Instructions for setting up relay descriptor database

[Karsten Loesing]

Hi everyone,

as you may or may not know, we're currently putting some effort on
supporting PET researchers in learning more about the Tor network. As
part of these efforts, we want to give people more data and better
analysis tools.

One tool that we think researchers might find useful is a database of
Tor relay descriptors. People can use such a database to learn more
about the available relays, their stability, churn, and whatever metrics
they are interested in. We don't have a relay descriptor database with
access for everyone, mostly because people will want to customize the
database schema to better fit their needs (and because of the possible
security nightmare). But we now have step-by-step instructions for
setting up a basic database schema and importing relay descriptors into it:


https://gitweb.torproject.org//ernie.git?a=blob_plain;f=doc/manual.pdf;hb=HEAD

(If this link doesn't survive line breaking, go to our Git website at
https://gitweb.torproject.org/ , ernie.git, go to tree, doc, and select
manual.pdf .)

The tutorial for importing relay descriptors into a database can be
found on page 2, Section 2.2. (This may change in the future with more
content being added.)

It would be grand if people here could try out these instructions and
give me some comments for improving them. What is missing in the User's
Guide?

We're planning to send out these instructions, together with a
description of the data and tools that we have, to the people who have
been writing Tor papers in the past.

Thanks!
--Karsten