LIGHTNING-CONNECT(7)
====================
:doctype: manpage

NAME
----
lightning-connect - Command for connecting to another 
lightning node.

SYNOPSIS
--------
*connect* 'id' ['host' 'port']

DESCRIPTION
-----------
The *connect* RPC command establishes a new connection 
with another node in the Lightning Network.

'id' represents the target node's public key.
As a convenience, 'id' may be of the form 'id@host' or 'id@host:port'.
In this case, the 'host' and 'port' parameters must be omitted.

'host' is the peer's hostname or IP address.

If not specified, the 'port' defaults to 9375.

If 'host' is not specified, the
connection will be attempted to an IP belonging to 
'id' obtained through gossip with other already
connected peers.

If 'host' begins with a '/' it is interpreted as a local path,
and the connection will be made to that local socket (see *bind-addr*
in lightningd-config(5)).

Connecting to a node is just the first step in opening 
a channel with another node.
Once the peer is connected a channel can be opened with
lightning-fundchannel(7).


RETURN VALUE
------------
On success the peer 'id' is returned.

The following error codes may occur:

* -1. Catchall nonspecific error.
      This may occur if the host is not valid or there are problems
      communicating with the peer.
      *connect* will make up to 10 attempts to connect to the peer before
      giving up.

AUTHOR
------
Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au> is mainly responsible.
Felix <fixone@gmail.com> is the original author of this manpage.

SEE ALSO
--------
lightning-fundchannel(7), lightning-listpeers(7), 
lightning-listchannels(7), lightning-disconnect(7)

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