# Installing the Mainchain Software

This documentation outlines how to install the Unification Mainchain und software as a client, in order to interact with any of the Mainchain networks to query data/send transactions.

TIP

If you intend to run a node and/or become a validator, follow the Install und with Cosmovisor instead.

# Installing the latest release binaries

The latest pre-compiled binaries are available for download from https://github.com/unification-com/mainchain/releases (opens new window).

  • The und binary has been compiled for Linux, OSX and Windows.

Download the latest version of und:

    Once downloaded, you can verify the SHA256 checksum against those listed in the release's checksums.txt, for example:

      Extract them and copy the binaries to a suitable location - preferably a location in your $PATH environment variable, for example /usr/local/bin.

        Once installed, verify:

        which und
        

        should output:

        /usr/local/bin/und
        

        and:

        und version --log_level=""
        

        The output should match the latest release version tag.

        # Building from Source

        The Mainchain binaries can also be built from source.

        # Prerequisites

        git and make are required dependencies for building. curl and/or wget are recommended, and jq is useful for quickly looking up values in, for example genesis.json

        These can all be installed via your package manager, for example:

        sudo apt-get install git curl wget make jq
        

        or

        sudo yum install git curl wget make jq
        

        # Install Go

        Go 1.16+ is required to build the Mainchain binaries

        Install go by following the official docs (opens new window). Once Go is installed, set your $PATH environment variable:

        $ mkdir -p $HOME/go/bin
        $ echo "export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin" >> ~/.bash_profile
        $ source ~/.bash_profile
        

        # Build and install the binaries

        IMPORTANT

        unless you are contributing to Mainchain development, it is recommended you checkout and build from the latest release tag and not the master branch if you intend to connect to a live, public network (e.g. TestNet/MainNet).

        Download the latest tagged Mainchain release from https://github.com/unification-com/mainchain/releases (opens new window)

        The [latest-release-tag] required for the command below can also be obtained by running:

        curl --silent "https://api.github.com/repos/unification-com/mainchain/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "\K.*?(?=")'
        

        Then run:

        $ git clone -b [latest-release-tag] https://github.com/unification-com/mainchain
        $ cd mainchain
        $ make install
        

        This will install the und binary into your $HOME/go/bin

        # Verify the installation

        Run the following commands:

        und version --long
        

        If und has been installed correctly, you should see output similar to the following:

        name: UndMainchain
        server_name: und
        version: 1.6.3
        commit: 4ce308e65a4a6de0d2d05f88b02584869f6b1c24
        build_tags: netgo
        go: go version go1.18.5 linux/amd64
        build_deps:
        ...SNIP...
        cosmos_sdk_version: v0.45.9
        

        # Development

        The included Mainchain DevNet network can be used for development and testing of new features and bug fixes locally. To build the binaries for testing without installing, run:

        make build
        

        This will output the binaries to the ./build directory located in the repository root.

        See the DevNet docs for more information about running DevNet.

        # CLI Help

        Both the und and und commands can have the --help flag passed to output details on what commands are available, and flags enabled for that command:

        und --help
        

        Likewise, the --help flag can be passed to subcommands, for example:

        und query wrkchain --help