How can I -abort ./bitcoind -reindex-chainstate?

Question

I made files re-accessible. Now we could return to a later, already synchronized state with the files. I tried to put ./bitcoind -reindex-chainstate=0, also in a bitcoin.conf, also directly calling the conf. It goes on reindexing the chainstate.

Answer 1

-reindex-chainstate is an instant operation: it wipes a the chainstate (UTXO) database. It is performed at startup whenever the -reindex-chainstate command-line option, or the reindex-chainstate=1 config file parameter is provided. It cannot be interrupted, but it is so fast this is rarely a concern. It's equivalent to emptying the chainstate/ directory by hand, FWIW.

Whenever the chainstate is behind the blockchain (i.e., you have blocks in your blocks/ directory which haven't been processed yet), the missing blocks will automatically be processed. This will typically happen after a -reindex or -reindex-chainstate, but it can happen outside of those too. E.g. when you wipe the chainstate/ directory yourself, or maybe if restore it to an older backup without making the equivalent restoration of the blocks/ directory.

The naming of these options is somewhat confusing, because what they trigger isn't the actual reindexing, but just the wiping that preceeds it; the reindex is automatic, and progressive (it will continue where it left off if you shutdown and start again, unless you specify the reindex option again at startup; in that case, it is wiped again and you'll start over again).

FWIW, any option, including these, can be disabled using the "no" variant (-noreindex-chainstate here) or passing 0 (-reindex-chainstate=0). But, as explained, that just disables the wiping; it cannot undo a wipe, and thus cannot "abort" the reindexing, as Bitcoin Core cannot proceed without first processing all the blocks it has.

Answer 2

In -help, -reindex-chainstate doesn't advertise to be an assignable [string typed] argument.

This means it is a boolean argument.

Don't assign it zero. Remove it completely.

Cheers!

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Non assignable argument, boolean:

  -reindex-chainstate
       Rebuild chain state from the currently indexed blocks. When in pruning
       mode or if blocks on disk might be corrupted, use full -reindex
       instead.

Assignable argument, type string, not boolean:

  -settings=<file>
       Specify path to dynamic settings data file. Can be disabled with
       -nosettings. File is written at runtime and not meant to be
       edited by users (use bitcoin.conf instead for custom settings).
       Relative paths will be prefixed by datadir location. (default:
       settings.json)