000000000000,[addr].replica.2.9 for the first 2 TB). The current config expresses these as explicit range_start / range_end byte ranges instead - including arbitrary ranges the bucket scheme cannot describe. The two notations also name their on-disk directories differently - see Directory Structure - so migrating a custom-bucket-size config involves renaming directories: see Migrating Custom Bucket Sizes Manually.

A legacy solo-mining launch:

./bin/start \
    enable randomx_large_pages \
    peer peers.arweave.xyz \
    data_dir /opt/data \
    mine \
    vdf_server_trusted_peer vdf-server-3.arweave.xyz \
    transaction_blacklist_url https://public_shepherd.arweave.net \
    mining_addr En2eqsVJARnTVOSh723PBXAKGmKgrGSjQ2YIGwE_ZRI \
    storage_module 0,En2eqsVJARnTVOSh723PBXAKGmKgrGSjQ2YIGwE_ZRI.replica.2.9 \
    storage_module 1,En2eqsVJARnTVOSh723PBXAKGmKgrGSjQ2YIGwE_ZRI.replica.2.9

2. The config.json File

A legacy configuration file is always JSON, with a flat schema: option names at the top level, feature switches collected in enable / disable arrays, and storage modules written as "partition,packing" strings. The file is loaded with the config_file argument:

./bin/start config_file config.json

The same solo-mining configuration as a legacy config.json:

{
    "enable": [ "randomx_large_pages" ],
    "peers": [ "peers.arweave.xyz" ],
    "data_dir": "/opt/data",
    "vdf_server_trusted_peers": [ "vdf-server-3.arweave.xyz" ],
    "transaction_blacklist_urls": [ "https://public_shepherd.arweave.net" ],

    "storage_modules": [
        "0,En2eqsVJARnTVOSh723PBXAKGmKgrGSjQ2YIGwE_ZRI.replica.2.9",
        "1,En2eqsVJARnTVOSh723PBXAKGmKgrGSjQ2YIGwE_ZRI.replica.2.9"
    ],

    "mining_addr": "En2eqsVJARnTVOSh723PBXAKGmKgrGSjQ2YIGwE_ZRI",

    "mine": true
}

Command-line arguments and a config_file can be combined, but we recommend against mixing the two as it can be confusing if there are conflicts between them.

3. Differences from the Current Style

• Option names differ. Flat legacy names map to the current dotted keys: mine → mining.enabled, mining_addr → mining.address, peer → peers.trusted, and so on. See Migrating Your Configuration for more information.

• No environment variables. The legacy style has no AR_* support - setting any recognized AR_* variable flips the whole launch to the current style, and legacy tokens like mine will then be rejected as unknown arguments.

• No dynamic configuration. config get / config set operate on current-style dotted keys, on nodes new enough to support them.

• JSON only. Legacy config files are always JSON; YAML files are a current-style feature.