The “shoebox” is where sbt-ethereum stashes, on a per user basis…
The shoebox is a directory, By default it is placed at
%APPDATA%\sbt-ethereum~/Library/sbt-ethereum~/.sbt-ethereumYou can override what shoebox directory a project uses with the setting ethcfgShoeboxDirectory.
sbt-ethereum will also honor the system property sbt.ethereum.shoebox or the environment variable SBT_ETHEREUM_SHOEBOX. If more than one location is configured, the sbt setting takes priority, then the system property, then the environment variable.
You can switch what shoebox a session uses at runtime with ethShoeboxDirectorySwitch.
Changing shoeboxes usually changes identity and history: different shoeboxes are usually configured with different default senders, have different address aliases defined, etc. They usually contain different wallets.
Use the default shoebox
For most purposes, using only the platform default directory is fine. Usually, you’ll just do that.
Consider using multiple shoeboxes only if the default shoebox becomes unwieldy, or if you with to interact with the Ethereum blockchain wth multiple distinct “personalities”, each with its own separately configured environment.
Shoeboxes should be carefully (and privately!) backed up!
You can, if you wish, just backup and restore a shoebox directory directly.
But sbt-ethereum offers conveniences for backing its shoebox up as a zip file, and restoring from its own backups, very conveniently.
Different shoeboxes should be associated with different default backup directories!
sbt-ethereum skips backing up installed Solidity compilers!
These can be reinstalled very easily after a restore via the command ethLanguageSolidityCompilerInstall.
Usage:
> ethShoeboxBackup
Interactively backs up the sbt-ethereum shoebox.
Note: Paths must be absolute. sbt-ethereum does not resolve ‘~’ or other shell-isms.
Example:
> ethShoeboxBackup
[warn] No default shoebox backup directory has been selected. Please select a new shoebox backup directory.
Enter the path of the directory into which you wish to create a backup: /Volumes/Backups/sbt-ethereum
Use directory '/Volumes/Backups/sbt-ethereum' as the default sbt-ethereum shoebox backup directory? [y/n] y
[info] Creating SQL dump of sbt-ethereum shoebox database...
[info] Successfully created SQL dump of the sbt-ethereum shoebox database: '/Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190324T00h59m16s496msPDT.sql'
[info] Backing up sbt-ethereum shoebox. Reinstallable compilers will be excluded.
[info] sbt-ethereum shoebox successfully backed up to '/Volumes/Backups/sbt-ethereum/sbt-ethereum-shoebox-backup-20190324T00h59m16s521msPDT.zip'.
[success] Total time: 11 s, completed Mar 24, 2019 12:59:16 AM
Usage:
> ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpCreate
Creates an SQL-text dump of the contents of the sbt-ethereum shoebox database. The dump is created within a designated directory inside the shoebox base directory, from which any dump can quickly be restored.
You can use this to be sure you have a textual source of information in the database, and to create easily restorable snapshots of that data.
Example:
> ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpCreate
[info] sbt-ethereum shoebox database dump successfully created at '/Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190324T01h21m21s194msPDT.sql'.
[success] Total time: 1 s, completed Mar 24, 2019 1:21:21 AM
Usage:
> ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpRestore
Restores an SQL-text dump created by ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpCreate from the dump directory inside the shoebox base directory.
Example:
> ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpRestore
The following sbt-ethereum shoebox database dump files have been found:
1. /Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190324T01h21m21s194msPDT.sql
2. /Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190324T00h59m16s496msPDT.sql
3. /Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190318T23h28m02s982msPDT.sql
Which database dump should we restore? (Enter a number, or hit enter to abort) 1
[info] Restore from dump successful. (Prior, replaced database should have backed up into '/Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-superseded'.
[success] Total time: 24 s, completed Mar 24, 2019 1:24:49 AM
Usage:
> ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpRestore
Restores an SQL-text dump created by ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpCreate from the dump directory inside the shoebox base directory.
Example:
> ethShoeboxDatabaseDumpRestore
The following sbt-ethereum shoebox database dump files have been found:
1. /Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190324T01h21m21s194msPDT.sql
2. /Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190324T00h59m16s496msPDT.sql
3. /Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-dumps/sbt-ethereum-v7-20190318T23h28m02s982msPDT.sql
Which database dump should we restore? (Enter a number, or hit enter to abort) 1
[info] Restore from dump successful. (Prior, replaced database should have backed up into '/Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/database/h2-superseded'.
[success] Total time: 24 s, completed Mar 24, 2019 1:24:49 AM
Usage:
> ethShoeboxDirectoryPrint
Prints the current session’s shoebox directory location, with information about how it has been configured.
Example:
> ethShoeboxDirectoryPrint
The current shoebox directory is '/Users/swaldman/tmp/test-shoebox1'.
-> This location IS NOT the platform-default shoebox directory, '/Users/swaldman/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum'.
-> This is not a preconfigured shoebox location, was likely set by the user via 'ethShoeboxSwitch'.
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 13, 2019 8:21:33 PM
Usage:
> ethShoeboxDirectorySwitch <path-to-alternative-shoebox-directory>
Resets the current session to use the given shoebox directory.
Example:
> ethShoeboxDirectorySwitch /Users/swaldman/tmp/test-shoebox1
[info] Restarting session with shoebox directory '/Users/swaldman/tmp/test-shoebox1'.
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 13, 2019 8:19:23 PM
Usage:
> ethShoeboxRestore
Interactively restores the sbt-ethereum shoebox from a file created by ethShoeboxBackup.
Note: Paths must be absolute. sbt-ethereum does not resolve ‘~’ or other shell-isms.
Example:
> ethShoeboxRestore
Search default backup directory '/Volumes/Backups/sbt-ethereum' for backups? [y/n] y
'/Volumes/Backups/sbt-ethereum/sbt-ethereum-shoebox-backup-20190324T00h59m16s521msPDT.zip' is the most recent sbt-ethereum shoebox backup file found. Use it? [y/n] y
[warn] Superseded existing shoebox directory renamed to '/Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum-superseded-20190324T01h17m55s372msPDT'. Consider deleting, eventually.
[info] sbt-ethereum shoebox restored from '/Volumes/Backups/sbt-ethereum/sbt-ethereum-shoebox-backup-20190324T00h59m16s521msPDT.zip
The current default solidity compiler ['0.4.24'] is not installed. Install? [y/n] y
[info] Installed local solcJ compiler, version 0.4.24 in '/Users/testuser/Library/Application Support/sbt-ethereum/solcJ'.
[info] Testing newly installed compiler... ok.
[info] Refreshing compiler list.
[info] Updating available solidity compiler set.
[success] Total time: 19 s, completed Mar 24, 2019 1:18:07 AM