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Use the Hyperledger Besu configuration file

To specify command line options in a file, use a TOML configuration file.

Save the configuration file and reuse it across node startups. To specify the configuration file, use the --config-file option.

To override an option specified in the configuration file, either specify the same option on the command line or as an environment variable. For options specified in more than one place, the order of precedence is command line, environment variable, configuration file.

note

The configuration file is used for node-level settings. You can specify network-wide settings in the genesis file.

TOML specification​

The configuration file must be a valid TOML file composed of key/value pairs. Each key is the same as the corresponding command line option name without the leading dashes (--).

Values must conform to TOML specifications for string, numbers, arrays, and booleans. Specific differences between the command line and the TOML file format are:

  • Comma-separated lists on the command line are string arrays in the TOML file.
  • Enclose file paths, hexadecimal numbers, URLs, and <host:port> values in quotes.
tip

The command line reference includes configuration file examples for each option.

Sample TOML configuration file
# Valid TOML config file
data-path="~/besudata" # Path

# Network
bootnodes=["enode://001@123:4567", "enode://002@123:4567", "enode://003@123:4567"]

p2p-host="1.2.3.4"
p2p-port=1234
max-peers=42

rpc-http-host="5.6.7.8"
rpc-http-port=5678

rpc-ws-host="9.10.11.12"
rpc-ws-port=9101

# Chain
genesis-file="~/genesis.json" # Path to the custom genesis file

# Mining
miner-enabled=true
miner-coinbase="0xfe3b557e8fb62b89f4916b721be55ceb828dbd73"
Starting Besu with a configuration file
besu --config-file=/home/me/me_node/config.toml