[tor-bugs] #4752 [Tor Client]: Older command-line behavior of -log might be more reasonable

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#4752: Older command-line behavior of -log might be more reasonable
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  nickm       |          Owner:                    
     Type:  defect      |         Status:  new               
 Priority:  normal      |      Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.3.x-final
Component:  Tor Client  |        Version:                    
 Keywords:              |         Parent:                    
   Points:              |   Actualpoints:                    
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
 On tor-talk, Jim reports:

 > I am wondering if this follows the principle of least surprise, at
 >least with regard to logging.  I was initially baffled why this release
 >was not logging anything to the system log and thought it to be a bug.
 >I then realized that the config file's "Log notice syslog" had been
 >disabled by the command line's --log "notice stdout", which I was piping
 >to a script.  Expected behavior returned when I changed --log to --+log.

 (See https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-
 talk/2011-December/022328.html )

 This change was made so we could get defaults torrcs to work sensibly, and
 to restore sensible behavior for socksport, etc. But it breaks
 expectations for the log directive.

 One option here is to have different options work differently.

 Another option is to have the torrc->commandline border work differently
 from the defaults->torrc border.

 And a third option is to say "yeah, we're changing old expectations here",
 and document it better.

 Whatever we do, we should do it on an 0.2.3.x timeframe.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4752>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online