Add a Generate Genesis State Command to Prysmctl

[rauljordan]

As part of making Prysm easy to use for running a local devnet, it would be ideal if the tool for generating a genesis state can live under the prysmctl binary, which we are increasingly building to be a really great CLI tool for all things related to Prysm. This will be published as a Docker image under our GCR and will make instructions trivial. This is a refactor of the tool that already existed under tools/genesis-state-gen, but written with cleaner code and smaller functions.

Usage is:

NAME:
   prysmctl testnet generate-genesis - Generate a beacon chain genesis state from specified configs

USAGE:
   prysmctl testnet generate-genesis [command options] [arguments...]

OPTIONS:
   --chain-config-file value  The path to a YAML file with chain config values
   --config-name value        Config kind to be used for generating the genesis state. Default: mainnet. Options include mainnet, interop, minimal, prater, ropsten, sepolia. --chain-config-file will override this flag. (default: "mainnet")
   --deposit-json-file value  Path to deposit_data.json file generated by the staking-deposit-cli tool for optionally specifying validators in genesis state
   --genesis-time value       Unix timestamp seconds used as the genesis time in the genesis state. If unset, defaults to now() (default: 0)
   --num-validators value     Number of validators to deterministically generate in the genesis state (default: 0)
   --output-json value        Output filename of the JSON marshaling of the generated genesis state
   --output-ssz value         Output filename of the SSZ marshaling of the generated genesis state
   --output-yaml value        Output filename of the YAML marshaling of the generated genesis state

[kasey]

nitpick: I don't think you need to break this into multi-line func signature.

[kasey]

All my comments are nitpicks, otherwise lgtm!

[rkapka]

One last comment: can you parameterize flag names for easier maintenance? In case names change in the future?

reviewed and looks ok

[cshintov]

Hi sorry for asking this here. I tried discord, didn't get any reply.
How do I use this tool? Is there any doc for this?

How do I generate equivalent genesis.ssz that exists here:

https://github.com/eth-clients/eth2-networks/tree/master/shared/prater

I'm a noob. Any pointer towards better understanding the genesis file and how to generate it is greatly appreciated. Thanks :)

[rauljordan]

Hi @cshintov looks like our tool might not work well for regenerating these testnet states. Instead, I would recommend trying https://github.com/protolambda/eth2-testnet-genesis and passing in the config.yml from the link in your message above as one of the options. I hope this helps

[cshintov]

Thanks @rauljordan 🙂
This indeed helps.

I will check out this tool.

[HorcruxAshu]

Unable to find any way to generate equivalent genesis.ssz file for my own devnet? Any help would be highly appreciated!

[lyfsn]

How generate genesis state in 2023.10.27?

[rauljordan]

hi @HorcruxAshu and @wangyufsn do you run into any issues when using this command?

NAME:
   prysmctl testnet generate-genesis - Generate a beacon chain genesis state from specified configs

USAGE:
   prysmctl testnet generate-genesis [command options] [arguments...]

OPTIONS:
   --chain-config-file value  The path to a YAML file with chain config values
   --config-name value        Config kind to be used for generating the genesis state. Default: mainnet. Options include mainnet, interop, minimal, prater, ropsten, sepolia. --chain-config-file will override this flag. (default: "mainnet")
   --deposit-json-file value  Path to deposit_data.json file generated by the staking-deposit-cli tool for optionally specifying validators in genesis state
   --genesis-time value       Unix timestamp seconds used as the genesis time in the genesis state. If unset, defaults to now() (default: 0)
   --num-validators value     Number of validators to deterministically generate in the genesis state (default: 0)
   --output-json value        Output filename of the JSON marshaling of the generated genesis state
   --output-ssz value         Output filename of the SSZ marshaling of the generated genesis state
   --output-yaml value        Output filename of the YAML marshaling of the generated genesis state