Ethereum: Why do call functions require gas? - ethereum

Why do call functions have gas?
contract MyContract {
string public dapp_name = "my app";
.....
$ truffle console --network kovan
$ c = await MyContract.deployed()
$ c.dapp_name()
// echos "my app"
$ c.dapp_name.estimateGas()
// echos 24403
Why does estimateGas for dapp_name return 24403 Gas?
Isn't the dapp_name function a call function (meaning it's read only) and costs no gas?

The gas is still needed to terminate any function.
If there is an infinite loop in a smart contract function calling it would hang the Ethereum API node. Eventually, all gas is burned and the loop forcefully terminates.
This is the measure against so-called "Turing completeness". All programs must terminate.

Related

How can I do a proxy call on anchor protocol terra ethereum transfer. error: UNPREDICTABLE_GAS_LIMIT

I want to make a smart contract that deposits UST on the eth anchor protocol, by using the deposit function. Here you can find the docs of this function I try to call. https://docs.anchorprotocol.com/ethanchor/ethanchor-contracts/router . The function gets called trough a proxy contract. I found the implementation address by reading the proxy contract on etherscan.
TestContracts on Ropsten testnet:
proxy: 0x7537aC093cE1315BCE08bBF0bf6f9b86B7475008
etherscan: https://ropsten.etherscan.io/address/0x7537aC093cE1315BCE08bBF0bf6f9b86B7475008
implementation (ROUTERV2): 0x2ba0010394eb3e41454c7d79c0fb6e0deb67284b
etherscan: https://ropsten.etherscan.io/address/0x2ba0010394eb3e41454c7d79c0fb6e0deb67284b
I imported the ROUTERV2 contract for calling the proxy with the abi of the implementation.
my execution order is:
deploying the contract
approving the contract for spending the tokens from the sender using ethers.
approveUST function on smart contract (I am not sure if this is necessary)
calling the depositStable function.
I get the following error when calling the depositStale function UNPREDICTABLE_GAS_LIMIT;
Below You see the contract I try to make. It should take the UST of the user and deposit it on eth anchor.
Here is a github link to the hardhat repo of the contract so you can simulate the bug and hopefully help me solving this issue.
https://github.com/tijgersoftware/Terra-anchor
I thank you for taking the time to read my question!
contract Anchor {
address public proxy;
address public operator;
address public USTAddress;
constructor(
address proxy_,
address operator_,
address USTAddress_
) public {
proxy = proxy_;
operator = operator_;
USTAddress = USTAddress_;
}
function approveUST() public {
ERC20(USTAddress).approve(
address(this),
0xffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
);
}
function initDepositStable(uint256 amount) public {
RouterV2(proxy).initDepositStable(amount);
}
function depositUST(uint256 amount) public {
// InterfaceOfImplementationContract(proxyAddress).MethodBeingCalled(
// parameter,
// parameter,
// parameter
// );
ERC20(USTAddress).approve(
address(this),
0xffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
);
RouterV2(proxy).depositStable(operator, amount);
}
}
tags: solidity, smart contracts, ethereum, anchor protocol, terra, brdige trasfer.

Ethereum Contract call methods return insufficient gas message?

The call methods on a contract deployed to mainnet are erroring with insufficient gas messages.
{
code: -32000,
message: 'err: insufficient funds for gas * price + value: address <address> have 27795556348606292 want 420361420000000000 (supplied gas 894386)'
}
On Kovan network, the call methods are working fine. But on Mainnet they are returning the above.
Since call methods require no gas, I'm not sure what the issue is.
$ truffle(mainnet)> c = await EthText.deployed()
$ truffle(mainnet)> c.dapp_name()
dapp_name is a call method
contract MyContract {
string public dapp_name = "Eth Text";
What would cause this error?

Ethereum web3js method call fail

I have a simple solidity smart contract with method like:
function foo(uint a) public {
b = bytes32(1);
emit Event(a, b);
emit Event2(a, b);
}
(full code is here: https://remix.ethereum.org/#optimize=false&version=soljson-v0.4.25+commit.59dbf8f1.js)
and invoke it using web3.js code :
contract = testContract.at('xxxAddress')
// contract.foo(6); // Failed, Why?
//Success
contract.foo.sendTransaction(6, {from: eth.accounts[1]},function(error, result) {
console.log("Got err:", error, ", result: ", result)
}
);
but, why straightforward contract.foo(6) failed? Can any expert explain it?
The call to a function that modifies the blockchain needs to send as a transaction since it requires gas to run. This is why you need to send a transaction and not just call the function. You can find more about it here.

Ethereum Transaction Error while calling a contract function from another contract

Following smart contract works fine in Remix and Ganache. However doesn't work on private ethereum blockchains like Kaleido or Azure. What am I missing. When I call setA it consumes all gas and then fails.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24;
contract TestA {
uint public someValue;
function setValue(uint a) public returns (bool){
someValue = a;
return true;
}
}
contract TestB {
address public recentA;
function createA() public returns (address) {
recentA = new TestA();
return recentA;
}
function setA() public returns (bool) {
TestA(recentA).setValue(6);
return true;
}
}
I tried your contract in Kaleido, and found even calling eth_estimateGas with very large numbers was resulting in "out of gas".
I changed the setValue cross-contract call to set a gas value, and I was then able to call setA, and estimating the gas for setA showed just 31663.
recentA.setValue.gas(10000)(6);
I suspect this EVM behavior is related to permissioned chains with a gasprice of zero. However, that is speculation as I haven't investigated the internals.
I've also added eth_estimateGas, and support for multiple contracts in a Solidity file, to kaleido-go here in case it's helpful:
https://github.com/kaleido-io/kaleido-go
Another possibility for others encountering "out of gas" calling across contracts - In Geth if a require call fails in a called contract, the error is reported as "out of gas" (rather than "execution reverted", or a detailed reason for the require failing).
You are hitting the limit of gas allowed to be spent per block. Information about gas limit is included into every block, so you can check what's this value is right now in your blockchain. Currently on Ethereum MainNet, GasLimit (per block) is about 8 millions (see here https://etherscan.io/blocks)
To fix this, you can start your blockchain with modified genesis file. Try to increase value of gasLimit parameter in your genesis file, which specifies the maximum amount of gas processed per block. Try "gasLimit": "8000000".
Try to discard the return statement of setValue method in contract TestA.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24;
contract TestA {
uint public someValue;
function setValue(uint a) public {
someValue = a;
}
}

Creating instance of contract inside another contract and calling it's methods results in thrown exception

I have 2 basic contracts: one is for token and the second is for sale.
Token сontract:
contract MyToken is StandardToken, Ownable {
string public constant name = "My Sample Token";
string public constant symbol = "MST";
uint32 public constant decimals = 18;
function MyToken(uint _totalSupply) {
require (_totalSupply > 0);
totalSupply = _totalSupply;
balances[msg.sender] = totalSupply;
}
}
Sale Contract
contract Sale {
address owner;
address public founderAddress;
uint256 public constant foundersAmount = 50;
MyToken public token = new MyToken(1000);
uint256 public issuedTokensAmount = 0;
function Sale() {
owner = msg.sender;
founderAddress = 0x14723a09acff6d2a60dcdf7aa4aff308fddc160c;
token.transfer(founderAddress, foundersAmount);
}
function() external payable {
token.transfer(msg.sender, 1);
owner.transfer(msg.value);
}
}
StandardToken and Ownable are all standard implementations from OpenZeppelin repository. Full contract source is available here.
So basically in my Sale Contract I create an instance of my token contract with fixed supply and assign all of the tokens to the caller. Then I transfer some amount of tokens to founder address. When I try to send some ethereum to Sale contract I'm attempting to transfer some of my tokens to the sender (Running all code in Remix browser, I create an instance of Sale contract and call "fallback" method specifying some ether amount). However, this fails with "Exception during execution. (invalid opcode). Please debug the transaction for more information." message. All that I can see when debugging is that code fails in payable method at line:
token.transfer(msg.sender, 1);
I can't see the exact reason for this as I'm not able to step into this method and see whats going on inside.
Interesting thing is that when I remove a call to transfer method on token instance in Sale Contract constructor - code seems to run fine without any exceptions.
What am I missing?
I debugged into the the contract using remix, and the invalid opcode is thrown by:
290 DUP8
291 DUP1
292 EXTCODESIZE
293 ISZERO
294 ISZERO
295 PUSH2 012f
298 JUMPI
299 PUSH1 00
301 DUP1
302 INVALID
I left out the rest, but essentially it loads the address of the token contract and calls EXTCODESIZE which retrieves the contracts code size, and checks that it's not equal to 0 (the token contract exists), unfortunately, it did equate to 0. At this point, I'm unsure whether this is a limitation in remix or I've misunderstood the setup.
I tried the identical contract setup on truffle + testrpc and it deployed, accepted the currency successfully. Do note however that testrpc indicated:
Gas usage: 59137
Meaning that this is above the default sendTransaction w/ no data default (21,000 gas). This means that in a live environment, ensure that you inform users to include extra gas, otherwise the fallback function would probably fail due to OOG errors.
The reason behind this is that you're using a fallback function. Try using a normal function and it should happen.