[tor-bugs] #28624 [Core Tor/Tor]: Should we remember dormant state on restart?

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#28624: Should we remember dormant state on restart?
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 Reporter:  arma          |          Owner:  nickm
     Type:  enhancement   |         Status:  needs_review
 Priority:  Medium        |      Milestone:  Tor: 0.4.0.x-final
Component:  Core Tor/Tor  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal        |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                |  Actual Points:  1
Parent ID:                |         Points:  2
 Reviewer:                |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by eighthave):

 >  One of the core ideas of #2149 was for Tor to remember its dormancy
 across restarts. As of the finishing of #2149, Tor will go dormant 24
 hours after startup if it's seen no activity

 If I'm understanding this correctly, I think Dormant Mode should also
 consider the time scales of 1 minute, 1 hour and 10 hours.  These are very
 relevant in the mobile context.  Reading @arma's description of how this
 dormant mode idea manages state reminds me a lot about how Android and iOS
 expect apps/services to do it.

 > (2) ...I was going to use an example here of Tor bundled with an app,
 like Brave or Briar, but I think in this case the app should be
 responsible for making Tor behave politely to the Tor network.

 About mobile apps that embed Tor, we've put the core idea of "wake on use"
 in NetCipher and Orbot.  The core idea is that whenever an app first needs
 to use tor, it sends Orbot a message to request that Orbot start tor.  If
 that is widely used, then Orbot/tor need only manage going idle/dormant,
 since there is a clear request to start before each use.  This idea should
 really be fully developed and included in both Orbot and embedded Tor,
 e.g. Tor Proxy Library.  I'm not sure that this concept would work as well
 on Desktop OSes.  I guess with things like dbus, inter-app messaging is
 becoming more common on Desktop as well.

 > Here's the alternative we'll probably end up deploying:
 > Tor should behave politely by default. If an app breaks that politeness,
 the app is responsible for managing the breakage. If an app breaks when
 tor is polite, the app is responsible for managing its own breakage.

 This makes sense to me in the Android context.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/28624#comment:10>
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