[tor-bugs] #3196 [Tor Client]: Tor client finishes bootstrapping too early

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#3196: Tor client finishes bootstrapping too early
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 Reporter:  arma        |          Owner:                    
     Type:  defect      |         Status:  new               
 Priority:  major       |      Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.3.x-final
Component:  Tor Client  |        Version:                    
 Keywords:              |         Parent:                    
   Points:              |   Actualpoints:                    
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 Right now we start building circuits once we have 25% of the relay
 descriptors we'll want. The goal is to reach the 100% bootstrapped mark
 asap so the user doesn't have to wait.

 But once we do that, for the next little while Tor has really horrible
 performance, since it's fetching dir info in parallel to whatever the user
 is trying to do.

 This problem is especially noticeable in TBB, since it launches a Firefox
 and makes a new stream as soon as it's bootstrapped. That stream takes way
 longer than it 'should', and it's our user's first view of Tor
 performance. (But see also #3195, which would get worse if we delay
 bootstrap success.)

 Once upon a time, when all Tor clients were on fast links and when the
 directory was small, there wasn't much harm in declaring bootstrap success
 early. You were nearly done anyway, and clients on fast links can handle
 doing two things at once.

 But if you're on a fast link, you'll finish the rest of your bootstrapping
 pretty quickly anyway. And if you're on a slow link, we're cheating you by
 telling you you're all ready when you're not.

 I think we should delay the 100% bootstrap mark until we have more of the
 descriptors we'll want -- I'm thinking between 75% and 100%. (We could
 still begin circuit attempts at the 25% mark, so circuit building happens
 in parallel to descriptor fetching.)

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/3196>
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