Reth

Overview

Reth - short for Rust Ethereum, is an Ethereum full node implementation that is focused on being user-friendly, highly modular, as well as being fast and efficient.

🚧 Reth is the bleeding edge of Ethereum EL clients. As alpha software, expect rapid change and proceed with caution. 🚧

Official Links

Subject	Link
Releases	https://github.com/paradigmxyz/reth
Documentation	https://paradigmxyz.github.io/reth/
Website	https://www.paradigm.xyz/oss/reth

1. Create service account and data directory

Create a service user for the execution service, create data directory and assign ownership.

sudo adduser --system --no-create-home --group execution
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/reth
sudo chown -R execution:execution /var/lib/reth

Install dependencies.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install -y ccze jq curl

2. Install binaries

• Downloading binaries is often faster and more convenient.

• Building from source code can offer better compatibility and is more aligned with the spirit of FOSS (free open source software).

Option 1 - Download binaries

RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/paradigmxyz/reth/releases/latest"
BINARIES_URL="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz$)"

echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
wget -O reth.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
tar -xzvf reth.tar.gz -C $HOME
rm reth.tar.gz

Install the binaries and display the version.

sudo mv $HOME/reth /usr/local/bin
reth --version

Option 2 - Build from source code

Install rust dependency

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

When prompted, enter '1' to proceed with the default install.

Update your environment variables.

echo export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Install rust dependencies.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install -y git libclang-dev pkg-config build-essential

Build the binaries.

mkdir -p ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/paradigmxyz/reth.git
cd reth
git fetch --tags
# Get latest tag name
latestTag=$(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
# Checkout latest tag
git checkout $latestTag
# Build the release
cargo build --release

In case of compilation errors, run the following sequence.

rustup update
cargo clean
cargo build --release

Verify Reth was built properly by checking the version number.

~/git/reth/target/release/reth --version

Install the binary.

sudo cp ~/git/reth/target/release/reth /usr/local/bin

3. Setup and configure systemd

Create a systemd unit file to define your execution.service configuration.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/execution.service

Paste the following configuration into the file.

[Unit]
Description=Reth Execution Layer Client service for Holesky
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
Documentation=https://www.coincashew.com

[Service]
Type=simple
User=execution
Group=execution
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutStopSec=900
Environment=RUST_LOG=info
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/reth node \
    --full \
    --chain holesky \
    --datadir=/var/lib/reth \
    --metrics 127.0.0.1:6060 \
    --port 30303 \
    --http \
    --http.port 8545 \
    --http.api="rpc,eth,web3,net,debug" \
    --log.file.directory=/var/lib/reth/logs \
    --max-outbound-peers 25 \
    --max-inbound-peers 25 \
    --authrpc.jwtsecret=/secrets/jwtsecret
   
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

To exit and save, press Ctrl + X, then Y, then Enter.

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable execution

Finally, start your execution layer client and check it's status.

sudo systemctl start execution
sudo systemctl status execution

Press Ctrl + C to exit the status.

4. Helpful execution client commands

View Logs

sudo journalctl -fu execution | ccze

A properly functioning Reth execution client will indicate "Block added to canonical chain". For example,

INFO reth::node::events: Forkchoice updated head_block_hash=2317ae..c41107 safe_block_hash=ab173f..33a21b finalized_block_hash=ab173f..33a21b status=Valid
INFO reth::node::events: Block added to canonical chain number=16000 hash=2317ae..c41107
INFO reth::node::events: Canonical chain committed number=16000 hash=2317ae..c41107 elapsed=12.508272ms

Stop

sudo systemctl stop execution

Start

sudo systemctl start execution

View Status

sudo systemctl status execution

Reset Database

Common reasons to reset the database can include:

• Recovering from a corrupted database due to power outage or hardware failure

• Re-syncing to reduce disk space usage

• Upgrading to a new storage format

sudo systemctl stop execution
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/reth/*
sudo systemctl restart execution

Time to re-sync the execution client can take a few hours up to a day.

Now that your execution client is configured and started, proceed to the next step on setting up your consensus client.

If you're checking the logs and see any warnings or errors, please be patient as these will normally resolve once both your execution and consensus clients are fully synced to the Ethereum network.