[tor-bugs] #8533 [Tor]: Improve instructions for how to run a testing Tor network

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#8533: Improve instructions for how to run a testing Tor network
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
 Reporter:  ln5                         |          Owner:                    
     Type:  enhancement                 |         Status:  needs_review      
 Priority:  normal                      |      Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.5.x-final
Component:  Tor                         |        Version:                    
 Keywords:  SponsorF20131031 tor-relay  |         Parent:                    
   Points:                              |   Actualpoints:                    
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
Changes (by ln5):

  * status:  new => needs_review


Comment:

 Suggested new text for
 https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorFAQ#HowdoIsetupmyownprivateTornetwork

 {{{
 How do I set up my own private Tor network?

 If you want to experiment locally with your own network, or you're cut
 off from the Internet and want to be able to mess with Tor still, then
 you may want to set up your own separate Tor network.

 To set up your own Tor network, you need to run your own authoritative
 directory servers, and your clients and relays must be configured so
 they know about your directory servers rather than the default public
 ones.

 Apart from the somewhat tedious method of manually configuring a
 couple of directory authorities, relays and clients there are two
 separate tools that could help. One is Chutney, the other is Shadow.

 [https://gitweb.torproject.org/chutney.git Chutney] is a tool for
 configuring, controlling and running tests on a testing Tor
 network. It requires that you have Tor and Python (2.5 or later)
 installed on your system. You can use Chutney to create a testing
 network by generating Tor configuration files (torrc) and necssary
 keys (for the directory authorities). Then you can let Chutney start
 your Tor authorities, relays and clients and wait for the network to
 bootstrap. Finally, you can have Chutney run tests on your network to
 see which things work and which do not. Chutney is typically used for
 running a testing network with about 10 instances of Tor. Every
 instance of Tor binds to one or two ports on localhost (127.0.0.1) and
 all Tor communication is done over the loopback interface. The
 [https://gitweb.torproject.org/chutney.git/blob/HEAD:/README Chutney
 README] is a good starting point for getting it up and running.

 [https://github.com/shadow/shadow Shadow] is a network simulator that
 can run Tor through its Scallion plug-in. It's typically used for
 running load and performance tests on substantially larger Tor test
 networks than what's feasible with Chutney. A large Shadow network is
 on the size of thousands of instances of Tor. Also, Shadow controls
 the time of the simulation with the effect that time consuming tests
 can be done more efficiently than in an ordinary testing network. The
 [https://github.com/shadow/shadow/blob/master/README Shadow README]
 is a good starting point for getting started.
 }}}

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/8533#comment:2>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online