via ControlPort, postdescriptor w/ purpose=general fails

[Jon McLachlan]

 From the contolPort + API, I am able to grab descriptors of or's using,

GETINFO desc/name/[someNickName],

I am then able to parse these descriptors out of the response, and send 
these descriptors to other onion routers (ones, that are not fetching 
descriptors from the dirservers).  At these disconnect or's, I attempt 
to post these descriptors via the controlPort as,

"+POSTDESCRIPTOR purpose=controller cache=no"+CRLF+desc+CRLF+"."+CRLF

or

"+POSTDESCRIPTOR purpose=general cache=no"+CRLF+desc+CRLF+"."+CRLF

However, when I post the descriptor with the latter (purpose=general), 
Tor trips an assert on line 3115 in routerlist.c.  It seems to be 
indicating an error that did not recieve a proper log msg from the 
"attempted inserting" of the descriptor (the msg is null).  If I set 
purpose=controller, the posted descriptor is accepted.  My question is 
two fold:  If a descriptor has purpose=controller, is there 
documentation somewhere that explains what significance this has on the 
desc / tunnels constructed through this or?  Secondly, anyone else have 
this issue or might know of a work around (or cause, maybe)?


As always, any advice or comments would be most appreciated :)

Best Regards,
~Jon