account-management.rst

Account Management

Subcommands

CodeChain has account subcommand. It is used to manage accounts and has subcommands of its own, which are the following:

create

Create a new account in the keys file directory. Upon creation, the user is asked to enter a passphrase.

import <JSON_FILE_PATH>

Import a key in the format of a JSON file. Enter the directory that holds the JSON file to import.

import-raw <RAW_KEY>

Import a private key(64 hexadecimal characters) directly.

remove <ADDRESS>

Remove an account from the keys file directory. Use list to get the ADDRESS.

list

List the managed accounts.

change-password <ADDRESS>

Change the password of the account linked with the given ADDRESS.

Creating an Account

You can create a new account with the create command. This command will ask for the user to create a password that goes along with the newly created account.

./target/release/codechain account create

Note

Password can be left blank by simply pressing the enter key twice after using the create command.

After creating an account with create, you should see files created under /codechain/keys directory. These files should look something like this:

UTC--2018-06-21T03-24-11Z--0995f73c-ddba-d65f-a6e5-083be0df4bbb

Upon closer inspection, the created accounts contain the following contents:

{"id":"0995f73c-ddba-d65f-a6e5-083be0df4bbb","version":1,"crypto":{"cipher":"aes-128-ctr","cipherparams":{"iv":"e0b2af9a7f7676b547fae2c9e6b57694"},
"ciphertext":"681389baba1ca30ba5b5610199168d819d00d318fef251279be0c5a48214c081","kdf":"pbkdf2","kdfparams":
{"c":10240,"dklen":32,"prf":"hmac-sha256","salt":"ddce31fe0610f9d55e0ec1c28c04c11c02c5c19d3a5d64f910a43125a2922b04"},
"mac":"7bc755edea0e64d8a1f14d9d38ebdfeabb791f8dad4f53175ed3c286e40610f7"},"address":"6753f53309a778291f96e339887c1644a8d596db","name":"","meta":"{}"}

Changing the Password

You can change your password with the change-password command. For instance, if you want to change the password of cccqzn9jjm3j6qg69smd7cn0eup4w7z2yu9myd6c4d7, run the following:

./target/release/codechain account change-password cccqzn9jjm3j6qg69smd7cn0eup4w7z2yu9myd6c4d7

After entering the old password, a new password can be set. If the wrong password is entered, it will throw a KeystoreError.

Importing an Account

Accounts can be imported in two ways. You can either define a certain directory or use a 64 character hexadecimal string. The first method can be done by using the import command. Let's try importing a key from the ./keys directory. This can be done as follows:

./target/release/codechain account import ./keys/<NAME_OF_KEY>

The second method uses the import-raw command. Let's say you want to import a private key with the value of a159aa74f2dc23f560fdc36ad6f7ad597a8e61be4bb9e1a9edb50a9013574910. Then you would use the following command:

./target/release/codechain account import-raw a159aa74f2dc23f560fdc36ad6f7ad597a8e61be4bb9e1a9edb50a9013574910

The first method asks for the password of the key to import, since it is protected. The second method will ask you to set a new password for the 64 character hexadecimal string of your choice.

Looking Up Accounts

You can list all the accounts that are currently created by using the list command.

If you run the following, you should get a list of all the managed accounts' addresses:

./target/release/codechain account list

Removing Accounts

If you want to remove a certain account, you should first know the address of that account. To do this, simply use the list command. Once you found the address of the account you want to remove, simply use the remove command. If you want to delete an account with address 0xc3bc9c4bd0020fcc9bd294c379b2eb7284c99de5, then use the following command:

./target/release/codechain account remove 0xc3bc9c4bd0020fcc9bd294c379b2eb7284c99de5

Then you will be asked to enter the password. Once the correct password is entered, the account will be removed.