[tor-bugs] #23677 [Core Tor/Tor]: Tor should log what it thinks the time is sometime(s)

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#23677: Tor should log what it thinks the time is sometime(s)
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 Reporter:  pastly        |          Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect        |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium        |      Milestone:  Tor: 0.3.3.x-final
Component:  Core Tor/Tor  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal        |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                |         Points:
 Reviewer:                |        Sponsor:
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Description changed by pastly:

Old description:

> Many issues come from incorrect time/date/timezone settings. And not all
> the time does Tor log about how it believes the user's clock is wrong but
> X hours and Y minutes.
>
> For many linux/macos users we can ask them to tell us the output of `date
> -u` as a huge troubleshooting help. But not everyone is capable of that.
> A maybe shouldn't be expected to be.
>
> Two ideas:
>
> 1. Log what Tor thinks the UTC time, local time, and configured timezone
> are at startup once
>
> 2. Log periodically (say, every HeartbeatPeriod) what Tor thinks[... all
> the above ...]
>
> Bonus idea:
>
> Can we put the timezone in the log line's time stamp? Would that be
> enough? Is that dangerous for users? Do we make promises about parse-
> ability that we'd be breaking?

New description:

 Many issues come from incorrect time/date/timezone settings. And not all
 the time does Tor log about how it believes the user's clock is wrong by X
 hours and Y minutes.

 For many linux/macos users we can ask them to tell us the output of `date
 -u` as a huge troubleshooting help. But not everyone is capable of that. A
 maybe shouldn't be expected to be.

 Two ideas:

 1. Log what Tor thinks the UTC time, local time, and configured timezone
 are at startup once

 2. Log periodically (say, every HeartbeatPeriod) what Tor thinks [... all
 the above ...]

 Bonus idea:

 Can we put the timezone in the log line's timestamp? Would that be enough?
 Is that dangerous for users? Do we make promises about parse-ability that
 we'd be breaking?

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/23677#comment:1>
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