go-ethereum/docs/_rpc/server.md

title	sort_key
JSON-RPC Server	A

Geth supports all standard web3 JSON-RPC APIs. You can find documentation for these APIs on the Ethereum Wiki JSON-RPC page.

JSON-RPC is provided on multiple transports. Geth supports JSON-RPC over HTTP, WebSocket and Unix Domain Sockets. Transports must be enabled through command-line flags.

Ethereum JSON-RPC APIs use a name-space system. RPC methods are grouped into several categories depending on their purpose. All method names are composed of the namespace, an underscore, and the actual method name within the namespace. For example, the eth_call method resides in the eth namespace.

Access to RPC methods can be enabled on a per-namespace basis. Find documentation for individual namespaces in the sidebar.

HTTP Server

To enable the HTTP server, use the --rpc flag.

geth --rpc

By default, geth accepts connections from the loopback interface (127.0.0.1). The default listening port is 8545. You can customize address and port using the --rpcport and --rpcaddr flags.

geth --rpc --rpcport 3334

JSON-RPC method namespaces must be whitelisted in order to be available through the HTTP server. An RPC error with error code -32602 is generated if you call a namespace that isn't whitelisted. The default whitelist allows access to the "eth" and "shh" namespaces. To enable access to other APIs like account management ("personal") and debugging ("debug"), they must be configured via the --rpcapi flag. We do not recommend enabling such APIs over HTTP, however, since access to these methods increases the attack surface.

geth --rpc --rpcapi personal,eth,net,web3b

Since the HTTP server is reachable from any local application, additional protection is built into the server to prevent misuse of the API from web pages. If you want enable access to the API from a web page, you must configure the server to accept Cross-Origin requests with the --rpccorsdomain flag.

Example: if you want to use Remix with geth, allow requests from the remix domain.

geth --rpc --rpccorsdomain https://remix.ethereum.org

Use --rpccorsdomain '*' to enable access from any origin.

WebSocket Server

Configuration of the WebSocket endpoint is similar to the HTTP transport. To enable WebSocket access, use --ws flag. The default WebSocket port is 8546. The --wsaddr, --wsport and --wsapi flags can be used to customize settings for the WebSocket server.

geth --ws --wsport 3334 --wsapi eth,net,web3

Cross-Origin request protection also applies to the WebSocket server. Use the --wsorigins flag to allow access to the server from web pages:

geth --ws --wsorigins http://myapp.example.com

As with --rpccorsdomain, using --wsorigins '*' allows access from any origin.

IPC Server

JSON-RPC APIs are also provided on a UNIX domain socket. This server is enabled by default and has access to all JSON-RPC namespaces.

The listening socket is placed into the data directory by default. On Linux and macOS, the default location of the geth socket is

~/.ethereum/geth.ipc

On Windows, IPC is provided via named pipes. The default location of the geth pipe is:

\\.\pipe\geth.ipc

You can configure the location of the socket using the --ipcpath flag. IPC can be disabled using the --ipcdisable flag.