where to find files after installing bitcoin-core

I just set up bitcoin-core on my machine with these details: Client Version: bitcoin-25.0-x86_64-linux-gnu OS: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS Specs: Intel Core i5-3470T @ 2.90GHz, 1 physical processor, 2 cores, 4 threads, RAM around 8GB. I'm curious about where all the files ended up. I saw some docs talking about running the core as a systemd service, which I plan to configure. They also mention various file paths but I'm a bit confused. Should I be moving files from their current place to the specific directories mentioned in the docs? Or did something go wrong with the install that left the files in the wrong spot?

You don't have to. During the initialization, if Bitcoin Core doesn't detect a data directory then it would prompt the user to specify a data directory. Else, it would automatically create a data directory for you in the default data directory path.

That makes sense, but what about the bitcoin-core executable, wouldn't that need to be there or how would it know what to run?

There is this line in the bitcoind.service systemd file: As far as I understand it the bitcoind mentioned above is a script, not an executable, correct?   Or should it be an executable?  I tried moving an executable to /usr/bin/bitcoind but get an error 203 when starting the service. What should end up in /usr/bin/bitcoind and is there on in the install instructions somewhere? reference:  https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/contrib/init/bitcoind.service

I also found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/wfhuyy/how_to_setup_bitcoincore_snap_on_ubuntu_2204/ -- the significant quote is: Is this something necessary to do during the install to set up the data directories needed for the systemd?: I did find the reference symlink in /snap/bin Also from the documentation as referenced the specified directories automatically get created.  So to get the systemd service running, I believe I need to know if I can just copy the executable over to /usr/bin/bitcoind or does this need to be a script? Sorry for question not being too clear, just really beating head against wall on this one

Another note:  I think it is a problem with the original snap installation.  I just went to the Ubuntu Software and clicked on the bitcoin-core.  The process is a bit different from the more manual one specified here: https://blockgeeks.com/install-bitcoin-core/ which includes this: Think this is what I am missing, with check this tomorrow.

Makes more sense now.  The snap installation and the installation here: https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#linux-instructions do not have the same result.  I re-did following the above and using the daemon, works fine.

I had various issues with the Snap package of Bitcoin Core in my Ubuntu LTS 22.04.x, particularly it didn't work properly with Tor installed and running. I think it was when Bitcoin Core 23 or 24 was the current version. I could pinpoint the issue that the snap package wasn't configured properly but I lacked the knowledge to fix this Snap quirk. Maybe the current Snap package is fine, but back then I simply installed Bitcoin Core from the tarball and all was fine and working smoothly.

Was it a connection issue, or a data directory issue? I just started running a few nodes on Ubuntu via Snap and all was okay. Did the logs say anything? @OP Snap configures everything for you and you just need to run the app. If not, then you just have to navigate to the snap/bin folder and execute it. A default data dir will be in ~/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin

No, the issue was that Bitcoin Core v23 in my case couldn't read Tor's cookie file as the Snap's system file interface for the Snap package of Core v23 was apparently broken or incomplete. Back then I opened this packaging issue on Github snap: tor's cookie file not visible for Bitcoin Core #159. It might have been fixed, not sure though, as I abandoned to use the snap package of Core. Unfortunately I didn't find the time to dig deeper into Snap and fix the issue myself and provide a patch.

I don't like using snap packages in general as they tend to have all sorts of random permissions issues if the distributor is not careful packaging it. Generally I would just stick to using the standalone binaries of Bitcoin Core, or if you *really* have to partition the binaries somewhere else, then by installing it on a custom path. Like /opt/bitcoin or something like that.

I'm not yet decided if I'm going to like or hate snap. When you run into such a weird trouble like I did with Core v23 installed via snap, it's a pain in the ass for sure. I used Ubuntu for a long time but know I'm somewhat torn apart as Ubuntu really focusses on Snap a lot. Still trying to figure out what exactly Snap tries to make better than other packaging variants. Snap packagers/distributors should know what they're doing.        Yes, I know, I'm dreaming of unicorns puking rainbows.