[tor-bugs] #4142 [Tor Relay]: Make relays and bridges publish a new descriptor after writing stats

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#4142: Make relays and bridges publish a new descriptor after writing stats
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 Reporter:  karsten      |          Owner:     
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |      Milestone:     
Component:  Tor Relay    |        Version:     
 Keywords:               |         Parent:     
   Points:               |   Actualpoints:     
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 Relays and bridges write new stats every 24 hours, but publish a new
 descriptor every 18 hours.  It could be that relays/bridges wait another
 18 hours after a stats interval ends before publishing them to the
 directory authorities.  It's quite possible that the bridge or relay is
 not online 18 hours later and doesn't upload these stats then.

 There are two problems here.  The first is that the bridge or relay may
 not come back at all, so that we'll never learn what stats it had.  Or it
 could be offline for a few days and decide that stats have become too old
 to upload when they come back (I'd have to look up after what time they
 make that decision).

 Another problem is that the delay between measuring stats and submitting
 them is bad for things like the censorship detector.  Having the data up
 to 18 hours earlier and 9 hours earlier on average would be helpful.

 How about we make relays and bridges publish a new descriptor every time
 they finish a stats interval.  That would be 1 descriptor more per bridge
 and relay per day.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4142>
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