[tor-bugs] #9645 [Tor]: Tor client goes berserk downloading microdescriptors forever, if you rm -rf its datadir

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#9645: Tor client goes berserk downloading microdescriptors forever, if you rm -rf
its datadir
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     Reporter:  arma    |      Owner:
         Type:  defect  |     Status:  needs_review
     Priority:  normal  |  Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.4.x-final
    Component:  Tor     |    Version:
   Resolution:          |   Keywords:  tor-client
Actual Points:          |  Parent ID:
       Points:          |
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Comment (by mr-4):

 I am not so keen on either solutions to be honest. Writing to RAM,
 particularly in resource-constrained systems would be very undesirable (I
 use 7 instances of tor, all deployed on such systems).

 The "big hammer" fix isn't a solution to me either, though I don't know
 what the implications are if tor doesn't save this new information
 (descriptors?), so I can't really judge what the impact is going to be if
 things are left as they are - without any fix.

 OK, tor will loop endlessly until it can write its descriptors back, but
 what happens if:

 1. tor tries limited amount of time (say 60 times) and then doesn't try
 any more (stays with the old descriptors)? or
 2. tor does what it is currently programmed to do - loop indefinitely
 until it can write those descriptors (I still can't see why is that bad,
 provided there are no memory leaks)?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9645#comment:5>
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