* cmd, eth: Rename whitelist argument to peer.requiredblocks

* eth/ethconfig: document PeerRequiredBlocks better

* cmd/utils: rename new flag to --eth.requiredblocks
Co-authored-by: Felix Lange <fjl@twurst.com>

prepare #24145

* trie: fix memory leak in trie iterator

In the trie iterator, live nodes are tracked in a stack while iterating.
Popped node states should be explictly set to nil in order to get
garbage-collected.

* trie: fix empty trie iterator

core/statedb: always clear out access list when setting a new one

Co-authored-by: Felix Lange <fjl@twurst.com>

* eth/downloader: implement beacon sync

* eth/downloader: fix a crash if the beacon chain is reduced in length

* eth/downloader: fix beacon sync start/stop thrashing data race

* eth/downloader: use a non-nil pivot even in degenerate sync requests

* eth/downloader: don't touch internal state on beacon Head retrieval

* eth/downloader: fix spelling mistakes

* eth/downloader: fix some typos

* eth: integrate legacy/beacon sync switchover and UX

* eth: handle UX wise being stuck on post-merge TTD

* core, eth: integrate the beacon client with the beacon sync

* eth/catalyst: make some warning messages nicer

* eth/downloader: remove Ethereum 1&2 notions in favor of merge

* core/beacon, eth: clean up engine API returns a bit

* eth/downloader: add skeleton extension tests

* eth/catalyst: keep non-kiln spec, handle mining on ttd

* eth/downloader: add beacon header retrieval tests

* eth: fixed spelling, commented failing tests out

* eth/downloader: review fixes

* eth/downloader: drop peers failing to deliver beacon headers

* core/rawdb: track beacon sync data in db inspect

* eth: fix review concerns

* internal/web3ext: nit
Co-authored-by: Marius van der Wijden <m.vanderwijden@live.de>

eth/protocols/snap: avoid estimating infinite percentage

This PR adds the `NextBaseFeePerGas` to `Block` and `EffectiveTip` to `Transaction` to make it easier for clients to compute fee history themselves via graphql queries. 

* core/rawdb, cmd, ethdb, eth: implement freezer tail deletion

* core/rawdb: address comments from martin and sina

* core/rawdb: fixes cornercase in tail deletion

* core/rawdb: separate metadata into a standalone file

* core/rawdb: remove unused code

* core/rawdb: add random test

* core/rawdb: polish code

* core/rawdb: fsync meta file before manipulating the index

* core/rawdb: fix typo

* core/rawdb: address comments

The default listening address "localhost" is not sufficient when running
geth in Docker.

This change speeds up trie hashing and all other activities that require
RLP encoding of trie nodes by approximately 20%. The speedup is achieved by
avoiding reflection overhead during node encoding.

The interface type trie.node now contains a method 'encode' that works with
rlp.EncoderBuffer. Management of EncoderBuffers is left to calling code.
trie.hasher, which is pooled to avoid allocations, now maintains an
EncoderBuffer. This means memory resources related to trie node encoding
are tied to the hasher pool.
Co-authored-by: Felix Lange <fjl@twurst.com>

Co-authored-by: Felix Lange <fjl@twurst.com>

When using -buildmode=shared, R15 is clobbered by a global variable
access; use a different register instead.

Fixes: #24439

All other implementations store disconnect reasons as a single byte,
so go-ethereum should do it too.

* eth, cmd: allow FdLimit to be set in config/command line (#24148)

* eth/ethconfig: format code

* cmd, eth/ethconfig: simplify fdlimit arg, disallow toml

* cnd/utils: make fdlimit setting nicer on the logs
Co-authored-by: Gary Rong <garyrong0905@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Péter Szilágyi <peterke@gmail.com>

* rpc, node: refactor request validation and add jwt validation

* node, rpc: fix error message, ignore engine api in RegisterAPIs

* node: make authenticated port configurable

* eth/catalyst: enable unauthenticated version of engine api

* node: rework obtainjwtsecret (backport later)

* cmd/geth: added auth port flag

* node: happy lint, happy life

* node: refactor authenticated api

Modifies the authentication mechanism to use default values

* node: trim spaces and newline away from secret
Co-authored-by: Marius van der Wijden <m.vanderwijden@live.de>

This replaces the simple selector parser in signer/fourbyte with one that
can actually handle most types. The new parser is added in accounts/abi
to also make it useable elsewhere.

internal/build: switch azure sdk from Azure/azure-storage-blob-go to Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/storage/azblob. (#24473)

* go.mod: update azure-storage-blob-go

update Azure/azure-storage-blob-go from v0.7.0 to v0.14.0.
relation #24396.

* internal/build: fix for breaking changes of azure-storage-blob-go

fix for breaking changes of update Azure/azure-storage-blob-go from v0.7.0 to v0.14.0.
relation #24396.

* internal/build: switch azure sdk from Azure/azure-storage-blob-go to Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/storage/azblob.

* internal/build refactor appending BlobItems

* internal/build: fix azure blobstore client to include container id
Co-authored-by: Péter Szilágyi <peterke@gmail.com>

Co-authored-by: seven <seven@nodereal.io>

Co-authored-by: Felix Lange <fjl@twurst.com>

rlpgen outputs calls to this method for values of type string.

This change makes use of the new code generator rlp/rlpgen to improve the
performance of RLP encoding for Header and StateAccount. It also speeds up
encoding of ReceiptForStorage using the new rlp.EncoderBuffer API.

The change is much less transparent than I wanted it to be, because Header and
StateAccount now have an EncodeRLP method defined with pointer receiver. It
used to be possible to encode non-pointer values of these types, but the new
method prevents that and attempting to encode unadressable values (even if
part of another value) will return an error. The error can be surprising and may
pop up in places that previously didn't expect any errors.

To make things work, I also needed to update all code paths (mostly in unit tests)
that lead to encoding of non-pointer values, and pass a pointer instead.

Benchmark results:

    name                             old time/op    new time/op    delta
    EncodeRLP/legacy-header-8           328ns ± 0%     237ns ± 1%   -27.63%  (p=0.000 n=8+8)
    EncodeRLP/london-header-8           353ns ± 0%     247ns ± 1%   -30.06%  (p=0.000 n=8+8)
    EncodeRLP/receipt-for-storage-8     237ns ± 0%     123ns ± 0%   -47.86%  (p=0.000 n=8+7)
    EncodeRLP/receipt-full-8            297ns ± 0%     301ns ± 1%    +1.39%  (p=0.000 n=8+8)

    name                             old speed      new speed      delta
    EncodeRLP/legacy-header-8        1.66GB/s ± 0%  2.29GB/s ± 1%   +38.19%  (p=0.000 n=8+8)
    EncodeRLP/london-header-8        1.55GB/s ± 0%  2.22GB/s ± 1%   +42.99%  (p=0.000 n=8+8)
    EncodeRLP/receipt-for-storage-8  38.0MB/s ± 0%  64.8MB/s ± 0%   +70.48%  (p=0.000 n=8+7)
    EncodeRLP/receipt-full-8          910MB/s ± 0%   897MB/s ± 1%    -1.37%  (p=0.000 n=8+8)

    name                             old alloc/op   new alloc/op   delta
    EncodeRLP/legacy-header-8           0.00B          0.00B           ~     (all equal)
    EncodeRLP/london-header-8           0.00B          0.00B           ~     (all equal)
    EncodeRLP/receipt-for-storage-8     64.0B ± 0%      0.0B       -100.00%  (p=0.000 n=8+8)
    EncodeRLP/receipt-full-8             320B ± 0%      320B ± 0%      ~     (all equal)

Also specify EOL dates of all listed releases.

This change adds a code generator tool for creating EncodeRLP method
implementations. The generated methods will behave identically to the
reflect-based encoder, but run faster because there is no reflection overhead.

Package rlp now provides the EncoderBuffer type for incremental encoding. This
is used by generated code, but the new methods can also be useful for
hand-written encoders.

There is also experimental support for generating DecodeRLP, and some new
methods have been added to the existing Stream type to support this. Creating
decoders with rlpgen is not recommended at this time because the generated
methods create very poor error reporting.

More detail about package rlp changes:

* rlp: externalize struct field processing / validation

This adds a new package, rlp/internal/rlpstruct, in preparation for the
RLP encoder generator.

I think the struct field rules are subtle enough to warrant extracting
this into their own package, even though it means that a bunch of
adapter code is needed for converting to/from rlpstruct.Type.

* rlp: add more decoder methods (for rlpgen)

This adds new methods on rlp.Stream:

- Uint64, Uint32, Uint16, Uint8, BigInt
- ReadBytes for decoding into []byte
- MoreDataInList - useful for optional list elements

* rlp: expose encoder buffer (for rlpgen)

This exposes the internal encoder buffer type for use in EncodeRLP
implementations.

The new EncoderBuffer type is a sort-of 'opaque handle' for a pointer to
encBuffer. It is implemented this way to ensure the global encBuffer pool
is handled correctly.