[tor-dev] Review of Proposal 185: Directory caches without DirPort (was: Tor proposal status (December 2013))

[Karsten Loesing]

On 12/17/13 10:31 PM, Nick Mathewson wrote:
> 185  Directory caches without DirPort
> 
>      The old HTTP directory port feature is no longer used by
>      clients and relays under most circumstances.  The proposal
>      explains how we can get rid of the requirement that non-bridge
>      directories have an open directory port. (6/2012)

Hey Nick,

this proposal looks like a fine idea.  Two remarks:

- I'm not sure why a) relays with a working DirPort shouldn't include
"dir-cache 1" in their router descriptor and b) authorities shouldn't
assign the "DirCache" flag to relays with a working DirPort that don't
have a "dir-cache 1" line in their router descriptor.  I understand that
neither of the two actions are necessary to make the proposal work.  But
this could be a chance to get rid of the DirPort concept entirely and
only rely on "dir-cache 1" and "DirCache" flags in the future.

- We should write into ChangeLog and torrc.sample that relay operators
shouldn't rush setting their DirPort to 0 and rely on DirCache to turn
their relay into a directory mirror.  Older clients that don't recognize
what a DirCache is will put more load on mirrors with non-zero DirPort,
and it's unclear how long it will take them to upgrade.

All the best,
Karsten