[tor-bugs] #21205 [Core Tor/Tor]: Instrument clients to measure directory usage

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#21205: Instrument clients to measure directory usage
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     Reporter:  nickm         |      Owner:
         Type:  project       |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium        |  Milestone:  Tor: 0.3.1.x-final
    Component:  Core Tor/Tor  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal        |   Keywords:  sponsor4
Actual Points:                |  Parent ID:
       Points:  parent        |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                |
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 We want to reduce the directory overhead needed for low-bandwidth clients.
 To do this well, we should make it so a client can measure how much stuff
 it downloads, and how much of what kind of traffic it uses to download it.

 In general, this should be local-only measurements for use while testing:
 there's no reason we need a complex infrastructure for this one, since the
 results should be pretty uniform given the same client software in the
 same circumstances.

 Here are some strawman scenarios for client usage which we might want to
 think about:
    * Client is completely unused.
    * Client is completely unused, but restarted or HUPed once every N
 hours.
    * Client is used to fetch a .onion website once every N hours.
    * Client is used to fetch a http website once every N hours.
    * Client is turned on, and connected to (say) IRC all the time.

 The relevant values of "N" are probably something like: .5 hours, 1 hour,
 4 hours, 8 hours, ... up to a week?


 This is a parent-ticket.  Child tickets will focus on particular
 measurements we want.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21205>
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