[tor-bugs] #4986 [Vidalia]: Vidalia's torrc editor does not allow unsetting an option

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#4986: Vidalia's torrc editor does not allow unsetting an option
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 Reporter:  rransom  |          Owner:  chiiph  
     Type:  defect   |         Status:  assigned
 Priority:  major    |      Milestone:          
Component:  Vidalia  |        Version:          
 Keywords:           |         Parent:          
   Points:           |   Actualpoints:          
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Changes (by chiiph):

  * status:  needs_information => assigned


Comment:

 Replying to [comment:1 rtoepfer]:
 > I see the same error.  I am running Ubuntu 11.10, Vidalia 0.2.16-git, Qt
 4.7.4, and Tor v0.2.2.35 (git-b04388f9e7546a9f).
 >
 > I am a new developer working with Vidalia, Tor, and Qt.  It seems
 Vidalia sends the SETCONF command and then MAPADDR with an expiration
 timestamp of NEVER.  Tor returns OK.  Based on the control protocol spec
 it seems there's not an option to clear the setting only to reset to a
 default value.  At a minimum we could set an expired timestamp.

 The approach taken by the torrc editor was done like that because of how
 Vidalia handles configurations in general. So the editor is just an easy
 way to use SETCONF from Vidalia, which means that when you just remove an
 option, Vidalia won't unSETCONF it, the option won't be touched.

 >
 > An explanation on the apply highlight and apply all radio buttons would
 be helpful.  Since Tor returns the path for the configuration file,
 wouldn't an easier and more simplistic approach be to stop tor, rewrite
 the configuration file, and then restart tor?

 For several reasons at the moment the answer was "no, the user might not
 be able to write to the file in the first place", but right now I'm
 working on a big change in configuration handling that migrates every tor
 option to live in the torrc file. The idea is simple, but the
 implementation is kind of tricky since we want to respect the comments and
 formatting the user that edits the torrc wants there. Long story short,
 this is already fixed in my branch chiiph/featSettings. The work is far
 from done, but I'm getting there.

 >
 > I'm willing to implement the fix once a solution is proposed by a Tor
 developer.
 >

 This issue is part of a bigger feature, but in any case if you'd like to
 contribute I suggest you try to find the answers yourself instead of
 waiting for someone else to tell you what to do. I suggest you look
 through the open tickets that Vidalia has, pick whatever you think you'd
 like to work on and either start discussing ideas on how to solve it on
 the ticket (or #vidalia at OFTC) or just directly post a fix for review.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4986#comment:2>
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