Where is bitcoin.conf and why doesn't bitcoind find existing datadir v0.17.1

Just built no gui, no wallet bitcoin on WSL Ubuntu Bionic, Bitcoin v0.17.1.

I want to experiment with bitcoin-cli.

I followed recommendation to run bitcoind -princonsole and it says: Using config file

/home/<myusername>/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

This file doesn't exist.

I followed some dense discussion on how should this behave to make dumb users happier on github, supposedly there were some merges, but frankly, I have no clue what was the final conclusion and what is or isn't in 0.17.1

Eventually, I understood that datadir must be specified first.

But that doesn't work for me.

~/bitcoin$ bitcoind -datadir /mnt/d/blockchain -txindex
Error: Specified data directory "" does not exist.

/mnt/d/blockchain definitely exists.

Thanks for any help.

Many thanks to Nate Eldredge for pointing out a dumb error of mine and hope someone can help parsing and shedding some light on this:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/10746

Blockchain download has started and now I am waiting for the end result.

bitcoind

Tony

Posted 2019-01-20T23:08:57.637

Reputation: 127

Please mark Nate's answer as correct by clicking the checkmark instead of editing your answer – arubi – 2019-01-21T18:17:59.910

Answers

The syntax should be

bitcoind -datadir=/mnt/d/blockchain -txindex

Note the = sign.

This will look for the bitcoin.conf file at /mnt/d/blockchain/bitcoin.conf and will store the blockchain, databases, wallet files, etc, all in /mnt/d/blockchain. With this option, Bitcoin Core shouldn't read or write anything in ~/.bitcoin at all.

Nate Eldredge

Posted 2019-01-20T23:08:57.637

Reputation: 21 420

Lol. Feel embarassed. That worked. – Tony – 2019-01-20T23:18:43.993

On Ubuntu your bitcoin.conf file should be located at /home/username/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

If that file do not exist create it and fill with standard parameters like:

server=1
listen=1
daemon=1
rpcuser=youusername
rpcpassword=yourpassword
rpcallowip=your ip or the rpc commands sending machine

AG23

Posted 2019-01-20T23:08:57.637

Reputation: 29

Maybe it should but it isn't: ~/.bitcoin$ ls banlist.dat blocks chainstate debug.log fee_estimates.dat mempool.dat peers.dat wallets – Tony – 2019-01-20T23:15:34.813

Just type 'touch bitcoin.conf' and fill the file with the aforementioned parameters. – AG23 – 2019-01-22T10:43:11.283