[tor-dev] documenting reload vs. restart requirements per torrc option

[teor]

> On 3 Jul 2018, at 05:52, nusenu <nusenu-lists at riseup.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I like unbound's documentation with this regards, for example they say
> in their man page:
> 
>> The  interfaces  are not changed on a reload (kill -HUP)
>>             but only on restart.
> 
> Could we add such information to every torrc option in the manual?

torrc options can be changed by a HUP by default.
There are about 20 torrc options that are documented as exceptions.
Search the man page for "while tor is running."
(We reviewed and updated this documentation in 0.3.0.)

NoExec has a slightly different format, it says:
"Once this option has been set to 1, it cannot be set back to 0 without
restarting Tor."

If it would help automated searches, we can change it to:
"Once this option has been set to 1, it cannot be set back to 0 while Tor
is running."

> background: 
> 
> In relayor I need to reload/restart tor daemons on configuration changes
> currently I blindly assume reload is fine, because in most cases it is
> but it comes with the prices of accepting a certain level of error
> since not all configuration changes can be applied by reloads.
> To fix this I'd need to have authoritative information about
> what changes require restarts vs. reloads.

If you find options that can't be changed while tor is running, but aren't
documented, please feel free to submit a patch.

T