[tor-bugs] #28624 [Core Tor/Tor]: Should we remember dormant state on restart?

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#28624: Should we remember dormant state on restart?
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 Reporter:  arma          |          Owner:  nickm
     Type:  enhancement   |         Status:  needs_review
 Priority:  Medium        |      Milestone:  Tor: 0.4.0.x-final
Component:  Core Tor/Tor  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal        |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                |  Actual Points:  1
Parent ID:                |         Points:  2
 Reviewer:  dgoulet       |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by nickm):

 Replying to [comment:10 eighthave]:
 > >  One of the core ideas of #2149 was for Tor to remember its dormancy
 across restarts. As of the finishing of #2149, Tor will go dormant 24
 hours after startup if it's seen no activity
 >
 > If I'm understanding this correctly, I think Dormant Mode should also
 consider the time scales of 1 minute, 1 hour and 10 hours.  These are very
 relevant in the mobile context.  Reading @arma's description of how this
 dormant mode idea manages state reminds me a lot about how Android and iOS
 expect apps/services to do it.

 It's configurable: see the option DormantClientTimeout.  Right now the
 minimum is 10 minutes, but we could make that lower if mobile devs want
 it.  Open a ticket if so?

 > > (2) ...I was going to use an example here of Tor bundled with an app,
 like Brave or Briar, but I think in this case the app should be
 responsible for making Tor behave politely to the Tor network.
 >
 > About mobile apps that embed Tor, we've put the core idea of "wake on
 use" in NetCipher and Orbot.  The core idea is that whenever an app first
 needs to use tor, it sends Orbot a message to request that Orbot start
 tor.  If that is widely used, then Orbot/tor need only manage going
 idle/dormant, since there is a clear request to start before each use, and
 this request will start the receiving app automatically.  This idea should
 really be fully developed and included in both Orbot and embedded Tor,
 e.g. Tor Proxy Library.  I'm not sure that this concept would work as well
 on Desktop OSes.  I guess with things like dbus, inter-app messaging is
 becoming more common on Desktop as well.
 >
 > > Here's the alternative we'll probably end up deploying:
 > > Tor should behave politely by default. If an app breaks that
 politeness, the app is responsible for managing the breakage. If an app
 breaks when tor is polite, the app is responsible for managing its own
 breakage.
 >
 > This makes sense to me in the Android context.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/28624#comment:12>
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