[tor-bugs] #24272 [Core Tor/Tor]: Add a CacheDirectory option

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#24272: Add a CacheDirectory option
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  teor                                 |          Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect                               |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                               |      Milestone:  Tor:
                                                 |  0.3.3.x-final
Component:  Core Tor/Tor                         |        Version:  Tor:
                                                 |  0.3.1.1-alpha
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  tor-relay, consensus-diff, tor-      |  Actual Points:
  mobile                                         |
Parent ID:                                       |         Points:  2
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
Description changed by teor:

Old description:

> Tor puts a large number of large, rapidly changing documents in its
> DataDirectory, which defaults to /var/lib on many systems. This means
> that the size of backups blows out when running tor 0.3.1.1-alpha or
> later.
>
> If we added a CacheDirectory option, it could default to /var/cache (or
> the appropriate paths on other operating systems), and be ignored by most
> backup tools.
>
> This directory should contain
> * cached directory documents, including cached (micro)descriptors and
> consensuses, and compressed directory document diffs
> * any other files that tor can easily regenerate or re-download
>
> This might also benefit mobile users with small disks, but application
> size appears to be less of a priority for mobile developers than CPU or
> network usage.
>
> See this thread for background:
> https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-
> relays/2017-November/013542.html

New description:

 Tor puts a large number of large, rapidly changing documents in its
 DataDirectory, which defaults to /var/lib on many systems. This means that
 the size of backups blows out when running tor 0.3.1.1-alpha or later.

 If we added a CacheDirectory option, it could default to /var/cache (or
 the appropriate paths on other operating systems), and be ignored by most
 backup tools.

 This directory should contain
 * cached directory documents, including cached (micro)descriptors and
 consensuses, and compressed directory document diffs
 * any other files that tor can easily regenerate or re-download

 This might also benefit mobile users with small disks, but application
 size appears to be less of a priority for mobile developers than CPU or
 network usage.

 This is a breaking change for tools that expect to find consensuses in the
 data directory. Perhaps we should make CacheDirectory default to
 DataDirectory instead?

 See this thread for background:
 https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-
 relays/2017-November/013542.html

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/24272#comment:1>
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