bitcoind and bitcoin-cli 'unrecognized', how can I access them from command line?

I have downloaded and installed the precompiled Bitcoin Core OS-X (also successfully synchronized). Every tutorial I have seen then directs one to begin using the executables bitcoind and bitcoin-cli. Unfortunately, these are unrecognized.

I've found this on the stack exchange as using Help->Debug Window which is incredibly helpful but I'm thinking it would be more advantageous to be able to run processes from command line...

Is it as simple as a missing symlink or something? Or do I need to install from source in order to access these executables?

bitNoob

Posted 2015-08-27T00:07:56.273

Reputation: 63

Hi bitNoob, Welcome to Bitcoin.SE and thanks for your question. In the future, please try to summarize your topic in the title instead of describing the type of inquiry, that way people can assess better whether they are interested in the question. I've given it a shot, but I am not sure if I really got it right. Please see if my edit gets it right, otherwise edit it to your liking! – Murch – 2015-08-27T10:19:14.290

Answers

Bitcoin Core does not include bitcoind or bitcoin-cli. You can use the "debug" window to input the same commands there, or use Homebrew to install bitcoind and its related tools bitcoin-cli and bitcoin-tx directly.

brew tap WyseNynja/homebrew-bitcoin
brew update
brew install bitcoind

This will download, compile, and install the most recent version of the daemon and the tools. The homebrew script used to do that is viewable on github. To keep up with new versions of Bitcoin Core that are released every few months, brew update && brew upgrade will check for new releases and rebuild if necessary.

Anonymous

Posted 2015-08-27T00:07:56.273

Reputation: 10 054

Thanks! Worked great. Should I have any concerns with running bitcoin-cli in this manner as opposed to a src build? – bitNoob – 2015-08-27T01:04:03.630

You are trusting that the user WyseNynja does not replace the build script with a malicious one, but he is a long time user of Bitcoin and Github so this seems unlikely. You'll need to update the homebrewed version with brew update && brew upgrade occasionally to keep up with Bitcoin Core releases. If you attempt to use bitcoind and Bitcoin Core at the same time it will produce an error, but this is not dangerous (just close one before using the other). HomeBrew is essentially a full source build anyway, it's just automated to avoid dependency problems. – Anonymous – 2015-08-27T01:22:21.927

1Sorry to minus this answer. But IMO it's highly dangerous to install bitcoin software over a package management software. Especially if the package management software not has a good review process (homebrew has not). – Jonas Schnelli – 2015-08-27T11:07:55.027

1In hindsight I agree with you, I would remove this in favor of yours but SE doesn't allow that for some reason, one of the moderators might be able to. – Anonymous – 2015-08-28T07:33:23.907

bitcoin-cli (and other tools) or available as "official" binaries (for OSX, Win and Linux). Just download the *-osx64.tar.gz. Check: https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.11.0/

Jonas Schnelli

Posted 2015-08-27T00:07:56.273

Reputation: 5 465