How is locktime enforced in the standard client?

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1

I am trying to study the locktime feature of transactions ( https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification#tx ). I have created some raw transactions in the testnet with different locktimes, but, when I send them, they are confirmed as usual. I have also been able to spend the just sent coins immediately. When I dump the block, the locktime field looks correct.

How is the locktime checked when confirming a transaction? Can someone point me to the piece of the code that does the checking?

Or am I wrong and locktime is really not implemented?

halftimepad

Posted 2012-12-24T10:53:28.843

Reputation: 1 218

Answers

4

It's checked in the IsFinal() method of CTransaction. A non-final transaction cannot be included in blocks.

A transaction is final if either:

  • The lock time is in the past.
  • All of the inputs have sequence numbers equal to UINT_MAX.

The second one is probably what confused you.

theymos

Posted 2012-12-24T10:53:28.843

Reputation: 8 228

Thank you! I hadn't checked that. Still, I have just sent a transaction with both sequence number smaller than UINT_MAX and a locktime greater than 0 and spent it right away. I will revise IsFinal() to check what is wrong... – halftimepad – 2012-12-26T22:07:01.367

Done. I was using a wrong locktime. It must be an absolute time with UNIX timestamp format. – halftimepad – 2013-01-06T23:35:03.627

Asked: 2012-12-24T10:53:28.843

Viewed: 2 240 times

Active: 2016-10-30T21:05:54.477