pull down to refresh

Since 2020 I've run a non-routing Core Lightning node in an irregular manner (frequently not running it for many months of the year).
The node has only one private channel and is not likely to ever have more
then two. I only ever install main releases (no pre-releases) of Core Lightning.
Would it be prudent for me to apply

database-upgrade=true

in my .lightning/bitcoin/config ?

The

[manual][1]

says:

database-upgrade=BOOL

Upgrades to Core Lightning often change the database: once this is done,
downgrades are not generally possible. By default, Core Lightning will
exit with an error rather than upgrade, unless this is an official released
version. If you really want to upgrade to a non-release version, you can
set this to true (or false to never allow a non-reversible upgrade!).

Question:

What is the role of your node (routing or non-routing) and what is in your .lightning/bitcoin/config?

[1]: https://docs.corelightning.org/reference/lightningd-config

Non-routing with database-upgrade=false0.0%
Non-routing with database-upgrade=true0.0%
Routing node with database-upgrade=false100.0%
Routing node with database-upgrade=true0.0%
1 vote \ poll ended

If you never install pre-releases, it sounds to me like the documentation you reference indicates you don't need to worry about that flag. Or am I missing something?

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This is correct. It's only needed if you're updating to a random commit that's not tagged as a release. Release candidates are tested for several weeks in advance to identify any bugs. So the database upgrade for a release is less risky and thus the database will update for a release regardless of the flag.

If you're installing the latest commit from master, there may be untested new features. Adding the database-upgrade=true flag means you're accepting the risk of a breaking change (you may have to wait for a fix, your node may be inoperable in the meantime.)

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That is my impression too. But I am a bit worried that not upgrading my database may become an issue for me a few releases down the line. I wonder whether

[this guy's problem][1]

is due to not upgrading their database.

[1]: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/118995/destination-is-not-reachable-directly-and-all-routehints-were-unusable-how-mig

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Yes, but my reading of the above is that the database does, indeed, get upgraded upon major release version anyway. I'm quite sure that's the case with my node, as I waited for the db migrations to finish for a min or two....

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Yes, this reassures me. Thanks for clarifying all that to me,

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