[tor-bugs] #9957 [Tor]: Tor should consider stderr output of transport proxies

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#9957: Tor should consider stderr output of transport proxies
------------------------+--------------------------------
     Reporter:  wfn     |      Owner:
         Type:  defect  |     Status:  needs_revision
     Priority:  minor   |  Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.6.x-final
    Component:  Tor     |    Version:
   Resolution:          |   Keywords:  tor-pt
Actual Points:          |  Parent ID:
       Points:          |
------------------------+--------------------------------

Comment (by wfn):

 Replying to [comment:17 asn]:
 > {{{
 >     log_notice(LD_GENERAL, "Managed proxy '%s' is giving some output
 over "
 >                "the standard error stream (stderr). This usually means
 that "
 >                "it has encountered some error that I won't be able to "
 >                "understand. You should enable INFO-level tor log to see
 what "
 >                "it is saying - when INFO-level log is enabled, look for
 "
 >                "lines with 'report_proxy_stderr' (without quotes).",
 >                mp->argv[0]);
 > }}}
 >
 > Hm, does this mean that the info-level logs will have the string
 `report_proxy_stderr` in them? Is this the case in the current code?

 Yes - e.g. look above at the log excerpt I pasted in.
 So e.g.
 {{{
 Apr 19 06:46:51.000 [info] report_proxy_stderr(): Managed proxy
 '/usr/local/bin/obfsproxy' says (over stderr): "Traceback (most recent
 call last):"
 }}}

 Surely this is not platform-specific?

 > Also, do you think we should mention '''how''' to enable info-level logs
 in the log message? So that we avoid mails in tor-relays saying "I got
 this warning. How do I enable info-level logs?". But maybe that will make
 the log message too big/confusing.

 Yeah, as I said before, I tried incorporating some kind of
 instruction/direction towards torrc, but it easily becomes 1) too verbose
 and 2) not universal advice. For example, I do `Log info stdout` - but
 most users don't launch tor by doing `./tor`. And if you include a
 specific filename, will they be sure which directory it will be written
 to? Perhaps you could say `Log info file <FILENAME>`, but in that case I'd
 be compelled to include a notice "where <FILENAME> is some filename
 writable by tor". *If* having such a level of verbosity is OK, then sure,
 I can make something up. But for the advice to remain as universal as
 possible etc etc, it's somewhat hard. It is easy to confuse people even
 more.

 But maybe a link to https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-manual.html.en (or
 just the keywords "tor manual" (top result on startpage))? (imho current
 message is OK, though.)

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9957#comment:19>
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