commit b91918eeada8b029dc677c3c5aa1326a6ee2cf9b Author: Robert Ransom rransom.8774@gmail.com Date: Sun May 22 21:46:20 2011 -0700

Document the intended use of the ‘owning controller’ features --- control-spec.txt | 40 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/control-spec.txt b/control-spec.txt index d8889a8..1d5c341 100644 --- a/control-spec.txt +++ b/control-spec.txt @@ -931,7 +931,37 @@

This command instructs Tor to shut down (as if it had received SIGINT or a "SIGNAL INT" controller command) when this control - connection is closed. + connection is closed. This command affects each control connection + that sends it independently; if multiple control connections send + the TAKEOWNERSHIP command to a Tor instance, Tor will shut down when + any of those connections closes. + + This command is intended to be used with the + __OwningControllerProcess configuration option. A controller that + starts a Tor process which the user cannot easily control or stop + should 'own' that Tor process: + + * When starting Tor, the controller should specify its PID in an + __OwningControllerProcess on Tor's command line. This will + cause Tor to poll for the existence of a process with that PID, + and exit if it does not find such a process. (This is not a + completely reliable way to detect whether the 'owning + controller' is still running, but it should work well enough in + most cases.) + + * Once the controller has connected to Tor's control port, it + should send the TAKEOWNERSHIP command along its control + connection. At this point, *both* the TAKEOWNERSHIP command and + the __OwningControllerProcess option are in effect: Tor will + exit when the control connection ends *and* Tor will exit if it + detects that there is no process with the PID specified in the + __OwningControllerProcess option. + + * After the controller has sent the TAKEOWNERSHIP command, it + should send "RESETCONF __OwningControllerProcess" along its + control connection. This will cause Tor to stop polling for the + existence of a process with its owning controller's PID; Tor + will still exit when the control connection ends.

[TAKEOWNERSHIP was added in Tor 0.2.2.28-beta.]

@@ -1908,7 +1938,13 @@

If this option is set to a process ID, Tor will periodically check whether a process with the specified PID exists, and exit if one - does not. Added in Tor 0.2.2.28-beta. + does not. Added in Tor 0.2.2.28-beta. This option's intended use + is documented in section 3.23 with the related TAKEOWNERSHIP + command. + + Note that this option can only specify a single process ID, unlike + the TAKEOWNERSHIP command which can be sent along multiple control + connections.

(String. Default: unset.)