make tezos-client command work without passing client dir as param

[nicolasochem]

This is very neat because I can open a shell into the node or baker and
type tezos-client list known addresses and it just works.

Q: why a symink instead of moving the actual dir to
/home/tezos/.tezos-client ?

A: the potential for breakage is high if we move the dir. This makes the
startup script a bit longer but there is virtually no risk of breakage.

[harryttd]

This is a great trick :)

A few things:

• I don't think the cmd just like this will work. We need to remove the directory first. Otherwise the symlink gets created inside the target. Instead of becoming the target. https://askubuntu.com/questions/600714/creating-a-symlink-from-one-folder-to-another-with-different-names

  ~ $ ln -s /var/tezos/client /home/tezos/.tezos-client/
  ~ $ ls -l /home/tezos/.tezos-client/
  total 0
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 tezos    nogroup         17 Feb 18 05:20 client -> /var/tezos/client
  ~ $ tezos-client list known addresses
  ~ $ unlink /home/tezos/.tezos-client/client
  ~ $ ls -l /home/tezos/.tezos-client/
  total 0
  
  # Now remove the directory
  ~ $ rm -r .tezos-client/
  ~ $ ln -s /var/tezos/client/ .tezos-client
  ~ $ ls -la
  ...
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 tezos    nogroup         18 Feb 18 05:43 .tezos-client -> /var/tezos/client/
  ~ $ ls -l .tezos-client/
  total 32
  -rw-r--r--    1 tezos    nogroup      10297 Feb 18 05:44 NetXxkAx4woPL_baker_state
  -rw-r--r--    1 tezos    nogroup        408 Feb 18 05:44 NetXxkAx4woPL_highwatermarks
  -rw-r--r--    1 tezos    nogroup       4082 Feb 18 05:38 NetXxkAx4woPL_nonces
  -rw-r--r--    1 root     root           661 Feb 18 00:04 public_key_hashs
  -rw-r--r--    1 root     root          1655 Feb 18 00:04 public_keys
  -rw-r--r--    1 root     root           132 Feb 18 00:04 secret_keys
  -rw-r--r--    1 tezos    nogroup          0 Feb 18 00:08 wallet_lock
  ~ $ tezos-client list known addresses
  oxheadbaker: tz1....

• Why not move the ln above here so we don't need -d?

  tezos-k8s/charts/tezos/scripts/baker-endorser.sh

  Lines 17 to 18 in 9a07742

  	CLIENT="$TEZ_BIN/tezos-client -d $CLIENT_DIR"
  	CMD="$TEZ_BIN/tezos-$DAEMON-$proto_command -d $CLIENT_DIR"

• You mentioned this makes the startup script take longer. How much longer?

• Do you think we would ever want in the future to stop using /var/tezos and use the default .tezos-client dir instead? Or there's not much of a reason to switch at this point.

[nicolasochem]

It does work, I tried. When the node starts, there is no .tezos-client in the homedir. And it starts from a clean homedir each time the container starts (homedir is not mounted). If some future octez container somehow has a .tezos-client in it, then what you describe will happen. I think we are fine, though.

Why not move the ln above here so we don't need -d?

As far as the script goes, I think it's ok to be very explicit and not rely on the existence of the symlink. This tricks helps humans but machines can deal with a more complicated command.

You mentioned this makes the startup script take longer. How much longer?

I meant longer in terms of lines of code, not exec time.

Do you think we would ever want in the future to stop using /var/tezos and use the default .tezos-client dir instead? Or there's not much of a reason to switch at this point.

I'm afraid of breakage so I went for this hack instead so we don't have to worry about it.

[harryttd]

sounds great. thank you :)