error: The argument '--name <NAME>' cannot be used with '--dave'

[drandreaskrueger]

When trying to find my node on https://telemetry.polkadot.io/#list/Local%20Testnet there were several nodes called "Alice".

I tried to simply choose my own name --alice --name CH_Alice but that resulted in:

error: The argument '--name ' cannot be used with '--alice'

Why not let us override the --name ?

[bkchr]

--help explains every cli parameter.

--alice is just a shortcut that can not be used together with --name. The Alice cli flag is more for local test networks. Just look into the help what it does and apply the same commands on your own.

[drandreaskrueger]

--help explains every cli parameter.

:-) Does it? Lol.

--alice is just a shortcut that can not be used together with --name

Yes, I know.
That is why I opened this issue.

What is your reason why we must not override --alice with a --name ?

[bkchr]

This is for testing purposes. Having 2 validators running with the same key, will get you slashed. Furthermore everyone knows this private key. I don't understand your use case.

[kianenigma]

Seems like a very rare case to me and not worthwhile. Alice, bob and the few others that have a flag are for testing, and pretty common names. If you are really keen on using CH_Alice, you can manually set that.

Nonetheless, should be easy to allow override I suppose.

[drandreaskrueger]

If you are really keen on using CH_Alice, you can manually set that.

At the moment not, no. I got an "error: The argument '--name ' cannot be used with '--alice'"

should be easy to allow override I suppose.

Yes, I would think so.

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Instead of that easy but forbidden option, I have now put > 1.5 days of work in. Not using Alice & Bob & Charlie & Dave at all; but creating keys myself with subkey, generating my own chainspec, etc. - Feels good, but also a bit like wasted time, because with Alice & Bob & Charlie & Dave, I already had almost what I wanted. So please consider to allow the override. It's not about the keys, just about the naming of the specific node.

What I have scripted now instead ... can actually create seeds for, modify a chainspec, and start an arbitrary number of nodes, not only 2 or 4. Great.

Then I had a very persistent last problem ... best: #12 (0x531f…f303), finalized #0 (0xc662…8d2b) so finalized was always stuck on block 0, even though best was ticking up.

But then your comment made me realize it:

Having 2 validators running with the same key, will get you slashed.

Hooray, that was it. Thanks for helping-without-knowing-that-was-what-I-needed :-)

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I think this page needs some modifications/additions towards the end - to help other people avoid the trap I fell in:

https://substrate.dev/docs/en/next/tutorials/start-a-private-network-with-substrate#launching-the-chain

• "Having 2 validators running with the same key, will get you slashed." <-- important info. Once you know it, it makes total sense, but until then it's quite confusing, why the finalized stayed on 0 regardless what I tried.
• --ws-port 9944 and --ws-port 9945 to be able to also access the 2nd node via GUI
• "At this point you can use the Apps UI to insert your keys into the keystore" --> "After the first (babe,gran) two author.insertKey() calls, you must direct the GUI to the SECOND NODE, e.g. from ws://127.0.0.1:9944 to (custom endpoint) ws://127.0.0.1:9945 to insert the next (babe,gran) tuple into another node"

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Actually two last things - manually inserting MANY keys via a point and click GUI ... is rather annoying. Imagine to do that for 4 nodes, or 9.

• Why do I have to give both babe and gran public keys AND the seedphrase - if the node could calculate any public key from the seedphrase by itself? One call author.insertKeys("marine enact equip basic salon awful release permit hood ostrich glory match", ["babe","gran"]) or similiar, could replace the two calls, no?

• Any quickstart hints how to interact with the REST RPC port? <-- most interested in this I am.

I know that I must submit this:

port 9933 
author.insertKey("babe","marine enact equip basic salon awful release permit hood ostrich glory match","0xa0ebdd5ef985fcacf2c288e273a071b29ceb95a19087ca5c12c0aa81d1645a59")
author.insertKey("gran","marine enact equip basic salon awful release permit hood ostrich glory match","0xd4917e1e10f96e8e7fda675ad78b83d53c4d049e3001da56f771b183b12f6aee")

port 9934
author.insertKey("babe","capital again flat hammer camp obvious move coconut tissue obey liar rice","0xc4b12ca814c4ceb437aae6cd8b19cc95b287e696e66fa96b6736edd0ec69f033")
author.insertKey("gran","capital again flat hammer camp obvious move coconut tissue obey liar rice","0xa2e76f74820d50ac861cc456306e8a94b6835a7e0c3abe0cdd22afbfbd0cc38e")

If you give instructions how to do this via curl then I can translate that to Python.
I suppose there is no library yet for substrate in Python, like https://pypi.org/project/web3/ - or is it?

Thanks a lot, you have really helped me. Hooray, my nodes are running fine.

[bkchr]

I'm still not convinced for making --name overridable, when --alice is given. You already achieved to shoot yourself into the foot with this and I don't want to make it more easy. If you just want to experiment, live with the name alice, bob, fredie etc. I don't see why you need special names.

For the rest, please an appropriate issue in this repo: https://github.com/substrate-developer-hub/substrate-developer-hub.github.io That is the place for requesting changes to the documentation. Thanks in advance.

For the key management, you see here the commands: https://github.com/paritytech/substrate/tree/6ae3b6c4ddc03d4cdb10bd1d417b95d20f4c1b6e#7-key-management

[drandreaskrueger]

to shoot yourself into the foot with this

Not true. I had no such problems with Alice & Bob.

Only when I started to learn about the different keys, babe, grandpa, etc, it became complicated, and I initially misunderstood the --node-key-* commandline switches.

The manual page is quite good, but IMHO those added explanations above would have helped me. As you recommended, I have put my manual suggestions here: polkadot-developers/substrate-developer-hub.github.io#327

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I don't see why you need special names.

because:

When trying to find my node on https://telemetry.polkadot.io/#list/Local%20Testnet there were several nodes called "Alice".

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For the key management, you see here the commands: ...

Nice one, thanks. So there is only this way: "you need to use one of the two provided RPC calls."

Good to know.

I had already found a similar way now, via a websockets call.

Thanks.

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I have solved all this myself now. Went the hard way, learned a lot. My scripts are creating a network with an arbitrary number of nodes, with their own keys, and chainspec. No need for Alice & Bob anymore.

It works. Hooray. Almost perfectly. Because at block # 100 - that's it, then it gets stuck.

I am quite surprised, that a network with e.g. 9 nodes ... needs only ~330 MB of RAM.

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Thanks a lot for your hints. Much appreciated.