-checklevel gets a new meaning:
0: verify blocks can be read from disk (like before)
1: verify (contextless) block validity (like before)
2: verify undo files can be read and have good checksums
3: verify coin database is consistent with the last few blocks
(close to level 6 before)
4: verify all validity rules of the last few blocks
Level 3 is the new default, as it's reasonably fast. As level 3 and
4 are implemented using an in-memory rollback of the database, they
are limited to as many blocks as possible without exceeding the
limits set by -dbcache. The default of -dbcache=25 allows for some
150-200 blocks to be rolled back.
In case an error is found, the application quits with a message
instructing the user to restart with -reindex. Better instructions,
and automatic recovery (when possible) or automatic reindexing are
left as future work.
Initialize the OutputDebugStringF mutex and file pointer using
boost::call_once, to be thread-safe.
Make the return value of OutputDebugStringF really be the number of
characters written (*printf() semantics).
Declare the fReopenDebugLog flag volatile, since it is changed from
a signal handler.
And don't declare OutputDebugStringF() as inline.
If the user was really after the fastest possible confirmation times
they would be manually setting a fee. In cases where the wallet builds
a transaction with a priority that is too low to qualify as free until
the next block, go ahead without a fee. Confirmation frequently takes
multiple blocks even when a minimum fee is provided.
When the coin database is out of date with the block database, the
best block in it is automatically switched to. This reconnection
process can take time, so allow it to be interrupted.
This also stops block connection as soon as shutdown is requested,
leading to a faster shutdown.
This problem is like earth (mostly harmless). After/during a
-reindex, it means the statistics about the last block file
reported in debug.log are always of blk00000.dat instead of the
last file. Apart from that, it means a few more database entries
need to be read when finding a file to append to the first time.
Pieter Wuille