[tor-relays] Circuit purposes

[Joel Cretan]

Thanks for your answer Damian. That explains the circuits' existence
somewhat, though I usually also see new circuits get created after the
original ones are closed. For example, in my screenshot below, there are
two circuits, but they were soon closed and about 10 minutes later, three
new ones opened up.

Here is an arm screenshot of where I'm seeing these purpose values:
http://laserscorpion.com/images/temp/circuits.png
I obscured my own IP since I'm running a bridge, and went ahead and
obscured everyone else I was connected to as well. In this case, I've got
two circuits constructed, with the unusual purposes shown. Any idea what it
means in this context?





On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 11:32 AM, Damian Johnson <atagar at torproject.org>
wrote:

> Hi Joel. Where are you getting "Purpose:
> Ags=is_internal,need_capacity," from? Those values are build flags
> rather than purposes...
>
> https://stem.torproject.org/api/control.html#stem.CircBuildFlag
>
> Stem should presently document all the values tor can give - all that
> notice is just letting you know tor reserves the right to add new
> ones.
>
> As for having circuits, tor constructs circuits on occasion for
> several purposes such as fetching descriptor data. When you first
> start tor it constructs some circuits optimistically in case you use
> it as a client, but those circuits eventually die off if unused. I'm
> not sure if setting SocksPort to zero prevents optimistic circuit
> construction (though seems it should since they're then unusable).
>
> Cheers! -Damian
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 9:50 PM, Joel Cretan <jcretan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm running a relay that I do not intend to use for anything else, so I
> set
> > SocksPort to 0. I usually have two or three circuits established anyway,
> > though, so I guess I haven't managed to disable creating those. I'm not
> sure
> > what they are for. They are always labeled "Purpose:
> > Ags=is_internal,need_capacity,". Several of them seem to get created
> around
> > the same time, stay open for a while, and then get closed around the same
> > time.
> >
> > I see some other circuit purposes documented here:
> > https://stem.torproject.org/api/control.html
> > But that documentation indicates that "Tor may provide purposes not in
> this
> > enum", which is the case here. What are these circuits for, and do I need
> > them?
> >
> > Here's my torrc: http://pastebin.com/fuQv8B2m
> > Here's my ifconfig output: http://pastebin.com/mxMkhbMj
> > I'm running tor 0.2.4.22 compiled from source (did not specify any
> options
> > on make) on raspbian wheezy June 2014 with kernel version 3.12.20+.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Joel
> >
> >
> >
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