[tor-relays] Message to devs, please don't change log strings

[Roger Dingledine]

On Sat, Sep 01, 2018 at 12:49:37PM +0000, gustavo wrote:
> In the last few months I started to monitor more closely my relays
> parsing their logs, but every new update changes the log strings. Can the devs
> be mindful to relay ops and not change strings needlessly?
> 
> Here is an example
> 
> 0.3.3.9
> Sep  1 00:01:32 serverhostname tor[15341]: Sep 01 00:01:32.042 [notice]
> 
> 0.3.something
> Sep  1 00:01:32 serverhostname Tor[15341]: Sep 01 00:01:32.042 [notice]
> 
> 0.2.9
> Sep  1 00:01:32 serverhostname Tor[15341]: [notice]
> 
> I'm logging to syslog

Hi! I've been trying to puzzle through what your bug report might be.

At first I thought it was "starting in 0.3.something, syslog is
including a timestamp in the log entry for some reason", but I just
checked and that doesn't happen to me: running tor git master with
log "notice syslog", I get syslog entries like

Sep  1 16:08:23 last-request Tor[19092]: Bootstrapped 45%: Asking for relay descriptors
Sep  1 16:08:23 last-request Tor[19092]: Bootstrapped 67%: Loading relay descriptors

I just checked Tor git maint-0.2.9 and it worked this same way too.

So my next thought is that maybe whatever package or tool you are using
is sending stuff to the syslog wrong^Win a way that isn't what you want?

I suggest writing up a way to reproduce your desired behavior and
your undesired behavior, and then if it's a Tor bug, filing a ticket
at bugs.torproject.org (and if it's a bug in something else, filing a
ticket in that something else :).

Thanks!
--Roger