You can install the Go implementation of Ethereum in a variety of ways. These include installing it via your favorite package manager; downloading a standalone pre-built binary; running as a docker container; or building it yourself. This section highlights the common options, in the left hand menu, or in the [install and build](/install-and-build/Installing-Geth) section.
You can install the Go implementation of Ethereum in a variety of ways. These include installing it via your favorite package manager; downloading a standalone pre-built binary; running as a docker container; or building it yourself. This section highlights the common options, but you can find others in the left hand menu, or in the [install and build](/install-and-build/Installing-Geth) section.
### Install on macOS via Homebrew
@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ To enable our launchpad repository run:
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum
```
After that you can install the stable version of Go Ethereum:
After that you can install the stable version of go-ethereum:
```shell
sudo apt-get update
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ _Although we were shipping Chocolatey packages for a time after the Frontier rel
Until then grab a Windows installer from our [downloads](https://geth.ethereum.org/downloads) page.
### Download standalone bundle
### Download standalone binary
We distribute all our stable releases and development builds as standalone binaries. These are useful for scenarios where you'd like to: a) install a specific version of our code (e.g., for reproducible environments); b) install on machines without internet access (e.g., air gapped computers); or c) do not like automatic updates and would rather manually install software.
@ -77,7 +77,9 @@ docker run -it -p 30303:30303 ethereum/client-go
_[Read this guide](/install-and-build/Installation-Instructions-for-Docker) for further Docker options._
## Running ETC
## Starting a node
### Create an account
Before starting Geth you first need to create an account that represents a key pair. Use the following command to create a new account and set a password for that account:
@ -85,7 +87,9 @@ Before starting Geth you first need to create an account that represents a key p
geth account new
```
[Read this guide](/interface/Managing-your-accounts) for more details on importing existing Ethereum accounts and other uses of the `account` command.
_[Read this guide](/interface/Managing-your-accounts) for more details on importing existing Ethereum accounts and other uses of the `account` command._
### Sync modes
Running Geth starts an Ethereum node that can join any existing network, or create a new one. You can start Geth in one of three different sync modes using the `--syncmode "{mode}"` argument that determines what sort of node it is in the network.
@ -95,8 +99,26 @@ These are:
- **Fast** (Default): Downloads block headers and block data of the most recent transactions (1024) and validates them.
- **Light**: Downloads all block headers, block data, but does not validate transactions.
* * *
For example:
```shell
geth --syncmode "light"
```
### Connect to node
Once you have an account and Geth is running, you can interact with it by opening another terminal and using the following command to open a JavaScript console:
```shell
geth attach
```
In the console you can issue any of the Geth commands, for example, to list all the accounts on the node, use: