[feature]: ask password quickly after start

[starius]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Every time I update the node, I have to remember to enter the password after all the databases were fully opened. Since opening sometimes takes more than 10 minutes, I switch to other tasks and eventually forget to do it. Remembering after few hours or because peers start pinging me in messenger "your node is down".

Describe the solution you'd like

Ask the password right after the start of the binary, before time consuming procedures.

Describe alternatives you've considered

lncli unlock may ask password and wait for LND to fully load and then send the password to it.

[eliotcougar]

I confirm I was annoyed by this more than once, but because I don't restart the node too often I forget about that annoyance...
Basically, if you try lncli unlock before the database is finished compacting, it silently fails, and the node stays locked. It should take the password regardless of the state, and then wait until all the procedures are complete, then unlock the node...

[guggero]

Since we now have a status RPC that is up for the whole duration, this could be done quite easily in lncli with a wait loop similar as the one implemented in lndinit: https://github.com/lightninglabs/lndinit/blob/main/cmd_wait_ready.go#L70

Instead of waiting for lnrpc.WalletState_SERVER_ACTIVE we would wait for lnrpc.WalletState_LOCKED until the password is sent to the actual lnd wallet unlocker service.

[AbhinavMir]

Hi, would love to take this on! Working on this over the weekend. :) This is my first bitcoin ecosystem issue, will probably have some stupid questions.

[guggero]

Sounds good! Feel free to ask here or join our developer slack.

Be sure to take a look at the Pull Request Checklist, first time contributor PRs that don't violate most of these check list items have a higher probability of being reviewed quickly (the scarce resource in bitcoin software development ecosystem is review time not code writing time).

[AbhinavMir]

Thanks! Btw the developer slack link is no longer active, it seems.

[guggero]

Ah, it expires every few weeks, we'll update it, thanks for the heads up.