core-lightning/doc/lightning-close.7.md
Christian Decker c3254e6639 docs: Update manpages to be recognized correctly by mrkd
mrkd started enforcing the `name -- short description` style of top-level
headings somewhere, and was thus failing to build the man-pages. I swapped
the title and with the existing short description to make it work
again. `mrkd` will automatically infer the section from the filename so no
need to put it in the title as well.

In addition I removed the "last updated" lines at the bottom since they are
out of date at best, and misleading at the worst. If we want to keep them, I'd
suggest generating them from the commit that last touched them.
2019-09-02 16:31:36 +02:00

2.4 KiB

lightning-close -- Command for closing channels with direct peers

SYNOPSIS

close id [unilateraltimeout]

DESCRIPTION

The close RPC command attempts to close the channel cooperatively with the peer, or unilaterally after unilateraltimeout.

If the given id is a peer ID (66 hex digits as a string), then it applies to the active channel of the direct peer corresponding to the given peer ID. If the given id is a channel ID (64 hex digits as a string, or the short channel ID blockheight:txindex:outindex form), then it applies to that channel.

If unilateraltimeout is not zero, the close command will unilaterally close the channel when that number of seconds is reached. If unilateraltimeout is zero, then the close command will wait indefinitely until the peer is online and can negotiate a mutual close. The default is 2 days (172800 seconds).

The peer needs to be live and connected in order to negotiate a mutual close. The default of unilaterally closing after 48 hours is usually a reasonable indication that you can no longer contact the peer.

NOTES

Prior to 0.7.2, close took two parameters: force and timeout. timeout was the number of seconds before force took effect (default, 30), and force determined whether the result was a unilateral close or an RPC error (default). Even after the timeout, the channel would be closed if the peer reconnected.

RETURN VALUE

On success, an object with fields tx and txid containing the closing transaction are returned. It will also have a field type which is either the JSON string mutual or the JSON string unilateral. A mutual close means that we could negotiate a close with the peer, while a unilateral close means that the force flag was set and we had to close the channel without waiting for the counterparty.

A unilateral close may still occur at any time if the peer did not behave correctly during the close negotiation.

Unilateral closes will return your funds after a delay. The delay will vary based on the peer to_self_delay setting, not your own setting.

AUTHOR

ZmnSCPxj <ZmnSCPxj@protonmail.com> is mainly responsible.

SEE ALSO

lightning-disconnect(7), lightning-fundchannel(7)

RESOURCES

Main web site: https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning