Quote from: ingvar_e on February 17, 2020, 08:55:04 PM

In this order:

Create a new "Virgin" bitcoin instance.
Disable Pruning
Run a full update.
Try a dumpwallet import.

Is this recommended procedure.?

I would not say it was "recommended"... obviously using a 'proper' wallet.dat backup file is the recommended way to restore a wallet. But yes, to "import" a dumpfile, then that would be the procedure to use, assuming you had a pruned instance, as pruning is disabled by default.

Quote

I wonder what the real purpose for creating a dumpfile is. It clears the wallet so what can you use a dumpfile for (except import).

A "dumpfile" does NOT clear the wallet. All it does is export your private keys in clear text. It does NOT remove private keys from your wallet dat, so your original wallet.dat file will remain unchanged.

Code:

dumpwallet "filename"

Dumps all wallet keys in a human-readable format to a server-side file. This does not allow overwriting existing files.

The main purpose of these dumpfiles is generally if you need to bulk export private keys for some reason (moving to different wallet for instance)... for exporting specific single keys you can just use dumpprivkey:

Code:

dumpprivkey "address"

Reveals the private key corresponding to 'address'.
Then the importprivkey can be used with this output

Quote

it would be nice to have a possibility to recreate a wallet.

The 'normal' workflow for recreating wallets is to restore from a backup of the wallet.dat file itself... not using "dumpfiles".