Pruning settings: five bounded Litecoin Core startup checks
Version: pruned-wallet-20261016-v1
Author: Jarosław Wasiński / Litecoin.watch

QUESTION
What do five pruning configuration boundaries actually report in Core 0.21.5.8?
This is configuration-boundary research, NOT a mainnet storage, initial-download,
bandwidth, speed, historical block deletion, wallet restoration or rescan benchmark.
The successful nodes were all at height zero. No wallet was enabled or funded.

OBSERVED RUN
2026-10-15T22:56:05.892307+00:00 to 2026-10-15T22:56:08.857511+00:00 UTC.
That is 16 October in Warsaw. Package dates identify the editorial release;
results preserve original UTC timestamps. Elapsed: 2.965 seconds. 45 experiment
assertions passed. Five processes ran sequentially and all exited. Cleanup was
independently checked afterwards; temporary node directories were absent.

RESULTS
P01 prune=0: started; pruned=false. Automatic target not reported.
P02 prune=549: rejected, minimum-550-MiB diagnostic, exit1.
P03 prune=550: started; pruned=true; automatic_pruning=true;
    prune_target_size=576716800 bytes = 550*1024*1024. Height0.
P04 prune=1: started; pruned=true; automatic_pruning=false. No automatic target.
P05 prune=550 txindex=1: rejected, incompatible-with-txindex diagnostic, exit1.
pruned=true at genesis establishes enabled mode, not observed block deletion.
550 MiB targets block/undo files, not the entire data directory or a hard quota.
Chainstate, metadata, MWEB supporting data where applicable, indexes, wallets,
logs and operating headroom need separate consideration. Settings compatibility
and recovery limitations described in the article are source-based, not measured
wallet behavior. No present mainnet size or synchronization duration is claimed.

RUN REPRODUCTION
Requirements: Python3 standard library, Linux, exactly the pinned Core binaries.
Use a NEW empty dedicated scratch parent containing no wallet or user files.
Never run as a production node or point it at an existing data directory.
Read reproduce.py.txt first. It checks binary hashes; creates fresh temporary
regtest directories; disables wallets, listening, discovery and outbound peers;
uses loopback-only RPC, dbcache32, par1; runs nodes sequentially; enforces a
bounded run; stops and waits for every owned process; removes only its own fresh
temporary node directory after exit. No keys, wallet cookies or credentials are
exported. The output directory must be a fresh, explicitly selected location.
The exact arguments are the two binary paths and a NEW output directory:
  python3 reproduce.py.txt /path/litecoind /path/litecoin-cli NEW-output-directory
Reproduction is optional. The offline verifier does not start Core.

OFFLINE VERIFICATION
Unpack research-package.zip into an empty directory. Do not mix with another
release. Run:
  python3 verify.py.txt .
It checks a strict filename whitelist and SHA256SUMS.txt, case/RPC/CSV agreement,
false versus omitted fields, exact MiB arithmetic, lifecycle and zero-peer
records, frozen upstream source hashes, and eight intentionally corrupted
negative controls. It rejects invented height/mainnet/target/case claims and
unsafe manifest paths. It does not independently witness the original run.
SHA checks detect differences relative to this supplied manifest, not a trusted
third-party signature or protection against replacement of the entire package.

FILES
results.json: measured results and 45 recorded assertion outcomes.
rpc-trace.json: curated RPC results and startup/exit records. Polling connection
failures before RPC readiness are omitted; decisive daemon errors are retained.
cases.csv: compact exact five-case table; empty fields mean not reported.
results.schema.json: documented JSON shape; verifier uses explicit stdlib checks.
reproduce.py.txt: executed source, SHA tied to cleanup record.
verify.py.txt: offline verifier; no network, wallet, Core or external dependency.
daemon-help.txt and rpc-help-*.txt: help from the actual tested binary.
cleanup.json: post-run checks of owned process exits, directories and runner hash.
implementation-sources.json/.zip: pinned upstream source snapshots with hashes.
COPYING.txt: upstream MIT license for Core source snapshots.
sources.json: research, source anchors and scope attribution.
storage-planning-checklist.txt and storage-planning-worksheet.csv: blank beginner
planning aids, not measurements or wallet backups. No secrets are requested.
SHA256SUMS.txt: release file hashes. Publisher may add labeled artwork provenance
and an upstream source bundle; the verifier permits only named optional files.

PROVENANCE
litecoind SHA256:
63fb440cdc5e2e7d46144b8e3a47dab4725fa9c056a77b8b12b11854504f4838
litecoin-cli SHA256:
d185011cc0dbb5d2dd20611e9dc060dbb0a5d9be31a03f57da5dbd3dad4c3769
Both report version0.21.5.8. Source tag: v0.21.5.8.
Regtest isolated-node results do not establish mainnet capacity, retention,
restore success, other versions, mobile wallet behavior or GUI compatibility.