tendermint/spec/p2p/config.md

P2P Config

Here we describe configuration options around the Peer Exchange. These can be set using flags or via the $TMHOME/config/config.toml file.

Seed Mode

--p2p.seed_mode

The node operates in seed mode. In seed mode, a node continuously crawls the network for peers, and upon incoming connection shares some peers and disconnects.

Seeds

--p2p.seeds “id100000000000000000000000000000000@1.2.3.4:26656,id200000000000000000000000000000000@2.3.4.5:4444”

Dials these seeds when we need more peers. They should return a list of peers and then disconnect. If we already have enough peers in the address book, we may never need to dial them.

Persistent Peers

--p2p.persistent_peers “id100000000000000000000000000000000@1.2.3.4:26656,id200000000000000000000000000000000@2.3.4.5:26656”

Dial these peers and auto-redial them if the connection fails. These are intended to be trusted persistent peers that can help anchor us in the p2p network. The auto-redial uses exponential backoff and will give up after a day of trying to connect.

But If persistent_peers_max_dial_period is set greater than zero, pause between each dial to each persistent peer will not exceed persistent_peers_max_dial_period during exponential backoff and we keep trying again without giving up

Note: If seeds and persistent_peers intersect, the user will be warned that seeds may auto-close connections and that the node may not be able to keep the connection persistent.

Private Peers

--p2p.private_peer_ids “id100000000000000000000000000000000,id200000000000000000000000000000000”

These are IDs of the peers that we do not add to the address book or gossip to other peers. They stay private to us.

Unconditional Peers

--p2p.unconditional_peer_ids “id100000000000000000000000000000000,id200000000000000000000000000000000”

These are IDs of the peers which are allowed to be connected by both inbound or outbound regardless of max_num_inbound_peers or max_num_outbound_peers of user's node reached or not.