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The migrate-zcashd-wallet command

Available on crate feature zcashd-import only.

zallet migrate-zcashd-wallet migrates a zcashd wallet file (wallet.dat) to a Zallet wallet (wallet.db).

zallet init-wallet-encryption must be run before this command.

Parsing a zcashd wallet file requires the db_dump utility built for Berkeley DB version 6.2 (the version zcashd uses). When Zallet is built with the zcashd-import feature it compiles and uses a vendored copy of this utility automatically, so you normally do not need to provide one yourself. If that vendored utility is unavailable, Zallet falls back to a db_dump found on the system $PATH; you can also point Zallet at a specific zcashd installation’s db_dump with --zcashd-install-dir (see below).

The command requires at least one of the following two flag:

  • --path: A path to a zcashd wallet file.
  • --zcashd-datadir: A path to a zcashd datadir. If this is provided, then --path can be relative (or omitted, in which case the default filename wallet.dat will be used).

Additional CLI arguments:

  • --zcashd-install-dir: A path to a local zcashd installation directory, for source-based builds of zcashd. When set, Zallet uses the db_dump from that installation’s zcutil/bin directory instead of its vendored copy. This is rarely needed, and generally not recommended: the vendored db_dump is built for the Berkeley DB version (6.2) that zcashd wallets use, so prefer it unless you have a specific reason to use your zcashd installation’s utility (for example, a wallet written by a non-standard Berkeley DB build). If neither this flag nor the vendored db_dump is available, Zallet falls back to a db_dump on the system $PATH.
  • --allow-multiple-wallet-imports: An optional flag that must be set if a user wants to import keys and transactions from multiple wallet.dat files (not required for the first wallet.dat import.)
  • --buffer-wallet-transactions: If set, Zallet will eagerly fetch transaction data from the chain as part of wallet migration instead of via ordinary chain sync. This may speed up wallet recovery, but requires all wallet transactions to be buffered in-memory which may cause out-of-memory errors for large wallets.
  • --allow-warnings: If set, Zallet will ignore errors in parsing transactions extracted from the wallet.dat file. This can enable the import of key data from wallets that have been used on consensus forks of the Zcash chain.

For the Zallet alpha releases, the command also currently takes another required flag --this-is-alpha-code-and-you-will-need-to-redo-the-migration-later.

When run, Zallet will parse the zcashd wallet file, connect to the backing full node (to obtain necessary chain information for setting up wallet birthdays), create Zallet accounts corresponding to the structure of the zcashd wallet, and store the key material in the Zallet wallet. Parsing is performed using the db_dump command-line utility. By default Zallet uses the copy it vendors and builds, which is the recommended choice; a zcashd-provided db_dump from the zcutil/bin directory of a source installation (via --zcashd-install-dir), or one on the system $PATH, are used otherwise.