avoid DirPort 127.0.0.1:9030 #16
Description
From the corridor readme... Quote:
You may want to add the line
DirPort 127.0.0.1:9030
to /etc/tor/torrc to always keep the relay list up to date, even when there's no local activity and tor would otherwise suspend itself.
This is quite bad since this:
- complicates instructions
- setup cannot be as automatic as installing a package, still requires manual /etc/tor/torrc edits. (And editing such files by using scripts is problematic for many reasons and usually forbidden by distribution policies.)
- This issue has probably not been reported upstream?
- Could have unwanted effects, see below.
From https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-manual.html.en:
DirPort [address:]PORT|auto [flags]
If this option is nonzero, advertise the directory service on this port. Set it to "auto" to have Tor pick a port for you. This option can occur more than once, but only one advertised DirPort is supported: all but one DirPort must have the NoAdvertise flag set. (Default: 0)
The same flags are supported here as are supported by ORPort.
advertise the directory sounds scary. Even if only listening on localhost as corridor instructions recommend, I would not be surprised if it still is advertised to the directories, due to some bug. It looks like a very uncommon way to use Tor so I would not be surprised if this is entirely untested.
Perhaps as short term fix, the NoAdvertise flag should be set.
As long term fix, could you report a bug against Tor please? I would do it myself, but I do not really understand the issue you are trying to work around here. Or raise this issue on the tor-talk mailing list? Perhaps there is a better workaround. (Yes, asking on tor-talk can work, I recently got my questions quickly and exhaustingly answered by Roger.)