[tor-bugs] #25511 [Core Tor/Tor]: Expose TZ info on control port for better debugging of time errors

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#25511: Expose TZ info on control port for better debugging of time errors
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  nickm                                |          Owner:  neel
     Type:  enhancement                          |         Status:
                                                 |  needs_review
 Priority:  Medium                               |      Milestone:  Tor:
                                                 |  0.3.4.x-final
Component:  Core Tor/Tor                         |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  roadmap, controller, 034-roadmap-    |  Actual Points:
  master, 034-triage-20180328,                   |
  034-included-20180328, s8-errors               |
Parent ID:                                       |         Points:
 Reviewer:  catalyst                             |        Sponsor:
                                                 |  Sponsor8
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------

Old description:

> When we tell people that their clocks are wrong, it's frequently because
> they've set up their systems with the wrong time zone.  It would be
> helpful to tell torbrowser (or some other controller) about this
> information, so that it can give more useful error messages on time-
> related bootstrapping failures.
>
> ~~One complication here is (IIUC) TB runs, and runs tor, with its TZ set
> to UTC.~~
>
> Further investigation suggests that TB might not set `TZ` for the first
> time it starts tor.

New description:

 When we tell people that their clocks are wrong, it's frequently because
 they've set up their systems with the wrong time zone.  It would be
 helpful to tell torbrowser (or some other controller) about this
 information, so that it can give more useful error messages on time-
 related bootstrapping failures.

 ~~One complication here is (IIUC) TB runs, and runs tor, with its TZ set
 to UTC.~~

 Further investigation suggests that TB might not set `TZ` for the first
 time it starts tor.  Opened #25823 for the Tor Launcher behavior
 inconsistency.

--

Comment (by catalyst):

 Please direct further discussion about Tor Launcher's setting of `TZ` for
 tor to #25823.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25511#comment:37>
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