[tor-dev] Default parsing order of config files in Debain tor package

[Daniel Pinto]

Hello iry,

The precedence for tor options is the following (1 overrides 2, etc...):

1. Command line options.
2. Configuration file options (your /etc/torrc).
3. Defaults file options (your /usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc).

In the same file, options that appear later override earlier options.

Currently, there is no torrc.d directory created when you install the
tor package. However, you can use a %include in the configuration file
or in the defaults file. When you insert a %include in a file, it works
as if all the options for the included file or folder were written on
the line of the %include. If you're including a folder, the files will
be processed in lexicographic order and files starting with a dot will
be ignored.

Here is an example:

tor-service-defaults-torrc:
SomeOption 0
%include /etc/tor/torrc.d/  # SomeOption is now 2
SomeOption 3 # SomeOption is now 3

/etc/tor/torrc.d/01_one:
SomeOption 1

/etc/tor/torrc.d/02_two:
SomeOption 2


With this configuration, the value for some option is 3.
But we can have a torrc with %include too:

/etc/torrc:
SomeOption 4 # SomeOption is now 4
%include /etc/tor/foo.torrc # SomeOption is now 5
SomeOption 6 # SomeOption is now 6

/etc/tor/foo.torrc:
SomeOption 5

With both these files, the value for SomeOption is 6.

There are also different types of options and some can take multiple
values. For more information see the section "Mid-level semantics" on
this file: https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/tree/doc/torrc_format.txt

Best regards,
Daniel

Às 14:42 de 02-07-2017, iry escreveu:
> Hello, Tor developers!
> 
> With the implementation of torrc.d, there will be at least two Tor
> config files and one Tor config directory by default in Debian tor
> package. However, I am not able to find the documents on what the
> parsing order Tor follows.
> 
> My guess is that:
> 1. /usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc is parsed first
> 2. /etc/torrc.d is parsed next (in lexical order)
> 3. /etc/torrc is parsed at last
> 4. and the lines in config files parsed later will overwrite similar
> lines in config files that are parsed earlier
> 
> Could anyone familiar with the problem help me please? This will be
> really helpful to my future work and I really appreciate your help!
> 
> Thank you very much!
> 
> Best,
> iry
> 
> 
> 
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