bitcoin: bitcoin-qt crashes if it can't listen on the port it wants to

I created new folders ~/.bitcoin2 and ~/.bitcoin3, then ran bitcoin-qt using both of them as data directories.

The first one ran fine:

qt/bitcoin-qt -datadir=/home/chris/.bitcoin2

I left the first one running. The second one crashed in various ways:

$ qt/bitcoin-qt -datadir=/home/chris/.bitcoin3
Error: Unable to bind to 0.0.0.0:8333 on this computer. Bitcoin Core is probably already running.
Error: Failed to listen on any port. Use -listen=0 if you want this.
Segmentation fault

$ qt/bitcoin-qt -datadir=/home/chris/.bitcoin3
Error: Unable to bind to 0.0.0.0:8333 on this computer. Bitcoin Core is probably already running.
Error: Failed to listen on any port. Use -listen=0 if you want this.
free(): double free detected in tcache 2
Aborted

$ qt/bitcoin-qt -datadir=/home/chris/.bitcoin3
Error: Unable to bind to 0.0.0.0:8333 on this computer. Bitcoin Core is probably already running.
Error: Failed to listen on any port. Use -listen=0 if you want this.
corrupted size vs. prev_size in fastbins
Aborted

I would expect it to complain about the unavailable port, but not to crash in such random ways.

This is bitcoin built against git tag v24.0rc2.

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 2 years ago
Comments: 23 (23 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

The crash doesn’t happen if I use bitcoind. I get a clean shutdown with bitcoind:

$ ./bitcoind -connect=0 -server=1 -datadir=d1
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Bitcoin Core version v24.0.0rc2 (release build)
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -connect set -> setting -dnsseed=0
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -connect set -> setting -listen=0
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -listen=0 -> setting -upnp=0
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -listen=0 -> setting -natpmp=0
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -listen=0 -> setting -discover=0
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -listen=0 -> setting -listenonion=0
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -listen=0 -> setting -i2pacceptincoming=0
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Using the 'sse4(1way),sse41(4way),avx2(8way)' SHA256 implementation
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Using RdSeed as an additional entropy source
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Using RdRand as an additional entropy source
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Default data directory /home/me/.bitcoin
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Using data directory /home/me/Programs/bitcoin.clone/src/d1
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Config file: /home/me/Programs/bitcoin.clone/src/d1/bitcoin.conf (not found, skipping)
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Command-line arg: connect="0"
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Command-line arg: datadir="d1"
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Command-line arg: server="1"
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Using at most 125 automatic connections (1024 file descriptors available)
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Warning: relative datadir option 'd1' specified, which will be interpreted relative to the current working directory '/home/me/Programs/bitcoin.clone/src'. This is fragile, because if bitcoin is started in the future from a different location, it will be unable to locate the current data files. There could also be data loss if bitcoin is started while in a temporary directory.
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Using 16 MiB out of 16 MiB requested for signature cache, able to store 524288 elements
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Using 16 MiB out of 16 MiB requested for script execution cache, able to store 524288 elements
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Script verification uses 11 additional threads
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z scheduler thread start
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z [libevent:warning] getaddrinfo: address family for nodename not supported
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Binding RPC on address ::1 port 8332 failed.
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Binding RPC on address 127.0.0.1 port 8332 failed.
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Unable to bind any endpoint for RPC server
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Error: Unable to start HTTP server. See debug log for details.
Error: Unable to start HTTP server. See debug log for details.
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Shutdown: In progress...
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z scheduler thread exit
2022-10-20T16:29:41Z Shutdown: done

dooglus on Oct 20, 2022

How about this?

qt/bitcoin-qt -connect=0 -server=1 -datadir=d1

That combination of options seems to provoke the crash for me every time, whereas specifying a random unused rpcport allows it to run without crashing:

qt/bitcoin-qt -connect=0 -server=1 -datadir=d1 -rpcport=9393

dooglus on Oct 20, 2022