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bitcoin.conf Configuration File

The configuration file is used by bitcoind, bitcoin-qt and bitcoin-cli.

All command-line options (except for -?, -help, -version and -conf) may be specified in a configuration file, and all configuration file options (except for includeconf) may also be specified on the command line. Command-line options override values set in the configuration file and configuration file options override values set in the GUI.

Changes to the configuration file while bitcoind or bitcoin-qt is running only take effect after restarting.

Users should never make any configuration changes which they do not understand. Furthermore, users should always be wary of accepting any configuration changes provided to them by another source (even if they believe that they do understand them).

Configuration File Format

The configuration file is a plain text file and consists of option=value entries, one per line. Leading and trailing whitespaces are removed.

In contrast to the command-line usage:

  • an option must be specified without leading -;
  • a value of the given option is mandatory; e.g., testnet=1 (for chain selection options), noconnect=1 (for negated options).

Blank lines

Blank lines are allowed and ignored by the parser.

Comments

A comment starts with a number sign (#) and extends to the end of the line. All comments are ignored by the parser.

Comments may appear in two ways:

  • on their own on an otherwise empty line (preferable);
  • after an option=value entry.

Network specific options

Network specific options can be:

  • placed into sections with headers [main] (not [mainnet]), [test] (not [testnet]), [signet] or [regtest];
  • prefixed with a chain name; e.g., regtest.maxmempool=100.

Network specific options take precedence over non-network specific options. If multiple values for the same option are found with the same precedence, the first one is generally chosen.

This means that given the following configuration, regtest.rpcport is set to 3000:

regtest=1
rpcport=2000
regtest.rpcport=3000

[regtest]
rpcport=4000

Configuration File Path

The configuration file is not automatically created; you can create it using your favorite text editor. By default, the configuration file name is bitcoin.conf and it is located in the Bitcoin data directory, but both the Bitcoin data directory and the configuration file path may be changed using the -datadir and -conf command-line options.

The includeconf=<file> option in the bitcoin.conf file can be used to include additional configuration files.

Default configuration file locations

Operating System Data Directory Example Path
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Bitcoin\ C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Bitcoin\bitcoin.conf
Linux $HOME/.bitcoin/ /home/username/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
macOS $HOME/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/ /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

An example configuration file can be generated by contrib/devtools/gen-bitcoin-conf.sh. Run this script after compiling to generate an up-to-date configuration file. The output is placed under share/examples/bitcoin.conf. To use the generated configuration file, copy the example file into your data directory and edit it there, like so:

# example copy command for linux user
cp share/examples/bitcoin.conf ~/.bitcoin