sigp/lighthouse v1.4.0-rc.0

Goomby [PRE-RELEASE]

on GitHub

⚠️ Pre-Release: Not for Production Use ⚠️

This is a pre-release, which means it is not production-ready and not recommended for mainnet use. Since this is our first pre-release, these release notes will contain a short section describing pre-releases.

Find the latest stable release here: https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/releases/latest/

Introduction to Pre-Releases

Note: this is a modified version of an announcment posted on Discord and via the mailing list.

We will publish pre-releases when we've developed a release that passes our own internal testing, but we'd still like to see some users running it before we announce it as a proper, stable release. We haven't done this in the past, but we'll start doing it when we make changes which might behave differently on various platforms and operating systems (e.g., tuning the system memory allocator). This allows us to get feedback on how the new version works on a broader range of hardware and operating systems.

Github will clearly show this release as a "Pre-release" and it won't show up as the "latest" release: https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/releases/latest/. However, it will show up on the "Releases" page, so please pay attention to avoid the pre-releases when you're looking for stable Lighthouse.

Here's a quick guide:

• If it has a version tag like v1.4.0 and does not have a pre-release tag, then we're announcing it as a stable release and you should run it on mainnet.
• If it has a version tag like v1.4.0-rc.0 and does have a pre-release tag, then it's not necessarily stable and you should only run it on testnets.

If you have the time and you'd like to help out with testing, please try out the pre-release on Pyrmont or Prater when it is released. It'll give you a sneak-peak at our latest enhancements and help our development process.

Summary

Since Lighthouse Update #36 announced a list of features and a timeline for v1.4.0, the development team has decided to split the features into two, separate releases:

• v1.4.0: to be released approximately two weeks earlier than scheduled, but only containing:
  • Beta Windows support, not presently recommended for production.
  • An 80% reduction in Eth1 queries. (Note: this does not reduce the time required to sync the Eth1 cache).
  • A reduction in memory footprint (on mainnet, this reduces memory usage from ~6 GB to ~1 GB).
• v1.5.0: to be release mid-to-late June, containing:
  • Altair testnet support.
  • Doppelganger protection.
  • Support for remote signing in the validator client.

Memory Allocator Tuning

With #2299, Lighthouse now automatically configures the GNU Memory Allocator at startup to provide a more optimal memory footprint.

This alone reduces the memory consumption of Lighthouse by at least 50%. However, some Linux systems may have an incompatible memory allocator. This will cause Lighthouse to panic and exit at startup (only at startup, never after it has began operation).

If users experience a panic and instant exit during startup, do not fear. Simply provide the --disable-malloc-tuning flag to completely disable this new feature.

For example:

lighthouse --disable-malloc-tuning bn --staking

If you do experience this error, please raise an issue. We are eager to ensure Lighthouse runs on all platforms by default.

Breaking Changes

• #2272 changes the behaviour of the HTTP API when retrieving blocks/block-roots on a slot that was skipped. Previously, Lighthouse returned the value for the block at the previous slot. Now, to keep in-line with other clients, Lighthouse will return a 404.
• #2299 automatically configures the GNU memory allocator (see previous section for more detail).
• #2251 adds additional fields to the lighthouse/health HTTP API endpoint.

All Changes

• v1.4.0-rc.0 (#2379)
• Revert "Network protocol upgrades (#2345)" (#2388)
• Add early check for RPC block relevancy (#2289)
• Return a specific error for frozen attn states (#2384)
• Return more detail in Eth1 HTTP errors (#2383)
• Use the forwards iterator more often (#2376)
• Minimum Outbound-Only Peers Requirement (#2356)
• Reduce outbound requests to eth1 endpoints (#2340)
• Correct issue with dialing peers (#2375)
• Network protocol upgrades (#2345)
• Tune GNU malloc (#2299)
• Monitoring service api (#2251)
• More stringent dialing (#2363)
• Add Windows to Bors config (#2358)
• Enable Compatibility with Windows (#2333)
• Write validator definitions atomically (#2338)
• Add NETWORK_ID variable (#2330)
• Updated to comply with new clippy formatting rules (#2336)
• Add testing for beacon node and validator client CLI flags (#2311)
• Add SensitiveUrl to redact user secrets from endpoints (#2326)
• cargo audit fix (#2331)
• Filter Disconnected Peers from Discv5 DHT (#2219)
• Fix typos in redundancy docs (#2320)
• 404's on API requests for slots that have been skipped or orphaned (#2272)
• Allow specifying alternative url for deposit_contract (#2295)
• Add a no-wait flag for voluntary exits (#2292)
• Fix readme typo (#2312)

Binaries

See pre-built binaries documentation.

The binaries are signed with Sigma Prime's PGP key: 15E66D941F697E28F49381F426416DC3F30674B0

System	Architecture	Binary	PGP Signature
	x86_64	lighthouse-v1.4.0-rc.0-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz	PGP Signature
	x86_64	lighthouse-v1.4.0-rc.0-x86_64-apple-darwin-portable.tar.gz	PGP Signature
	x86_64	lighthouse-v1.4.0-rc.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz	PGP Signature
	x86_64	lighthouse-v1.4.0-rc.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-portable.tar.gz	PGP Signature
	aarch64	lighthouse-v1.4.0-rc.0-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz	PGP Signature
	aarch64	lighthouse-v1.4.0-rc.0-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-portable.tar.gz	PGP Signature
System	Option	-	Resource
	Docker	v1.4.0-rc.0	sigp/lighthouse