This feature allows for message capture on a per-peer basis. It answers the simple question: "Can I see what messages my node is sending and receiving?"
bitcoind with the -capturemessages option.message_capture folder in your datadir. * Typically this will be ~/.bitcoin/message_capture.
* See that there are many folders inside, one for each peer names with its IP address and port.
* Inside each peer's folder there are two .dat files: one is for received messages (msgs_recv.dat) and the other is for sent messages (msgs_sent.dat).
contrib/message-capture/message-capture-parser.py with the proper arguments. * See the -h option for help.
* To see all messages, both sent and received, for all peers use:
`
./contrib/message-capture/message-capture-parser.py -o out.json \
~/.bitcoin/message_capture/*/.dat
`
Note: The messages in the given `.dat` files will be interleaved in chronological order. So, giving both received and sent `.dat` files (as above with `.dat`) will result in all messages being interleaved in chronological order.
* If an output file is not provided (i.e. the -o option is not used), then the output prints to stdout.
* The output file is JSON formatted.
* Suggestion: use jq to view the output, with jq . out.json