Re: [tor-bugs] #1368 [Tor Client]: Implement a heartbeat log message

["Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki" <torproject-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

#1368: Implement a heartbeat log message
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  Sebastian           |         Type:  enhancement
   Status:  new                 |     Priority:  major      
Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.3.x-final  |    Component:  Tor Client 
  Version:  0.2.1.25            |   Resolution:  None       
 Keywords:                      |       Parent:             
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------

Comment(by Sebastian):

 Replying to [comment:7 atagar]:
 > - Will the uptime be human friendly values as well (ex, "4 days")? What
 is it going to look like once it's in the realm of months? The uptime stat
 (in seconds since starting tor) would be nice to have via the control port
 but this is part of another proposal, so don't worry about it.

 Saying "y months, x days (started at <date>)" isn't so hard.

 > - The indicator for if you're in the consensus is both verbose and,
 imho, unnecessary. That status isn't likely to change (so saying
 "Congratulations, you're in the consensus!" every day would be pointless)
 and it's kinda obvious based on the throughput attribute (you're reachable
 if you're pushing traffic). Maybe just give this status (with the user
 friendly advice "something seems to be wrong") once, when it's first
 detected? This could be separate from the heartbeat (maybe at the warning
 runlevel).

 This was actually what triggered this report. We should definitely include
 this information, traffic has normal fluctuations etc and if traffic drops
 we can indicate that this might be because you dropped from the consensus.
 If you didn't drop, we can rule out one cause quickly.

 > Trying to turn the heartbeat into a controller substitute packed with
 every interesting stat there is (including the consensus status, flags,
 both upload/download rates, etc) goes pretty deeply into the territory of
 what controllers provide and also risks making this more of an annoyance
 than help (particularly for controller users who already have this
 information).
 >
 > We default to logging at the NOTICE runlevel so doing a daily event
 that's more than a short sentence means that after a couple weeks the log
 will be full of these events (drowning out any interesting alerts for
 things that happened - not so helpful). If we're intent on doing that then
 I think this should be muted by default (enabled via a flag in the torrc).
 >
 > If we really want this to be both highly verbose and on by default then
 I'd prefer if the heartbeat defaults to being muted when users have a
 ControlPort set (unless overwritten in the torrc) so it avoids bothering
 controller users.

 This is the other reason I wanted to do this; so I don't need to run a
 controller with all the additional burdens and security concerns this
 imposes. Controller users can simply turn off heartbeat log messages, or
 their controllers can even do it for them.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/1368#comment:8>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
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