feat(worker): allow empty blocks

[Thegaram]

1. Purpose or design rationale of this PR

When the sequencer is run with --miner.allowempty, we allow producing empty blocks. The goal is to have relatively stable block time even when there are few transactions.

2. PR title

Your PR title must follow conventional commits (as we are doing squash merge for each PR), so it must start with one of the following types:

• feat: A new feature

3. Deployment tag versioning

Has the version in params/version.go been updated?

• Yes

4. Breaking change label

Does this PR have the breaking-change label?

• This PR is not a breaking change

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Introduced a configuration option enabling the miner to seal empty blocks when no transactions are available, enhancing block processing flexibility.

• Chores

  • Updated the client version patch number to reflect the latest release changes.

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

This pull request introduces a new command-line flag, utils.MinerAllowEmptyFlag, to the Ethereum client. The flag is added in different parts of the application to control whether the miner can commit empty blocks. The changes include updates to CLI flag definitions and documentation, enhancements to the miner configuration structure, and a modification in the worker’s main loop to handle the empty block scenario. Additionally, the patch version has been incremented.

Changes

Files	Change Summary
cmd/geth/main.go, cmd/geth/usage.go, cmd/utils/flags.go	Added a new CLI flag MinerAllowEmptyFlag (boolean flag miner.allowempty) to enable configuration for mining empty blocks.
miner/miner.go, miner/scroll_worker.go	Introduced an AllowEmpty boolean field in the miner configuration and updated the worker's main loop to commit empty blocks when allowed.
params/version.go	Incremented the patch version constant from 28 to 29.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
    participant Worker
    participant MinerConfig
    participant BlockCommitOp as "Block Commit Operation"

    Worker->>Worker: Check for pending transactions
    alt Transactions Available
        Worker->>BlockCommitOp: Commit block with transactions
    else No Transactions
        Worker->>MinerConfig: Check AllowEmpty flag
        MinerConfig-->>Worker: Return flag status (true/false)
        alt AllowEmpty is true
            Worker->>BlockCommitOp: Commit empty block (with warning)
        else
            Worker-->>Worker: Wait for new transactions
        end
    end

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Suggested Reviewers

• omerfirmak
• jonastheis

Poem

I'm a bunny in the code, hopping light and free,
New flags and tweaks have added a joyful decree.
Empty blocks now join the dance in our chain,
With every commit, I waddle through the gain.
Hop along with me—debugging's a jubilee! 🐇💻

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📜 Recent review details

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Review profile: CHILL
Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between e1e578d and a4a53a8.

📒 Files selected for processing (6)

• cmd/geth/main.go (1 hunks)
• cmd/geth/usage.go (1 hunks)
• cmd/utils/flags.go (2 hunks)
• miner/miner.go (1 hunks)
• miner/scroll_worker.go (1 hunks)
• params/version.go (1 hunks)

🧰 Additional context used

🧬 Code Definitions (2)

cmd/geth/main.go (1)

cmd/utils/flags.go (1) (1)

• MinerAllowEmptyFlag (518-521)

cmd/geth/usage.go (1)

cmd/utils/flags.go (1) (1)

• MinerAllowEmptyFlag (518-521)

⏰ Context from checks skipped due to timeout of 90000ms (2)

• GitHub Check: test
• GitHub Check: Analyze (go)

🔇 Additional comments (7)

params/version.go (1)

27-27: Version Patch Incremented Successfully.
The update of the VersionPatch constant from 28 to 29 clearly reflects the intended patch release. This change is consistent with semantic versioning and there are no further concerns in this file.

miner/miner.go (1)

63-63: New field added to support empty block mining

The new AllowEmpty boolean field in the Config struct provides a clean way to control whether the miner can create empty blocks when no transactions are available.

cmd/geth/main.go (1)

136-136: New CLI flag added to node flags

The utils.MinerAllowEmptyFlag is correctly added to the nodeFlags slice, making it available as a command-line option for controlling empty block generation.

cmd/geth/usage.go (1)

200-200: CLI flag added to MINER help group

The utils.MinerAllowEmptyFlag is added to the "MINER" flag group in the help documentation, providing users with clear visibility of this option.

miner/scroll_worker.go (1)

403-406: Implementation of empty block mining feature

This code adds support for committing empty blocks when the deadline is reached, controlled by the new AllowEmpty configuration setting. The warning log is helpful for operators to identify when empty blocks are being created.

The implementation is straightforward and maintains the existing control flow pattern, making it easy to understand and maintain.

cmd/utils/flags.go (2)

518-521: Well-defined flag with clear purpose.

The new MinerAllowEmptyFlag follows the established pattern for flag definitions in the codebase. Its name and usage description clearly convey its purpose - to allow miners to seal empty blocks.

---

1627-1629: Proper implementation of flag handling.

The flag handling is correctly implemented in the setMiner function, following the same pattern used for other miner configuration options. When the flag is set, it appropriately updates the miner configuration's AllowEmpty property.

✨ Finishing Touches

• 📝 Generate Docstrings

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