getrawtransaction error? [Code -5]

I'm trying to read raw transactions but there is a problem; Seems like getrawtransaction only works for recent transactions, old transactions give me the next error:

No information available about transaction (code -5)

Why is that? How can i see raw transactions from old transactions? When i say "old" its like from 5 days ago. I really need those transactions to get the sender addresses for each one, if "aging" is the case i can keep that data in my own database before it gets old but...Maybe it's not about old/new transactions, maybe there is another factor that won't let me read some raw transactions, you guys know something about that?

Here's how I'm using the command:

Working:

getrawtransaction 94628caff8b926f1247779aa687fc5cce5063f3389f291192ce1e52fae9a2655 1

Not working:

getrawtransaction 6e0f6cc64a08241c62eb93427923e95319c1e16db56ddeefa0c837944ce63d4b 1

Thank you!

user3418

Posted 2013-04-04T21:27:11.787

Reputation: 594

Is this from BitcoinJ or the standard client? – Nick ODell – 2013-04-04T22:00:47.597

It's from Bitcoind and Bitcoin-qt debug console. I sincerely don't know about BitcoinJ. – user3418 – 2013-04-04T22:05:06.083

Can you give us the command you're running? – Nick ODell – 2013-04-04T22:09:51.243

getrawtransaction 94628caff8b926f1247779aa687fc5cce5063f3389f291192ce1e52fae9a2655 1 – user3418 – 2013-04-04T22:12:41.333

getrawtransaction 6e0f6cc64a08241c62eb93427923e95319c1e16db56ddeefa0c837944ce63d4b 1 – user3418 – 2013-04-04T22:13:45.697

This may sound like an is-it-plugged-in question, but is there a transaction that hashes out to that? blockchain.info doesn't seem to know about it. – Nick ODell – 2013-04-04T22:15:10.820

Those are two examples, the first one is a new transaction and it works, the second one is an old transaction and brings me the error, both transactions are testnet transactions. both were used on the debug console of bitcoin-qt – user3418 – 2013-04-04T22:15:14.763

Yup, thats because those are testnet transactions. – user3418 – 2013-04-04T22:16:04.143

Answers

Since bitcoind/Bitcoin-qt 0.8, no transaction index is kept anymore by default, as it is not necessary for validation in the new database model.

Instead, there is only a database of unspent transaction outputs, which has enough information to (slowly) locate transactions in block files. getrawtransaction uses this, but it only works for transactions that are not yet spent in the block chain.

If you want to be able to look up historical transactions, you need to set the txindex=1 configuration option (or start with the -txindex command line flag). As this setting can only be set when the database is created, you'll need to rebuild it from scratch (using -reindex).

Pieter Wuille

Posted 2013-04-04T21:27:11.787

Reputation: 54 032

Thanks! i'm doing it right now, how much time should the process last?. "bitcoind.exe -reindex" is the way to do it right? – user3418 – 2013-04-05T00:04:13.333

"bitcoind.exe -reindex" will do the trick, if you've set txindex=1 in bitcoin.conf. It may take half an hour to several hours, depending on hardware. – Pieter Wuille – 2013-04-05T00:11:57.973

Yes i did that, i guess i will sit back and wait for the command line to tell me something, i will come back to you when it's done. Thanks! – user3418 – 2013-04-05T00:17:48.557

As noted in bitcointalk thread - it doesn't work for some strange reason on the very first bitcoin transaction http://blockexplorer.com/tx/4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b

– Karel Bílek – 2013-04-05T20:13:21.367

That is perfectly normal, as the coinbase of the genesis block does not actually exist from the point of view of the block validation rules. It is not known whether this is a bug or intentional, but this transaction was never added to any database, so it can't be spent. However, this can't be safely changed right now (that would technically be a hard fork...). – Pieter Wuille – 2013-04-05T23:33:04.543

@PieterWuille could you explain why a full tx index is no longer kept? For example, without the tx index how is bitcoind able to keep track of what is an unspent output vs an output that has been spent? – samol – 2014-03-08T21:59:39.830

By keeping a separate compact database with just the unspent outputs of transactions. – Pieter Wuille – 2014-03-08T22:36:36.223