[tor-bugs] #6609 [Tor Client]: Proposal to add tor-connect utility to tor-core distribution

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#6609: Proposal to add tor-connect utility to tor-core distribution
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 Reporter:  tri          |          Owner:     
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |      Milestone:     
Component:  Tor Client   |        Version:     
 Keywords:               |         Parent:     
   Points:               |   Actualpoints:     
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Comment(by tri):

 * Please open a Trac ticket.  Your code might be useful, but it'll get
 lost in the flood on tor-assistants if you don't post it to Trac.

     Said and done

 * There are already several programs which perform this task,
 including ‘socat’, at least some of the several (all subtly
 incompatible) programs called ‘nc’ (usually packaged as ‘netcat’), and
 a program known variously as ‘proxy-connect’, ‘connect-proxy’, or
 ‘connect’.

     I think it's justified to have a tool to perform this task within the
     tor core tools so that it's easily available with tor and can also
     be enhanced to automatically detect tor proxy endpoint like other
     tools should there be a method introduced for that in some later
     point.  tor-connect is also a great tool for testing connections
     through tor and to hidden services, because it minimizes the
     number of moving parts.

 * Tools of this form are only suitable for use with programs which
 support using an external program as a ‘proxy’.  OpenSSH supports
 this, as does PuTTY (but that has seemingly good SOCKS support
 built-in anyway), but most of the programs that people want t

    Yes, I know. But for example OpenSSH doesn't support SOCKS in
    the client side connections.  And as I mentioned there are at least
    a few programs with this capability commonly bundled in linux
    distributions.

 * On every operating system on which using an external command as a
 proxy is likely to work (i.e. Linux and MacOS), the copy of Tor
 packaged in TBB is configured to choose a random SOCKS server port
 every time it runs.  There is no good way to communicate Tor's current
 SocksPort to any program run separately from the bundle.

    I know. That's why I'd put the command into the bundle and pass the
    port information using the same'ish mechanism used when passing
    the information to the browser.  The port number anyways appears
    semi-magically in the browser configuration.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6609#comment:2>
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