Transaction Results

[Source]

The rippled server summarizes transaction results with result codes, which appear in fields such as engine_result and meta.TransactionResult. These codes are grouped into several categories with different prefixes:

Category	Prefix	Description
Claimed cost only	tec	The transaction did not achieve its intended purpose, but the transaction cost was destroyed. This result is only final in a validated ledger.
Failure	tef	The transaction cannot be applied to the server's current (in-progress) ledger or any later one. It may have already been applied, or the condition of the ledger makes it impossible to apply in the future.
Local error	tel	The rippled server had an error due to local conditions, such as high load. You may get a different response if you resubmit to a different server or at a different time.
Malformed transaction	tem	The transaction was not valid, due to improper syntax, conflicting options, a bad signature, or something else.
Retry	ter	The transaction could not be applied, but it could apply successfully in a future ledger.
Success	tes	(Not an error) The transaction succeeded. This result only final in a validated ledger.

The rippled server automatically retries failed transactions. It is important not to assume that a transaction has completely failed based on a tentative failure result. A transaction may later succeed unless its success or failure is final.

Warning: Transactions' provisional result codes may differ from their final result. Transactions that provisionally succeeded may eventually fail and transactions that provisionally failed may eventually succeed. Transactions that provisionally failed may also eventually fail with a different code. See the finality of results for how to know when a transaction's result is final.

The distinction between a local error (tel) and a malformed transaction (tem) is a matter of protocol-level rules. For example, the protocol sets no limit on the maximum number of paths that can be included in a transaction. However, a server may define a finite limit of paths it can process. If two different servers are configured differently, then one of them may return a tel error for a transaction with many paths, while the other server could successfully process the transaction. If enough servers are able to process the transaction so that it survives consensus, then it can still be included in a validated ledger.

By contrast, a tem error implies that no server anywhere can apply the transaction, regardless of settings. Either the transaction breaks the rules of the protocol, it is unacceptably ambiguous, or it is completely nonsensical. The only way a malformed transaction could become valid is through changes in the protocol; for example, if a new feature is adopted, then transactions using that feature could be considered malformed by servers that are running older software which predates that feature.

Immediate Response

The response from the [submit method][] contains a provisional result from the rippled server indicating what happened during the local processing of the transaction.

The response from submit contains the following fields:

Field	Value	Description
engine_result	String	A code indicating the outcome of the transaction, such as tecPATH_DRY.
engine_result_code	Signed Integer	A number that corresponds to the engine_result. The exact values are subject to change without notice.
engine_result_message	String	A human-readable message explaining what happened. This message is intended for developers to diagnose problems, and is subject to change without notice.

If nothing went wrong when submitting and applying the transaction locally, the response looks like this:

    "engine_result": "tesSUCCESS",
    "engine_result_code": 0,
    "engine_result_message": "The transaction was applied. Only final in a validated ledger."

Note: A successful result at this stage does not indicate that the transaction has completely succeeded; only that it was successfully applied to the provisional version of the ledger kept by the local server. Failed results at this stage are also provisional and may change. See Finality of Results for details.