bigchaindb/bigchaindb

Overview

A high-level description of the files and subdirectories of BigchainDB.

There are three database tables which underpin BigchainDB: backlog, where incoming transactions are held temporarily until they can be consumed; bigchain, where blocks of transactions are written permanently; and votes, where votes are written permanently. It is the votes in the votes table which must be queried to determine block validity and order. For more in-depth explanation, see the whitepaper.

Files

core.py

The Bigchain class is defined here. Most operations outlined in the whitepaper as well as database interactions are found in this file. This is the place to start if you are interested in implementing a server API, since many of these class methods concern BigchainDB interacting with the outside world.

models.py

Block, Transaction, and Asset classes are defined here. The classes mirror the block and transaction structure from the documentation, but also include methods for validation and signing.

consensus.py

Base class for consensus methods (verification of votes, blocks, and transactions). The actual logic is mostly found in transaction and block models, defined in models.py.

processes.py

Entry point for the BigchainDB process, after initialization. All subprocesses are started here: processes to handle new blocks, votes, etc.

config_utils.py

Methods for managing the configuration, including loading configuration files, automatically generating the configuration, and keeping the configuration consistent across BigchainDB instances.

monitor.py

Code for monitoring speed of various processes in BigchainDB via statsd and Grafana. See documentation.

Folders

pipelines

Structure and implementation of various subprocesses started in processes.py.

commands

Contains code for the CLI for BigchainDB.

db

Code for building the database connection, creating indexes, and other database setup tasks.