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I am using geth to download the entire blockchain via the command:

geth --fast --cache=1024 --jitvm

Everything appears to be going fine so far.

I was wondering if there will be a notification when the blockchain is up to date?

Any idea how long I can expect the process to take?

niksmac
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William Ross
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    See https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/2853/geth-node-starts-to-sync-from-the-beginning-after-fast-sync for the messages you will receive during the fast sync, and when the fast sync completes. With a fast enough internet connection and an SSD drive, it will take a few hours or more. Full sync for comparison will take days. – BokkyPooBah Mar 27 '17 at 04:21

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No, there won't be a notification when the chain is up to date, but you can tell because the node will only be importing 1 block every 15 seconds or so, instead of hundreds at a time. If you want to be sure you are fully up to date, you can just check the block number reported by your node against a blockchain explorer.

How long it takes can vary from hours to days depending on your hardware and network connection. You can watch the output to see about how many blocks/second you are syncing, and compare that with the number remaining to sync (as indicated by a block explorer)

Tjaden Hess
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  • Thanks for the answer. The process is taking a bit longer than expected currently and I may need to pause it. What is the best way to pause the process using Linux. Should I just do control-C, and then can resume it fine later? – William Ross Mar 27 '17 at 09:31