[tor-bugs] #6609 [Tor Client]: Proposal to add tor-connect utility to tor-core distribution

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#6609: Proposal to add tor-connect utility to tor-core distribution
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 Reporter:  tri          |          Owner:     
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |      Milestone:     
Component:  Tor Client   |        Version:     
 Keywords:               |         Parent:     
   Points:               |   Actualpoints:     
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 I've been using tor on and off for years, but there has been one utility
 that I've been missing in tor tools.  That utility is tor-connect that
 could be used as a proxy command for various utilities that otherwise
 lack proxy capability.  It is also often that "torify" kind of patching
 of the shared libraries in run time doesn't really do the trick.

 So silent wishing got me nowhere, so I wrote it myself by using
 tor-0.2.2.38/src/tools/tor-resolve.c as a template. It needed quite mych
 hacking, but at least it provided with a "style guide" so my stuff
 doesn't appear totally different when compared to other tor code.

 The idea was plain and simple to have an utility that could be called
 from ssh client using following configuration in .ssh/config

 Host *.onion
   ProxyCommand tor-connect %h %p

 And maybe for some other hosts too that user logs in but doesn't want to
 tell his ip.

 Host *.cn *.ru *.gov
   ProxyCommand tor-connect %h %p

 The utility is also usable with all other software that provide tcp
 connection opening using proxy commands.  I've used at least some email
 client in Linux that provide exactly that for IMAP and SMTP connections.
 With those I've of course mainly used ssh to relay connections, but
 there is no reason why tor-connect wouldn't work there too.

 Full usage is extremely simple:

 tor-resolve [-4 | -5] [-v] [-p port] hostname port [sockshost:socksport]

 I propose to include tor-connect.c to tor-0.2.X/src/tools directory and
 making it installable to $prefix/bin along with tor-resolve.  For
 automake stuff it probably needs check for existence of sys/select.h
 somewhere. Other than that, it seems to work fine.  As I write, I have
 also ssh connection going over tor opened via tor-connect.  So far it
 has worked flawlessly. At least I find this utility very useful.

 Actually I'd like to see it also in browser bundle, because browser
 bundle is something that people (or at least I) run in laptops rather
 than separate tor instance. However the ssh ProxyCommand would be very
 usable in this case too.  One just has to start TorBrowser / Vidalia
 first, but then it rocks like a dream.

 Please find the source code attached and notify proper person about the
 stuff.  I hereby contribute the code included in this mail to Tor Project.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6609>
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