[Ethereum] Undefined results for “web3.eth.accounts” in truffle console

If you are running the latest version of Truffle (v.3.x), the way to call a function or variable in your contract has evolved a little bit according to the Upgrading documentation

In Truffle 2.0, your contract abstractions managed your networks in a naive way, and added constructs like a "default network" that opened up the possibility of using the wrong network artifacts and deployed addresses at the wrong time. This provided a fancy and easy to use syntax – i.e., MyContract.deployed().myFunction(...) – but it left your code open to errors. Truffle 3.0 changes this syntax, where .deployed() is now thennable, like a promise (see example below). Similarly, this makes your contract abstractions seamlessly integrate with EIP 190, Ethereum's package management standard. All of this is for the better, but it means you'll have some changes to make all across the board.

So in your case, if you want to call a function, you have to do this:

HelloWorld.deployed().then(function(instance) {
    return instance.balance.call();
}).then(function(balance) {
    console.log(balance);
});

Please refer to the latest documentation for more details.

I had the same issue, and just found the solution. This response happens when testrpc is not running, as stated by @Abhishek in the comments.

To solve it, the trick is to run testrpc in another terminal window:

Install web3 and testrpc packages: npm install ethereumjs-testrpc web3@0.20.1 In the same terminal window, run testrpc: node_modules/.bin/testrpc Open a NEW terminal window (with the first one still open and running), and run node :

mahesh@projectblockchain:~/hello_world_voting$ node
> Web3 = require('web3')
> web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider("http://localhost:8545"));

Finally, you can run: > web3.eth.accounts

You will get the list of accounts.