Solana Cookbook

Local Development

Starting a Local Validator

Testing your program code locally can be a lot more reliable than testing on devnet, and can help you test before trying it out on devnet.

You can setup your local-test-validator by installing the solana tool suite and running

solana-test-validator

Benefits of using local-test-validator include:

  • No RPC rate-limits
  • No airdrop limits
  • Direct on-chain program deployment (--bpf-program ...)
  • Clone accounts from a public cluster, including programs (--clone ...)
  • Configurable transaction history retention (--limit-ledger-size ...)
  • Configurable epoch length (--slots-per-epoch ...)
  • Jump to an arbitrary slot (--warp-slot ...)

Connecting to Environments

When you are working on Solana development, you will need to connect to a specific RPC API endpoint. Solana has 3 public development environments:

  • mainnet-beta https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com
  • devnet https://api.devnet.solana.com
  • testnet https://api.testnet.solana.com
Press </> button to view full source
import { clusterApiUrl, Connection } from "@solana/web3.js";

(async () => {
  const connection = new Connection(clusterApiUrl("mainnet-beta"), "confirmed");
})();

from solana.rpc.api import Client

client = Client("https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com")

use solana_client::rpc_client::RpcClient;
use solana_sdk::commitment_config::CommitmentConfig;

fn main() {
    let rpc_url = String::from("https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com");
    let client = RpcClient::new_with_commitment(rpc_url, CommitmentConfig::confirmed());
}

solana config set --url https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com

Finally, you can also connect to a private cluster, either one local or running remotely with the following:

Press </> button to view full source
import { Connection } from "@solana/web3.js";

(async () => {
  // This will connect you to your local validator
  const connection = new Connection("http://127.0.0.1:8899", "confirmed");
})();

from solana.rpc.api import Client

client = Client("http://127.0.0.1:8899")

use solana_client::rpc_client::RpcClient;
use solana_sdk::commitment_config::CommitmentConfig;

fn main() {
    let rpc_url = String::from("http://127.0.0.1:8899");
    let client = RpcClient::new_with_commitment(rpc_url, CommitmentConfig::confirmed());
}

solana config set --url http://privaterpc.com

Subscribing to Events

Websockets provide a pub/sub interface where you can listen for certain events. Instead of pinging a typical HTTP endpoint at an interval to get frequent updates, you can instead receive those updates only when they happen.

Solana's web3 Connectionopen in new window under the hood generates a websocket endpoint and registers a websocket client when you create a new Connection instance (see source code hereopen in new window).

The Connection class exposes pub/sub methods - they all start with on, like event emitters. When you call these listener methods, it registers a new subscription to the websocket client of that Connection instance. The example pub/sub method we use below is onAccountChangeopen in new window. The callback will provide the updated state data through arguments (see AccountChangeCallbackopen in new window as an example).

Press </> button to view full source
import { clusterApiUrl, Connection, Keypair } from "@solana/web3.js";

(async () => {
  // Establish new connect to devnet - websocket client connected to devnet will also be registered here
  const connection = new Connection(clusterApiUrl("devnet"), "confirmed");

  // Create a test wallet to listen to
  const wallet = Keypair.generate();

  // Register a callback to listen to the wallet (ws subscription)
  connection.onAccountChange(
    wallet.publicKey(),
    (updatedAccountInfo, context) =>
      console.log("Updated account info: ", updatedAccountInfo),
    "confirmed"
  );
})();

import asyncio
from solana.keypair import Keypair
from solana.rpc.websocket_api import connect

async def main():
    async with connect("wss://api.devnet.solana.com") as websocket:
        # Create a Test Wallet
        wallet = Keypair()
        # Subscribe to the Test wallet to listen for events
        await websocket.account_subscribe(wallet.public_key)
        # Capture response from account subscription 
        first_resp = await websocket.recv()
        print("Subscription successful with id {}, listening for events \n".format(first_resp.result))
        updated_account_info = await websocket.recv()
        print(updated_account_info)
        
asyncio.run(main())

use solana_client::pubsub_client::PubsubClient;
use solana_client::rpc_config::RpcAccountInfoConfig;
use solana_sdk::commitment_config::CommitmentConfig;
use solana_sdk::signature::{Keypair, Signer};

fn main() {
    let wallet = Keypair::new();
    let pubkey = Signer::pubkey(&wallet);
    let ws_url = String::from("wss://api.devnet.solana.com/");
    println!("{}", ws_url);
    if let Ok(subscription) = PubsubClient::account_subscribe(
        &ws_url,
        &pubkey,
        Some(RpcAccountInfoConfig {
            encoding: None,
            data_slice: None,
            commitment: Some(CommitmentConfig::confirmed()),
        }),
    ) {
        let (mut ws_client, receiver) = subscription;
        println!("Subscription successful, listening for events");
        let handle = std::thread::spawn(move || loop {
            println!("Waiting for a message");
            match receiver.recv() {
                Ok(message) => println!("{:?}", message),
                Err(err) => {
                    println!("Connection broke with {:}", err);
                    break;
                }
            }
        });
        handle.join().unwrap();
        ws_client.shutdown().unwrap()
    } else {
        println!("Errooooor");
    }
}

Getting Test SOL

When you're working locally, you need some SOL in order to send transactions. In non-mainnet environments you can receive SOL by airdropping it to your address

Press </> button to view full source
import { Connection, Keypair, LAMPORTS_PER_SOL } from "@solana/web3.js";

(async () => {
  const keypair = Keypair.generate();

  const connection = new Connection("http://127.0.0.1:8899", "confirmed");

  const airdropSignature = await connection.requestAirdrop(
    keypair.publicKey,
    LAMPORTS_PER_SOL
  );

  await connection.confirmTransaction(airdropSignature);
})();

from solana.keypair import Keypair
from solana.rpc.api import Client

wallet = Keypair()

client = Client("https://api.devnet.solana.com")

#Input Airdrop amount in LAMPORTS
client.request_airdrop(wallet.public_key, 1000000000)

#Airdrops 1 SOL

use solana_client::rpc_client::RpcClient;
use solana_sdk::commitment_config::CommitmentConfig;
use solana_sdk::native_token::LAMPORTS_PER_SOL;
use solana_sdk::signature::{Keypair, Signer};

fn main() {
    let wallet = Keypair::new();
    let pubkey = Signer::pubkey(&wallet);
    let rpc_url = String::from("https://api.devnet.solana.com");
    let client = RpcClient::new_with_commitment(rpc_url, CommitmentConfig::confirmed());
    match client.request_airdrop(&pubkey, LAMPORTS_PER_SOL) {
        Ok(sig) => loop {
            if let Ok(confirmed) = client.confirm_transaction(&sig) {
                if confirmed {
                    println!("Transaction: {} Status: {}", sig, confirmed);
                    break;
                }
            }
        },
        Err(_) => println!("Error requesting airdrop"),
    };
}

solana airdrop 1

# Return
# "1 SOL"

Using Mainnet Accounts and Programs

Oftentimes, local tests rely on programs and accounts available only on mainnet. The Solana CLI allows to both:

  • Download Programs and Accounts
  • Load Programs and Accounts to a local validator

How to load accounts from mainnet

It is possible to download the SRM token mint account to file:

Press </> button to view full source
# solana account -u <source cluster> --output <output format> --output-file <destination file name/path> <address of account to fetch>
solana account -u m --output json-compact --output-file SRM_token.json SRMuApVNdxXokk5GT7XD5cUUgXMBCoAz2LHeuAoKWRt

Loading it to your localnet is then done by passing the account's file and destination address (on the local cluster) when starting the validator:

Press </> button to view full source
# solana-test-validator --account <address to load the account to> <path to account file> --reset
solana-test-validator --account SRMuApVNdxXokk5GT7XD5cUUgXMBCoAz2LHeuAoKWRt SRM_token.json --reset

How to load programs from mainnet

Similarly, it is possible to download the Serum Dex v3 program:

Press </> button to view full source
# solana program dump -u <source cluster> <address of account to fetch> <destination file name/path>
solana program dump -u m 9xQeWvG816bUx9EPjHmaT23yvVM2ZWbrrpZb9PusVFin serum_dex_v3.so

Loading it to your localnet is then done by passing the program's file and destination address (on the local cluster) when starting the validator:

Press </> button to view full source
# solana-test-validator --bpf-program <address to load the program to> <path to program file> --reset
solana-test-validator --bpf-program 9xQeWvG816bUx9EPjHmaT23yvVM2ZWbrrpZb9PusVFin serum_dex_v3.so --reset
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